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Important Notice:
Although XO Wave will continue to be available for some time,
it will be discontinued as we prepare to bring you the next generation
Digital Audio Workstation.
The new software we are developing is called
Xonami and it will have
many, but not all, of the features of XO Wave.
A discount upgrade path will be available
for users who purchased XO Wave September 1st, 2010.
We realize that
there are few professional CD mastering options with the full range of capabilities offered
by XO Wave, so we will continue to offer the package as long as possible. However,
please keep in mind that as discontinued software:
- This site may not contain up-to-date information.
- Technical Support will be discontinued on November 30th.
For up-to-date information about our upcoming software, please join our
mailing list.
XO Wave: Package Components
XO Wave consists of several components, and it can be useful to know
what they are and how they work together. This is entirely
optional, though -- XO Wave normally manages all its components
invisible and automatically on your behalf. For advanced users,
however, it may be helpful to understand their roles.
On Mac OS X, all the components are contained in the "XO Wave.app"
application bundle, which can be run and quit just like any
other application. On Linux all the components are
installed in an xowave directory, including an
xowave script which launches the application.
XOgui: User Interface
XOgui is XO Wave's user interface (also called the
"front end" or "GUI"). Written in Java, it handles all the visible
controls (including windows, buttons, and dialog boxes).
Under normal operation,
XOgui starts the XO Wave programs as needed; on
quit, it shuts down any other XO Wave components which haven't
already finished and shut themselves down. It is also possible
to install XO Wave such that the user manages the other
components manually. See our Advanced Installation Guide
for details. Note that Linux users will see
a process called java in process listings, whereas Mac
OS X users will see XOgui. As the master program,
the GUI reads and writes .xo session files; it also reads
waveform overviews
(.ovrv files) created by XOengine.
XOmux: XO Wave Audio Engine Server and Multiplexer
The XO Wave front end does not actually perform audio processing or
manipulate audio files itself. Instead it hands off all such
requests to XOmux, which, in turn, creates
XOengines as needed. This architecture allows
considerable flexibility, including XOengines with different
capabilities, and running a
single copy of XO Wave on multiple machines.
XOengine: Audio Engine
The audio engine (also called the "back end") performs the actual
audio processing (playing sounds, applying effects, reading and
writing audio clips, etc.). XOengine also handles
CD burning -- using Apple's APIs on Mac OS X, and via
cdrecord on Linux. It appears as
"XOengine" in
ps/top. XOengine is also responsible
for most of the work done by
offline operations as
well, including burning CDs, building and saving
waveform overviews (.ovrv files), and
exporting files (.aiff & .wav;
also .mp3 and possibly other formats with third-party support).
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