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Apple hires THX inventor to head up audio projects

by Michael Grothaus May 4th 2011 at 6:00PM

Apple has reportedly hired the inventor of THX to head up all its audio projects, Leo Laporte said. Earlier today Laporte tweeted "I have it on good authority that Tomlinson Holman (of THX fame) is joining Apple to run audio. Major upgrade."

Holman is a legend in the audio industry. Among his achievements are winning an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2002 and inventing the first 10.2 surround sound system. However, Holman is best known for being the chief inventor of Lucasfilm's THX theater sound system. No word yet on what specific projects Holman will be working on at Apple, but I, for one, would love to see the Apple startup chime replaced with the THX sound effect.

Is it a coincidence that this move of a former Skywalker Ranch-hand comes to light on Star Wars Day? Hard to know, but all we can say to Tom Holman is "May the Fourth be with you."

[via GigaOM]



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Apple has reportedly hired the inventor of THX to head up all its audio projects, Leo Laporte said. Earlier today Laporte tweeted "I...
 

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happle

An important note:

Deep Note (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Note) is the THX sound that is being referred to by some.
The sound was created by James A. Moorer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Moorer)

:)

May 05 2011 at 10:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jon Hendry

The bootup sound?

Who wants to wait long enough for it to play? And what'd be the point playing it, most of the time, through an amp and speakers that can't even render it properly?

Whatever. I'm not much of a movie buff, so the THX sound is a big 'meh' for me.

May 04 2011 at 8:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
brian

Is it just me or does wikia.com totally kill Safari for everyone? I can view it in Firefox just fine but I get 'unresponsive script' warnings and it takes several minutes for Safari to recover.

May 04 2011 at 7:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ChuckEye

I always thought that Apple missed an opportunity to partner directly with THX in developing a QuickTime-centric XServer for digital cinema playback. The early days of digital projection in commercial theaters was a mess of competing standards and playback engines. It would have been cool to see the Apple logo popping up before feature films, alongside the likes of Dolby or DTS.

May 04 2011 at 7:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael

THX is not a sound system. It is a set of standards applied to sound systems. This is a frequent misconception.

May 04 2011 at 6:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
NutMac

Tomlinson's THX was mainly about consistent reproduction of sound (and later video) that filmmakers have envisioned. I suspect he will be involved with doing just that for iOS devices and Macs, as well as evolving audio standards (e.g., AAC) that Apple is a member of.

May 04 2011 at 6:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
milkmage

"May the Fourth be with you."?

I have a lithp, thath's not funny.

May 04 2011 at 6:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
yarduh

Maybe this has something to do with the 24 bit audio apple was planning on introducing to the iPod. If this means better "audiophile" quality sonic products from apple, I'm all for it. Especially better speakers on the Macbook Pro's....

May 04 2011 at 6:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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