Both Evolution Audio and Evolution Audio Pro will play back a single mono or stereo audio track, but the Pro version allows multiple‑staff score editing (as opposed to a single staff on the lower‑priced version) as well as many of the more advanced features of the flagship Sound Studio Gold. Apart from Evolution MIDI, which isn't on commercial sale and only supports 32 MIDI tracks, all the rest of the range will run up to 256 tracks of MIDI. Sound Studio Gold sits at the top of the Evolution range. The program will run in Windows 3.1 as well as with the newer Windows 95 operating system, and if you're using an older machine, this is good news. You don't need a machine capable of running NASA control either, since (allegedly) a 25MHz 486 can scrape through - although if you intend to try simultaneous audio recording and playback with a duplex soundcard, this does seem rather optimistic a 100MHz Pentium would seem a more suitable starting point.
Sound Studio Gold is somewhat more ambitious, since it supports audio recording of one mono or stereo track at a time, and playback of up to 16 audio tracks alongside up to 256 MIDI ones. Besides its MIDI features, it also allowed playback of a single mono or stereo WAV file, but had no built‑in digital audio recording facilities. The Evolution Audio software was reviewed as part of the Music Creator Pro package in the January '97 issue of SOS. Martin Walker examines a grown‑up package at a baby price. With Sound Studio Gold, Evolution refuse to let budget sequencing mean budget features.