A generation of home musicians and radio editors learned to cut audio on a program from Madison, Wisconsin. Sound Forge let anyone record, edit, and polish digital sound on a Windows PC. Sonic Foundry built it and sold it alongside tools like CD Architect for burning audio CDs. In 1998 the web was starting to carry sound and video. When Sonic Foundry went public that April, it was a small software maker with a loyal following among creators.

Desktop Audio for Everyone

Rimas Buinevicius and Monty Schmidt led the company as CEO and president. Professional audio editing once needed costly dedicated hardware. Sonic Foundry bet that ordinary PCs had become fast enough to do the job in software. Sound Forge sold to musicians, game studios, and broadcasters. The company also saw a future in preparing audio and video for the internet, and it built services around that idea.

From Sound Forge to Mediasite

Sonic Foundry priced its IPO at $7.50 a share in April 1998 and listed on the American Stock Exchange as SFO. It added the Vegas video editor and other creative tools. In 2003 it sold its desktop software line to Sony and kept Mediasite, a system that records and streams university lectures. Mediasite carried the company for two decades. In early 2024 Sonic Foundry sold Mediasite to Enghouse and then filed for bankruptcy.

Cover: Blacksmith, Eugène Delacroix. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a blacksmith at the forge (Sound Forge).