Titus Tost

Titus Tost studied computer programming in the mid-1980s in East Germany. He enrolled in a newly established study program called the Studio for Electronic Sound Generation (SEKD) in Dresden. Titus found the perfect outlet for his programming genius and passion for music. The Commodore 64 (later an Amiga computer and a Yamaha DX7), a rarity in East Germany at the time, were literally used around the clock to create programs and to manipulate sound. In 1989, after the fall of the Berlin wall, Titus and two other students were made assistants at the SEKD. For three years Titus and his colleagues could experiment with programming ideas that would lead to the development of the first Windows-based software-only digital audio workstation, Samplitude. Together with Tilman Herberger, Titus later developed the Magix Music Maker as a consumer product and Sequoia for the high-end market. While the software is most popular in Europe, Samplitude also caught the eye of Stevie Wonder, who was looking for a Windows-based program that could also be combined with braille software.