Apple announced a new app today for Macworld CreativePro. The company is making Final Cut Prois Soundtrack feature available as a standalone app conveniently called Soundtrack. Soundtrack is designed for audio professionals needing to mix music and other sounds for use in a variety of different media formats. Soundtrack was the only new product announced during todayis Macworld CreativePro feature presentation. From Appleis press release:

Apple today announced that Soundtrack, the innovative, royalty-free music production tool previously available only with Final Cut Pro 4, will be available in August as a standalone product for US$299. Soundtrack includes more than 4,000 royalty-free, professionally-recorded audio loops and sound effects, giving creative professionals such as video editors, DVD authors and web developers a powerful and easy-to-use tool to create high-quality music scores. Soundtrack scales to meet the needs of audio producers, DJs and remix artists who start their projects in Soundtrack and then migrate to a digital audio workstation, such as Logic or Pro Tools, for the rest of their work.

Soundtrack offers creative professionals an intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface and workflow with each loop treated as an audio building block that users simply drag and drop into a composition. Regardless of the musical key or tempo in which the loop was originally recorded, Soundtrack will match the audio loops and sound effects within a composition in real-time, making the project sound harmonious instantly. Such simplicity is also prevalent in Soundtrackis powerful search engine, which gives users the means to quickly locate desired sounds by instrument, genre or mood. This advanced search engine works with a new open audio format called, "Apple Loops," or any AIFF, WAV, and Acid format audio files.

With more than 4,000 royalty-free, professionally-recorded audio loops and sound effects included in Soundtrack, it is the perfect complement to other digital media creation applications, such as Final Cut(R) Express, DVD Studio Pro(R), and Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. Licensing music is traditionally expensive, but Soundtrack users have the unrestricted ability to distribute, broadcast and resell their music creations without having to pay any additional fees.

Soundtrack also ships with over 30 professional, high-quality audio plug-ins from Apple and Emagic. Plug-ins like Platinum Verb, SpectralGate, Multiband Compressor and AutoFilter, enable users to combine effects with individual tracks to create sophisticated audio. Furthermore, Soundtrackis support for Mac(R) OS Xis Audio Units plug-in architecture allows users to further expand their capabilities with additional third-party audio effects developed through Appleis open-standard plug-in format.

Apple says that Soundtrack will be available in August for US$299. You can find more information on the product at Appleis Web site.