Did Apple really buy Sofo from Sony? is this true?

[headquest]

This sounds like a wind-up to me... it just doesn't add up for several reasons.

Sony bought Sonic Foundry to make inroads into music production, and although they seem to have somewhat dragged their feet with Acid they were certainly quick to rebrand it when the deal was done.

In the meantime Sony have made a big aim to break their VAIO range - especially laptops - into the musician's domain, including bundling Oxford effects with new VAIO computers .

They have also put a lot of money and development into Vegas - squarely aimed as a rival to apple products - and have done an update to Sound Forge.

Acid may or may not rise from the ashes - it certainly has A LOT of ground to make up with the advent of Garageband, SOundtrack - and most of all Ableton Live, of course.

I can believe that Sony would quietly retire - or even sell off - Acid, BUT NOT Sound Forge or Vegas.

Nor can I believe that Apple would be interested in buying Acid at a time when - frankly - it seems to have been massively overtaken by newer products.

[AD80]

Mann, I hope this is not true. If Apple stops Acid support for PC I'm gonna be more than pissed.

[smellytongue]

lets put this baby to rest ...officially.
No. Apple is not buying Acid.

That K-v-R thread is hilarious...So full of conjecture and misinformation...

Let's look at the situation from a slightly different perspective:

Chris M., the guy who created Acid, left Sonic Foundry 2-3 years ago...Less than a year later he takes a job at Apple...Less than a year after that, Apple debuts their Garageband software...By that point in the game, Chris' non-compete clause was apparently no longer an issue...

Apple has no need to buy Acid, or any other loop-based software for that matter: They've already got the mastermind who essentially created that segment of the music-software industry to begin with...


Aside from that, Sony is quite happy with ye olde Sonic Foundry software division that they bought, and that division is performing rather well for them over this past year...

Edited by Hank Mohaski on 9/29/04 at 8:32pm

[Big Tick]

I agree with smelly. Otherwise it'd be a big mess on Sony forums.
'Tick[/url]

[atomic_(no)afro]

I bet the truth is somewhere in the middle. My guess is that Acid 5 will be ported to the Mac by SonyFo at some point. Sony has already sunk mad cash into the Sonic Foundry line, is intent on making Vegas into the next big pro-video editing suite to compete with Final Cut & Avid. Although it seems plausible that Acid alone would be sold, I very much doubt it would be because it would be easier (and maybe better) to just shrink the line down and incorporate the features of Acid into Vegas making them one in the same program.

ATA

[You™]

Dear Steve Jobs,

I know you're reading this... At your soonest convenience after the Sony deal is complete, please kill the Acid loop format and stop all support for PC users. You don't need to make a Mac version of any of that software you purchased - it would be redundant. I'm so tired of PC users making fun of us loyal Mac followers. Especially these digital audio people. They go on and on about how their systems are cheaper, faster, better looking and not "just designer toys." Every year they tell me you are going to go out of business. So here's your chance to show them!

If you have any money left over, you should buy Ableton's Live and discontinue the PC version of it too. Even if it doesn't increase your marketshare to the single digits, it will be feel good to smote all those cheap-ass Windows lackeys after their years of marginalizing us.

One last thing, if it's not too much: See if you can do something about killing all the Windows MP3 players too - unless it's iTunes of course. That would be cool. I hope you are feeling better. Sounds like you're fighting the good fight over there in Cupertino.

See you in January at MacWorld 2005,

You™

[AD80]

My guess is that Acid 5 will be ported to the Mac by SonyFo at some point.

That would be good news.

[Z3R0T0N1N]

Dear Steve Jobs,

...lots of funny stuff...

You™

[Alan]

Sony have made a big aim to break their VAIO range - especially laptops - into the musician's domain, including bundling Oxford effects with new VAIO computers .

Huh???? In what format are those "included" Oxford plugs?

[Rik]

Sony have made a big aim to break their VAIO range - especially laptops - into the musician's domain, including bundling Oxford effects with new VAIO computers .

Huh???? In what format are those "included" Oxford plugs?

I thought they were TDM plugins... Do they bundle them for musicians ? Or do they have a silly version for WMP ?

[Alan]

I thought they were TDM plugins... Do they bundle them for musicians ? Or do they have a silly version for WMP ?

Actually they come in TDM/VST Powercore and RTAS native.But your probably right about the watered down silly versions.They did something like that with Waves plugins in their bundled media player in the Vaio.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Z3R0T0N1N]

then somebody get over there and tell them. they wont be able to make any difference, naturally, but it sure as hell shouldn't be made easy for apple to go around killing competition and carrying on their pointless and self detrimental one-sided platform war. I sure hope that PC people don't just lay down and take it when (rim)Jobbs tries to kill the acid format for PC. If they do I vote that everyone who cares about this puts whatever they can, be it cash, server space, coding talent, or just good old moral support into spreading the acid format all the f**k over the place to the point that it becomes like MP3 - simply impossible to control.

[munchkin]

I find it difficult to believe thatr Sony would sell of ACID to Apple at a time when they are opening up their portable music players to mp3 in order to compete with iPod. Acid Music is very similar to GarageBand. I would've thought Sony would use it in order to offer an alternative package to PC owners that rivals the iPod/GB package from Apple.

My thinking is that Sony want to sell computers so they will want a strategy to intice people away from Apple.

[AD80]

I find it hard to believe too. Although I found it hard to believe that they would buy Emagic and kill the PC side of it. So anything's possible I guess. All I know is I'm gonna be if its true.