FXsound.com designs and distributes the DFX® Audio Enhancer product, which is the world's most popular PC multimedia software accessory with currently over 36 million downloads world-wide. DFX enhances the sound of most online music and video content streamed over the Web, including the YouTube, Pandora, Spotify and Last.fm streaming media services. DFX also performs real-time audio enhancement on most popular PC multimedia players, including the iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp media players. More information about DFX can be found at FXsound.com.
For the growing mobile segment, the innovative iDFX® Audio Enhancer software application was created to provide enhanced audio for portable devices, such as the popular iPhone, iPod, and iPad products. iDFX uses patent pending technology to re-encode users existing MP3 and AAC files, correcting for the loss of fidelity caused by the original encoding process. More information about iDFX can be found at FXsound.com.
Explore Systems Inc. was founded to develop and market the ExploreMatch™ Web service, which is the world's most powerful and complete music catalog and recommendation system. ExploreMatch provides song recommendations and artist song lists that many feel are superior to Pandora and other competing music service providers. The patent pending ExploreMatch™ technology has been in development for several years and contains information from over 8 million songs and 200,000 artists worldwide. More information about ExploreMatch can be found at ExploreMatch.com.
To showcase the power of ExploreMatch, the ExploreTunes® Web music player was introduced, providing cutting-edge music search, discovery, and video display capabilities. ExploreTunes allows users to quickly access and view the song catalog of streaming music videos from selected artists of their choice. After selecting an artist, ExploreTunes uses ExploreMatch™ technology to display that artist's song list and also songs from recommended similar artists. More information about ExploreTunes can be found at ExploreTunes.com.
Since introduction, both the technologies of ExploreMatch and ExploreTunes have been integrated into the DFX® Audio Enhancer product, providing DFX users with an easy way to access the music content they crave.
FXsound.com was founded in 2000 by Paul Titchener and Mark Kaplan, with the goal of leveraging the company's extensive expertise in advanced DSP, PC, and Internet technologies to design and market innovative media related products.
August 2012 – DFX version 11 is released, adding new system-wide audio enhancement support. DFX now provides studio sound quality for all PC audio playback, including all music, videos, online radio, games, desktop media players, and Internet browsers.
December 2011 – DFX version 10 is released, adding new audio enhancement support for most online streaming music and video services and Web sites, including YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Last.fm, Rhapsody, and many more. DFX 10 also enhances additional popular desktop media players, including iTunes, VLC media player, GOM Player, among others. Furthermore, DFX 10 introduced the new Explore feature, which integrates the technologies of ExploreMatch and ExploreTunes, providing users with quick access to popular music content on the Web, including music videos, song lyrics, similar artists, artist bio, and artist news.
September 2011 – The ExploreMatch™ Web service, a patent pending music catalog and recommendation system, is introduced and made available for licensing. ExploreMatch provides artist song lists and similar artist recommendations that many feel are superior to Pandora and other leading music service systems.
April 2011 - Explore Systems Inc. is founded to develop and license innovative Web music services. The ExploreTunes® Web music player, an innovative online application for the playback and display of music videos, is introduced. ExploreTunes provides playback of music videos from the song catalog of selected artists, and its Similar Artists feature, powered by ExploreMatch, makes it easy for users to discover new music that they will enjoy.
October 2009 - The iDFX® Audio Enhancer, the first MP3 Enhancer for the popular iPod and iPhone portable devices, is introduced. iDFX uses patent-pending technology to enhance users existing MP3 and AAC files, allowing iPods and iPhones to provide the rich full sound quality of the original CD recordings.
February 2009 - DFX version 9 is released, with new features including automatic song preset selection, presets backup and restore, a gadget-style user interface option, 64-bit Windows support, and much more.
October 2006 - DFX version 8 is released, with improved sound enhancement processing including full 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound support, a refined user interface, compatibility with Windows Vista, and much more.
July 2005 - MP3 Remix version 3 is released, with an improved MP3 remixing engine, more export format options, new set of remix presets and sounds, quick pick remixes and much more.
August 2004 - DFX version 7 is released, with better audio enhancement processing, graphics and user controls. New features include the visual audio spectrum analyzer, new processing modes for specific types of audio, a mini-mode user interface, and much more.
October 2003 - The innovative MP3 Remix® software application, that again targets the consumer audio market, is introduced. MP3 Remix is the first DJ remix product which lets users easily create a sophisticated pro DJ style remix of any song from MP3 files or CD tracks. Utilizing cutting edge artificial intelligence it automates all of the complex tasks normally performed by a team of skilled musicians, DJs, producers and recording engineers. Even with no musical ability, MP3 Remix allows users to create and record original interpretations of song files using its extensive preset sound library.
2000 - FXsound.com is founded by Paul Titchener and Mark Kaplan to design and distribute innovative products for the consumer audio market.
FXsound.com introduces a new software technology called DFX® Audio Enhancement, which targets the growing market for Internet audio products and services. A significant limitation of Internet based audio systems is that bandwidth limitations require that the audio be data compressed, reducing its quality. DFX contains patent-pending technology that compensates for the compression of Internet-based audio distribution. DFX also compensates for the limitations of PC based multimedia audio playback systems. Internet audio systems using DFX yield much higher perceived audio quality and user satisfaction.
1998 - To facilitate Internet based sales of the DSP-FX Virtual Pack, Power Technology developed the proprietary PC identification and copy protection technology known as IP-Safe. IP-Safe allows Power Technology's customers to immediately purchase and utilize the Virtual Pack while not allowing unlicensed operation on other PC's. Power Technology's PC identification method is a purely software based approach that works with any Pentium or Pentium type processor. IP-Safe also avoids the privacy issues associated with Intel Corporations Pentium III serial number based approach. Power Technology is actively seeking companies interested in licensing this technology, and is also pursuing strategic partnerships which can accelerate its application and development (IP-Safe).
1997 - Power Technology introduced the DSP-FX Virtual Pack. The Virtual Pack implemented the highly rated DSP-FX algorithms in a pure software form supporting Microsoft's DirectX format. Power Technology's expertise in implementation of DSP algorithms allowed it to implement the Virtual Pack with extremely high efficiency that for the first time allowed PC's to perform software only real-time professional quality audio processing. The Virtual Pack has since become regarded as the premium real-time audio processing software package available for PC's. Power Technology is actively pursuing applications of its real-time PC based signal processing technologies to additional markets.
The first DSP-FX product consisted of a plug-in card that leveraged both DSP and PC technology to deliver true pro studio quality in a graphical desktop environment (DSP-FX hardware/software). DSP-FX earned the prestigious Most Innovative Product of the Year Award in 1997 from Electronic Musician Magazine, a leading end-user audio publication. Winning that award required outranking other innovative products from companies such as Yamaha, Sony, Roland and many other major audio companies. Electronic Musician also awarded the product a rating of 5 out of 5 for audio quality. To our knowledge this is the only time that Electronic Musician, highly respected for editorial credibility, has awarded an audio processing system of any type a full 5 audio quality rating. In addition to use in commercial and home recording studios, the DSP-FX hardware/software system is also uniquely suited for specialized multi-channel audio processing applications. A specially customized multi-channel DSP-FX hardware system is currently being used by ABC TV in their HDTV production studio.
1995 - Mark Kaplan, a founding team member of Comdisco Systems, joined Power Technology. Mr. Kaplan brought many years of graphical software design and large software project design, implementation and management expertise to the company. Power Technology then began efforts to design and manufacture professional quality audio processing hardware and software, using the product name DSP-FX.
1992 - Power Technology was formed, and the design and manufacture was started of PC oriented testing equipment for the leading NASCAR, NHRA and Indy Car racing teams, engine builders and automotive high performance manufacturers. The PT-200 and PT-500 valve spring tester and chassis spring tester products that resulted from these efforts are now in use by top racing teams and performance manufacturers (see customer list), and were used on the engines powering championship winning drivers such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson and many others.
1984 - Dr. Titchener and a partner founded a technology group that began developing an innovative new software design tool called the Signal Processing WorkSystem (SPW, now marketed by Synopsys, Inc.). The patented SPW tool uses a high level graphic design style to significantly aid the design of complex electronic systems such as digital telecommunication, modems, cellular telephones, cardiac pacemakers and HDTV systems. The groundbreaking SPW tool was brought to the market with Comdisco Systems in 1987. It both pioneered and dominated the market for DSP design tools, with 80% market share and worldwide sales exceeding $300 million to date. Dr. Titchener played a lead role as the company grew to 130 employees, and was the Vice President of Technology when he reduced his status to consulting role with Comdisco in 1992.
Dr. Titchener received his Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Cincinnati in 1978, graduating Magnum Cum Laude. He then pursued graduate studies at Stanford University, receiving a Master of Science degree in 1980 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1984. His graduate studies concentrated in the area of Digital Signal Processing (DSP), and his thesis advisor was Dr. Bernard Widrow, who is regarded as one of the primary contributors to the development of advanced DSP techniques.
Dr. Titchener has many years of experience in analog, digital and software based system design. He holds several patents in the areas of signal processing and electronic instrumentation and has published and presented a variety of technical papers on advanced applications of electronic hardware and software systems.
Mark Kaplan received his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from UC San Diego in 1986. He was a core team member at Comdisco Systems where he led the development of a primary component of the highly successful and innovative SPW design tool. At FXsound.com Mark has served as the chief software architect as well as heading the development of new business opportunities. In this role Mark fostered the entry of the company to the online audio market, and also proposed and developed the use of advanced database techniques to create the innovative Explore Systems Inc. series of products.