Sonic Studio :: Digital Audio Mastering and Authoring Tools for PCM, DSD&SACD

About Sonic Studio, LLC

Sonic Studio, a name synonymous with mastering and restoration since the dawn of desktop digital recording.

Pioneering Ultimate Fidelity

The Sonic team has lead the way to high fidelity computer–based audio. Some of the seminal audio technologies and workflow methods created or first commercially debuted by Sonic engineers include:

• NoNOISE :: first production noise restoration system (1987)
• The Sonic System :: first desktop CD production system (1989)
• MediaNet :: first production network for real-time audio (1994)
• Sonic Studio HD :: first full 24 bit 96 / 192 kHz workstation (1997)
• DSD.1 :: first DSD production system (1999)

Over the ensuing years, SonicStudio workstations were adopted worldwide by motion picture and recording studios, major record labels and high end mastering facilities. On award–winning motion picture soundtracks and more than two thirds of all commercially released CD, Sonic Studio’s transparent quality, streamlined workflow and ease of use allow top flight engineers to consistently win Grammy®, Emmy® and Oscar® awards for their exceptional audio work.

Sonic Studio History

Started in 1987 Sonic Solutions and the Sonic Studio audio workstation have driven the professional production and delivery of commercial Compact Discs, DVD, and SACD. The original “Sonic System” pioneered the desktop delivery of Red Book masters on recordable CD and DDP. To this day, over half of every commercially released CD titles is most likely mastered on a Sonic Studio workstation. Sonic Studio’s NoNOISE™ noise reduction tools for sound production and restoration for television and film are known for their excellence and has earned an Emmy™ for its role in the restoration of thousands of films and records.

The Early Years

Our first product the Sonic System was designed by James A. Moorer , and was called the the SoundDroid and was developed in 1980 as in–house project of Lucasfilm’s Ltd.’s subsidiary The Droid Works. The development team went on to start Sonic Solutions and create the NoNOISE restoration system in 1987, hosted on a Motorola–powered SUN 1. Our current products PreMaster CD, soundBlade and Amarra are the 10th generation of this original design.

At just about this time a small company called Apple released the Macintosh II. This became the platform for the first version of the Sonic System. By 1988, the Sonic System was in service at EMI Abbey Road and Finesplice in London, and MCA in California, performing “miraculous” feats of restoration and starting a trend of mining back catalogue that continues to this day.

The Present Day

In 2002, Sonic Solutions decided to divest themselves of their original audio product line. To concentrate solely on the DVD content creation market, they formed a joint venture and, in 2004, that business was transferred to Big Endian, LLC to carry on the development, sales, and support of Sonic Solutions’ legendary audio workstation products.

In 2004, Sonic Studio released its first native Mac OS 10 application, SonicStudio•DDP. This was followed in 2006 by PreMaster CD, and in 2007 soundBlade was released as a modern version of the Sonic Studio HD workstation of the ’90s. In 2008, Sonic Studio began work on a new consumer product. Amarra was the first high resolution music player specifically designed to improve the sound of computer–based playback. As the Amarra family evolves, Sonic Studio is poised to lead the way in high resolution audio playback for the home.

Today, our offices are located in California’s Marin County, just steps away from where the original digital audio workflow research began at Lucasfilm. Sonic Studio, LLC continues to lead the industry in fidelity, value and ease of use. Our product lines address the needs of the world’s most discriminating listeners. The Sonic Studio range remains the standard for both professional audio production and home–based computer music players.

For additional information on Sonic Studio please contact 415-460-1201 or visit our Contact page.

Select Papers of Interest

48-Bit Integer Processing Beats 32-Bit Floating Point James A. Moorer. Presented at the 107th AES Convention, September1999, Preprint 5038 (L-3)

Breaking the Sound Barrier: Mastering at 96 kHz and Beyond James A. Moorer. Presented at the 101st AES Convention, November 1996, Preprint 4357 (I-2)

Soundworks: An Object-Oriented Distributed System for Digital Sound Jonathan Reichbach, Author. Readings in Computer-Generated Music,