FAT SEAL AWARDED TO AUDIOTRIX PRO SHERBROOKE, Quebec, June 6, 1994 - Mediatrix is pleased to announce that the company's flagship product, the Audiotrix Pro sound card, has been awarded The Fat Seal. The Audiotrix Pro is the first sound card to receive this award and it has passed the rigorous General MIDI compatibility tests with high marks. The seal means that the Audiotrix Pro is recommended by The Fat Man for use with software containing General MIDI music. This certification process is necessary because not all General MIDI music played back on General MIDI hardware sounds the way the composer intended the music to sound. Mediatrix has supported the initiative of The Fat Man and his efforts to strengthen the General MIDI standard to ensure end users hear the music exactly as it was intended to be heard by the composer. "This is an exciting moment for us" says The Fat Man, George Alistair Sanger, President of the testing certification lab. "We wanted to create a testing procedure that would increase the musicality of a card, but until now, this was only a dream. The folks at Mediatrix have changed that. They have supported our initiative from the start and solicited our input throughout the development of their sound card drivers. The results will benefit end users and composers alike." John Moran, President of Mediatrix comments, "Unlike music on a CD or a cassette, General MIDI music is recreated by the instruments on the sound card every time a selection is played. These instruments must be properly balanced to ensure that you hear exactly what the composer intended. Yamaha OPL4 technology has given the Audiotrix Pro a great orchestra and The Fat Man has helped us fine tune it." K. Weston Phelan, Director of testing and certification says, "We were gratified to see the positive effect our testing had on the Audiotrix Pro. Although the card is loaded with great sounding instruments, not everything was well balanced and some music played back in a less than perfect manner. We made many suggestions which the folks at Mediatrix implemented into their drivers, and our final test of the card showed that the balance of all instrument sounds and envelope specs were well within our criteria," Once all of the adjustments had been made, the Audiotrix Pro was used to play back a series of musical compositions from several hit PC games. This music was composed for the General MIDI standard but not specifically for the Audiotrix Pro. When the Lab played the music through the Audiotrix Pro, it sounded balanced and emotionally stirring, an overall goal for the team at Fat Labs. The certified versions of the sound card drivers are v1.04 and higher for DOS and v1.02 and higher for Windows. In addition to pure musical considerations, The Fat Seal also indicates that the Audiotrix Pro has an MPU-401 interface in hardware. This important feature is necessary to ensure that General MIDI music written for software in a DOS environment is reproduced without making excessive demands on computer resources that may interfere with the proper functioning of the software. THE FAT SEAL The Fat Seal certifies that the Audiotrix Pro has been tested and is recommended by The Fat Man for use with software containing General MIDI music. This certification process is necessary because not all General MIDI music played back on General MIDI hardware sounds the way the composer intended the music to sound. Mediatrix supports the strengthening of the General MIDI standard, as suggested by The Fat Seal certification process, to ensure end users hear the music exactly as it was intended to be heard by the composer. Each instrument in the Audiotrix Pro was thoroughly tested by Fat Labs for volume, attack speed, sustain characteristics and other attributes that affects the way that General MIDI music sounds. The result is that the Audiotrix Pro gives a sensitive, musical and emotionally effective representation of General MIDI music in games and other multimedia software. Also, music written on the Audiotrix Pro will be accurately reproduced when played back on other hardware carrying The Fat Seal. In addition to pure musical considerations, The Fat Seal also indicates that the Audiotrix Pro has an MPU-401 interface in hardware. This important feature is necessary to ensure that General MIDI music written for software in a DOS environment is reproduced without making excessive demands on computer resources that may interfere with the proper functioning of the software. THE FAT MAN The Fat Man, George Alistair Sanger, together with Team Fat, his team of cowboy composers, has produced some of the most memorable music in the PC gaming industry. The musical score for Loom, one of the first games to be released on CD-ROM, was acknowledged generally as "a work of art". With the release of Wing Commander and its accompanying sound track, music began to be considered as a major selling point for PC games. The score for The 7th Guest was the first game to use music written in the General MIDI format and the first PC game to include a complete album of the game's music on the CD. Putt-Putt goes to the Moon introduced direct-to-MIDI recording of an ensemble of live musicians to the sound track of a PC game. These are just some of the landmarks that The Fat Man has helped establish in the PC gaming community. For more information on the Audiotrix Pro, please contact Mediatrix Peripherals at (819) 829-TRIX.