Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec Plug-in  From Sonnox

Sonnox Ltd. has evolved out of Sony Oxford, which in turn traces its history back to a group of five dedicated audio professionals that first worked together in the early 1980s. These engineers spent many years together designing analogue and digital consoles for Solid State Logic, and subsequently left to start a new Company in 1988 that was called Oxford Digital. Over the following few years the team slowly expanded, until in 1993 it became Sony Oxford. The major product design from Sony Oxford was the OXF-R3 Digital Mixing Console, commonly called 'the Oxford Console'. This high end digital audio console was conceived by Oxford Digital in the late 1980s and productised for commercial release by Sony in the mid 1990s. All hardware and software, all audio i/o, all system architecture and cosmetic design, and all audio algorithms and signal flow were designed by the engineers in Oxford, including an audio DSP chip (at that time it was impossible to buy DSP technology with enough power). Even a bespoke microcode compiler and router were developed from scratch. Although software maintenance of the OXF-R3 continued for some years, the core activities of the group diversified. Sony Oxford became the world leader for development of 1-bit audio processing (DSD, the basis for SACD), and additionally a variety of R&D contracts were undertaken on behalf of various groups in Sony. As technology became cheaper with increasing power, a group formed in Sony Oxford that began to focus on how best to re-purpose the Oxford technologies into audio workstations. This group became a development partner with DigiDesign and began work to create the Oxford EQ for Pro Tools. At the same time, work was started on the infrastructure for an e-commerce scheme that would become instrumental for sales and registration of the new software products. In September 2002 the CD boxed versions of the OXF-R3 EQ started selling around the world. This was followed by a port of the EQ to TC Works PowerCore, a version of the OXF-R3 Dynamics section, and then two newer plug-ins (the Inflator and the TransMod), which didn't feature prominently in the Oxford console and needed significant re-working for the plug-ins market. These early products were followed with a Reverb and a Limiter, and the platform base was broadened to include native hosts such as VST and Audio Units. By 2006 this plug-ins software initiative was operating as an almost self-contained business unit within Sony. To stimulate the business and allow it to thrive, the business unit was spun out of Sony in April 2007 and became a new and independent Company called Sonnox Ltd. Looking to the future, Sonnox is committed to expanding its plug-ins business with frequent introduction of new products and support for a wide range of platforms. We are working hard to grow the world-wide distribution channels for our products. We're introducing innovations such as the MediaPack, which allows simple and flexible purchase of our products from any outlet; and Flexible Bundling, which invites the customer to choose the plug-ins in his own custom bundle and tops this with a generous flexible discount. However, it all comes down to a passion for audio. We take a no-compromise attitude to our designs. We put extreme care into the quality, the functionality and the performance; we agonise over the user interface; we test, test and re-test; and we listen to feedback from our customers. We take great pride in our after-sales support. We want to provide you, the audio professional, with the innovative tools you need to undertake your job with more creativity, more flexibility and more efficiency. Our pedigree, for want of a better term, is the high end recording studio where quality is crucial. The philosophy behind our products has always been to couple the highest quality audio with intuitive operational simplicity, and bring that to the pro-audio market at an affordable price.