Tilman Herberger

Video

Oral History Information

Interview Date
Job Title
Founder
Company Name
Magix Software

Tilman Herberger was born in Leipzig to a family of music educators. At an early age, he was interested in electronics as well as music. While attending high school in socialist East Germany he decided to build a synthesizer out of radio parts, an electrical train set and parts of a defunct grand piano. By the time he started his studies at the Music Academy in Dresden, Tilman had developed a sequencer, a rotor box and a drum machine. A new department at the Music Academy Dresden was the perfect setting for Tilman’s innovative ideas. At the Studio for Electronic Sound Generation SEKD, Tilman Herberger met a like-minded student, Titus Tost. Both dove into the world of computers first with the Commodore 64 and soon the Amiga. Tilman and Titus started to developed software to shape and edit sound. Their timing was perfect. Just when they had finished their studies 1989 the Berlin wall came down and the new situation in Germany gave the team of young programmers the opportunities to further develop and market their software. Today, the digital audio workstation Samplitude and Sequoia as well as the Music Maker by Magix are popular Digital Audio Work Stations, especially in Europe, with Tilman and Titus as the creators behind the software.