Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec Plug-in

Have all the Fraunhofer audio codecs at your fingertips

Selling music through online distribution is an ongoing trend. This makes life more convenient for music lovers but it makes the job more challenging for music production professionals. They are faced with the task to optimize their mixes for specific audio codecs which was a time consuming process up to now.

The primary purpose of the Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec is to provide a way of monitoring the host session material using Fraunhofer codecs, without the need for offline encoding. Auditioning and comparing codecs in real time allows executive decisions on the best codecs to use. The entire process is accomplished 'on the fly', and frees the engineer to focus on producing a compensated, optimized mix. As an industry first, the Pro-Codec Plug-In enables mix and mastering engineers to audition up to five codecs in real time within a DAW environment, produce an optimized mix and encode to multiple formats simultaneously.

All major Fraunhofer codecs, including mp3, mp3 Surround, AAC-LC, HE-AAC and HE-AACv2 are supported, as are lossless codecs such as mp3-HD and HD-AAC.

Furthermore, the iTunes Plus codec has been integrated. This makes the Plug-In a powerful and time-saving tool for mixing directly for the “Mastered for iTunes” program, including clipping detection and the possibility for real-time corrections while mixing.

In addition, the latest surround audio codecs MPEG Surround, AAC multichannel, and HE-AAC multichannel have been integrated. These codecs provide superior audio quality for surround music and are used in surround broadcasting and streaming.

The Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec Plug-In is available in native RTAS, Audio Units and VST formats.

The Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec has been awarded the Sound On Sound Editors’ Choice Award 2011.

For Music producers or mastering engineers the new Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec plug-in makes it possible for the first time to precisely audition codecs in real time. This breaks away from the current time-consuming cycle of having to encode the mix to mp3/AAC, preview it, tweak it and then go back and re-render.

For broadcast professionals the Sonnox plug-in enables an easy access to the audio quality and bandwidth savings of Fraunhofer codecs. For example, the use of HE-AAC for podcasts could save 2/3 of a station’s download bandwidth costs. The codecs can also save downloading time and provide higher quality for demo and approval clips, or for sending voiceovers or actualities. This offers the industry a professional tool for preparing compact, quality content for numerous PC or mobile platforms.

The plug-in is available from Sonnox directly or from retail partners all over the world.

Fraunhofer would like to thank the Music Producers Guild (UK) for their feedback on the Pro-Codec plugin.