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Sonique (media player)
Encyclopedia
Sonique is an audio player
application released as freeware
for Microsoft Windows
, capable of handling MP3
, Ogg Vorbis, Microsoft Windows Media, audio CDs, and more.
At the time when Sonique was still under development, it was one of the most popular desktop audio players, 2nd only to Nullsoft
's Winamp
audio player. The major features that made Sonique famous were its use of irrectangularly-shaped skin
s for its user interface
, the audioEnlightenment mp3 decoding engine by Tony Million, innovative audio visualizations, and a powerful graphic equalizer.
working together under the name Night55, a reference to the speed limit signs used in Montana.
In 1997, Night55 sold the rights to Vibe to SGS Thompson to use in COMDEX
'98 to showcase some DVD features. After selling the rights to Vibe, Andrew McCann and Ian Lyman began work on a more comprehensive MP3 player which they named Sonique. Sonique debuted in January 1998 at the first annual MP3 Summit to enormous excitement, receiving several acquisition offers the same day. Shortly after the MP3 Summit, Lyman and McCann returned to their hometown of Bozeman, Montana and formed Mediascience, Inc., leasing office space in a former coffee shop and bringing on additional staff to help with management, development, and support of the burgeoning user base. These early hires included Al-Riaz Adatia, Nicholas Vinen, Pol Llovet and Tony Million. In 1999, after talks with both Yahoo and Lycos
, Mediascience (now named Internet Music Distribution, Inc.) was sold to Lycos for . Shortly after the Lycos acquisition, the Sonique team began work on Sonique 2, a totally new version of the player application intended to become a platform for listening to, organizing and purchasing digital music.
After Lycos was acquired by Terra Networks, S.A. in mid 2001, the collapse of the dot-com bubble
caused the entire Sonique team to be laid off, with the exception of McCann and Lyman. Unhappy with the summary termination of their colleagues, McCann and Lyman left shortly thereafter and were replaced with a smaller team based out of Lycos corporate headquarters. Because of an internal shift in priorities, the updated version of Sonique was never completed. An alpha and later a beta version of Sonique 2 was eventually released.
, MP2
, Ogg
Vorbis
, WAV
, MOD
, XM, IT
, S3M, Audio CD
and Windows Media Audio
. Further audio and visual formats were playable through various plugins, for example AVI video files
. Sonique could also be used to listen to audio streams.
Sonique's look and feel could be completely customized via skins
.
Sonique's bundled test audio file featured an a cappella
song snippet by Mamasutra entitled "Sonique Theme", with the comment field in the MP3 saying "Its so good, so good, so good," mirroring part of the lyrics.
Audio player (software)
An audio player is a kind of media player for playing back digital audio, including optical discs such as CDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, HDCD, audio files and streaming audio....
application released as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, capable of handling MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, Ogg Vorbis, Microsoft Windows Media, audio CDs, and more.
At the time when Sonique was still under development, it was one of the most popular desktop audio players, 2nd only to Nullsoft
Nullsoft
Nullsoft, Inc. is a software house founded in Sedona, Arizona in 1997 by Justin Frankel. Its most known products include the Winamp media player and the SHOUTcast MP3 streaming media server. In recent years, their open source installer system, NSIS, has also risen in popularity as a widely used...
's Winamp
Winamp
Winamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
audio player. The major features that made Sonique famous were its use of irrectangularly-shaped skin
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
s for its user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
, the audioEnlightenment mp3 decoding engine by Tony Million, innovative audio visualizations, and a powerful graphic equalizer.
History
Sonique had roots in the lesser known Vibe MP3 player created by Andrew McCann, Ian Lyman and Paul Peavyhouse, students at Montana State UniversityMontana State University - Bozeman
Montana State University – Bozeman is a public university located in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's land-grant university and primary campus in the Montana State University System, which is part of the Montana University System...
working together under the name Night55, a reference to the speed limit signs used in Montana.
In 1997, Night55 sold the rights to Vibe to SGS Thompson to use in COMDEX
COMDEX
COMDEX was a computer expo held in Las Vegas, Nevada, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually second only to the German CeBIT, and by many accounts one of the largest trade shows in any industry sector...
'98 to showcase some DVD features. After selling the rights to Vibe, Andrew McCann and Ian Lyman began work on a more comprehensive MP3 player which they named Sonique. Sonique debuted in January 1998 at the first annual MP3 Summit to enormous excitement, receiving several acquisition offers the same day. Shortly after the MP3 Summit, Lyman and McCann returned to their hometown of Bozeman, Montana and formed Mediascience, Inc., leasing office space in a former coffee shop and bringing on additional staff to help with management, development, and support of the burgeoning user base. These early hires included Al-Riaz Adatia, Nicholas Vinen, Pol Llovet and Tony Million. In 1999, after talks with both Yahoo and Lycos
Lycos
Lycos, Inc. is a search engine and web portal established in 1994. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, webhosting, social networking, and entertainment websites.-Corporate history:...
, Mediascience (now named Internet Music Distribution, Inc.) was sold to Lycos for . Shortly after the Lycos acquisition, the Sonique team began work on Sonique 2, a totally new version of the player application intended to become a platform for listening to, organizing and purchasing digital music.
After Lycos was acquired by Terra Networks, S.A. in mid 2001, the collapse of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
caused the entire Sonique team to be laid off, with the exception of McCann and Lyman. Unhappy with the summary termination of their colleagues, McCann and Lyman left shortly thereafter and were replaced with a smaller team based out of Lycos corporate headquarters. Because of an internal shift in priorities, the updated version of Sonique was never completed. An alpha and later a beta version of Sonique 2 was eventually released.
Design
Sonique fused a highly stylized aesthetic with a fluid, windowless interface and fully animated menu systems. Additional functionality included a basic playlist editor, a variety of unique output visualization modes via plug-ins, and a robust control set featuring pitch, balance and amplification adjustment, as well as a 20-band equalizer with spline-based level adjustment. It supported many audio formats, including MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, MP2
MP2
MP2 or MP-2 may refer to:* MP 2, an abbreviation for a zone during the Paleocene* MPEG-1 Audio Layer II audio compression format and .mp2 file format...
, Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
Vorbis
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, MOD
MOD (file format)
MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga where the original trackers instead use a “mod.” prefix scheme, e.g. “mod.echoing”...
, XM, IT
Impulse Tracker
Impulse Tracker is a multi-track digital sound tracker . It was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform. It was authored by Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim, and example music was provided by Jeffrey Lim and Chris Jarvis...
, S3M, Audio CD
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
and Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
. Further audio and visual formats were playable through various plugins, for example AVI video files
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
. Sonique could also be used to listen to audio streams.
Sonique's look and feel could be completely customized via skins
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
.
Sonique's bundled test audio file featured an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
song snippet by Mamasutra entitled "Sonique Theme", with the comment field in the MP3 saying "Its so good, so good, so good," mirroring part of the lyrics.