In a surprise announcement, Toyota Motor Corporation announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Twelve Tone Systems, Inc. (commonly known as Cakewalk) in a cash and stock transaction for an estimated $324 million.

Boston-based Twelve Tone Systems is the industry-leading provider of
software for creating music and sound on the desktop, with
award-winning products used by more than 1,000,000 professional and
home users around the world. Tokyo-based Toyota Motor Corporation is
"one of the world's leading automakers", with diverse offerings from
minivehicles to large trucks, along with the Lexus, Daihatsu, and Hino
brands, plus prefabricated housing and leisure boats. TMC's FY2003
earnings were 17.29 trillion yen worldwide.

The combination of the leading Windows audio developer with a carmaker
may come as a surprise to some, but it's consistent with a wave of
acquisitions of audio developers by Apple (Emagic), Sony (Sound Forge),
Adobe (Audition — formerly Cool Edit), Yamaha (Steinberg), Avid
(M-Audio and Pinnacle), Microsoft (who acquired FL Studio aka Fruity
Loops in a story we'll cover later today), and Wal-Mart (who acquired
DJ manufacturer Stanton, also in an agreement today — we expect $1.99
versions of Final Scratch soon).

With the growing popularity of digital music (as exemplified by the
iPod), this agreement is no surprise at all. The acquisition of
Cakewalk by Toyota's should complement Toyota's diverse technology
initiatives, like clean-burning fuel and automobile safety. In
particular, the Toyota-Cakewalk partnership is likely to further the
open-standard Remix as You Drive initiative, which encourages
commuters to create "mash-ups" on the go via beat-slicing controls
initiated via steering-wheel controls and voice command. We've yet to
see a working prototype of this technology, but an early version was
promised at AES.

Cakewalk and Toyota were unavailable for comment, probably because they
were busy pursuing their April Fool's festivities. Full details on the
announcement here.

I've been a big fan of the Moogerfooger effects units, so you can imagine my excitement at the release of the Moogerfooger MF-4'33". There's simply no better way to improve the sound of an electric guitar than feeding it through this unit: dig that "pure warm analog silence." Really, guitarists: this is the single best thing you can do for your sound. (Sorry; I promise next week, I'll stick to viola jokes)

US$433.00 and available only through April 1, but can you put a price
on silence? Analog silence really does sound better than digital.

(via Music Thing, which points out that Bob Moog was there for the infamous Cage premiere — no foolin'.)

Digidesign|Stadion is the new ultra-pro audio product from Digidesign,
featuring an integrated mixing console, mix engine, Standion|I/O inputs
and outputs with 1024 mic inputs for mixing down to 128 buses, 75,000
seats, a retractable roof, and proprietary Digiturf(TM) HD artifical
turf system, plus integrated recording and playback option for
industry-standard Digidesign Pro Tools systems. MRSP and availability
are currently not announced, though pricing is expected to be about
US$750,000,000.00 (plus shipping) with availability expected in time
for the 2012 Olympics.

This is clearly a big move by Digidesign parent Avid to dominate the
stadium audio business with a truly vertically-integrated product for
sports and entertainment, though some have expressed concern that
Digidesign's Digiturf HD system is not backwards-compatible with
previous Digidesign landscaping products or open flora platforms and
requires an entirely new investment in grass. In fact, you may need a
lot of grass to convince yourself of the viability of this product.

Others suggest that the high taxpayer cost of the enormous Stadion product could be
avoided by using an open, affordable system called
Playinginthebackyard|Express, which offers the same entertainment
quality at a much lower price.