The Blue Ribbon SoundWorks was a

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

company in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The company produced several

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...

products for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

, including Bars & Pipes, a sequencer described by

Sound on Sound ''Sound on Sound'' is a monthly music technology magazine. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals. Due to its technical focus, it is predominantly ...

as "the ultimate in Amiga sequencing", and SuperJAM!, a music composition tool. Blue Ribbon also produced the One Stop Music Shop, a hardware

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

interface and synthesizer based on the

E-mu Proteus The E-mu Proteus was a range of digital sound modules and keyboards manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1989 to 2002. History E-mu Systems came to prominence in the early 1980s with its relatively affordable E-mu Emulator, Emulator Sampling (musi ...

. Other early products included Who! What! When! Where!, a

personal information manager A personal information manager (often referred to as a PIM tool or, more simply, a PIM) is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to personal information mana ...

. It was founded by Melissa Jordan Grey and Todor Fay, who went on to found NewBlue, a video technology company. Blue Ribbon was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in 1995, and Microsoft subsequently merged Blue Ribbon's technology with

DirectSound DirectSound is a deprecated software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system, superseded by XAudio2. It provides a low-latency interface to sound card drivers written for Windows 95 through Windows XP and can h ...

. After the acquisition, Microsoft made Blue Ribbon's Amiga products available for free download on

CompuServe CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

while discontinuing official support.

References

External links

Official website
of NewBlue {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Ribbon SoundWorks 1995 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1988 American companies disestablished in 1995 Computer companies established in 1988 Computer companies disestablished in 1995 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Digital audio Microsoft acquisitions Defunct software companies of the United States