Sonic Foundry Announces Sound forge 5.0; New Key Features Include 20 DirectX Audio Plug-Ins, Track-at-once CD Burning, CD Ripping, 24-bit support and More

Business Wire, Jan 29, 2001

Business Editors / High-Tech Writers

MADISON, Wisc.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 2001

Sonic Foundry(R) Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the leading developer and marketer of digital media and Internet software tools, services, and systems, today announced Sound Forge(R) 5.0, its award-winning digital audio editor.

The new version of Sound Forge includes 20 DirectX Audio Plug-Ins, including XFX1, XFX2 and XFX3, and Acoustic Mirror, which can be used for acoustic simulation and microphone modeling. The entire suite of audio effects includes: Amplitude Modulation, Chorus, Delay/Echo, Distortion, Dynamics, Compression, Enveloping, Flange/Wah-Wah, Gapper/Snipper, Noise Gate, Pitch Bend/Shift, Reverb, and Vibrato; three Eqs--Graphic, Parametric, and Paragraphic and Time Compression/Expand. It also supports DirectX-compatible Plug-Ins from third party applications.

Additionally, Sound Forge 5.0 provides support for 24-bit/192 kHz audio files, Track-At-Once CD burning, and CD Ripping. These features allow the user to produce high-quality audio CDs as well as the ability to transfer music to a hard drive with saving options in MP3, WAV, and WMA formats. The software includes dozens of editing features including: Cut, Paste, Move, Delete, Mute, Reverse, Fade, Crossfade, Trim, Normalize, Fade, Pan, Resample, Enhance, Insert Silence, and more. Sound Forge provides over 200 audio effects, presets, and processes.

Sound Forge 5.0 is available in full beta format for download at www.sonicfoudy.com and is expected to ship in March 2001.

"Sound Forge 5.0 has been developed to include the major features users have been asking for such as 24-bit file support. Batch conversion will be offered as a download option, CD Ripping, Track-at-Once Burning, and advanced Plug-Ins are just a few of the amazing features this new version supports," stated Curtis Palmer, chief technical officer and co-founder of Sonic Foundry. "We are very excited about Sound Forge 5.0 and feel that this software will surpass all expectations."

About Sonic Foundry

Founded in 1991, Sonic Foundry(R) is the leading developer and marketer of digital media and Internet software tools, services and systems. Sonic Foundry's award-winning products and services are used worldwide for multimedia and Internet applications, music, video, and broadcast solutions, and digital content creation.

Sonic Foundry's digital audio and video tools include the award-winning ACID(TM), Sound Forge(R), Vegas(R) Audio, Vegas(R) Video, VideoFactory(TM), Stream Anywhere(TM), SIREN(TM) Jukebox, Viscosity(TM), and a variety of compatible music loop libraries and DirectX Audio Plug-Ins. For specific product descriptions, please reference the "products" section of the Sonic Foundry Web site at www.sonicfoundry.com.

Sonic Foundry's Media Services Division is the pre-eminent supplier of digitization, management, and delivery solutions for audio and video content owners. Serving as the link between content and customers, the Company provides proven, comprehensive processes that enable content delivery to new and emerging distribution channels. The five key components that make up these solutions include: Media Distribution Fulfillment, Enterprise Content Management, Turnkey Systems, Consulting Services, and Encoding.

Certain statements contained in this news release regarding matters that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Because such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, uncertainties pertaining to continued market acceptance for the Company's products, the Company's ability to succeed in capturing significant revenues from media services, the effect of new competitors in the Company's market, integration of acquired businesses and other risk factors identified from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.