08/26/2014 at 12:07
Any sound engineer/beatmaker has to process digital audio, just like a photographer has to edit images. The sound engineer simply needs to mask unsuccessful or damaged fragments, remove noise, and use filters. In general, audio processing is not an easy task, and today I have compiled a list of the most convenient and popular audio editors to help you.
Sony Sound Forge Pro 11.0 build 234
He has been considered the best professional editor for many years. Many masters use it to make the sound better. SONY Sound Forge Pro is the number one choice for a generation of artists, producers and editors. Its popularity and high-quality processing make it one of the most advanced audio editors.
Adobe Audition CC
This program offers fairly intuitive tools for audio editing, mixing, restoration and effects creation. There is a Sound Remover that allows you to remove sounds from an entire file by analyzing a small selected area. It is possible to create gorgeous soundscapes with sound design tools. Worth a try.
Adobe Audition CS6
And this audio editor is highly productive. There are powerful features like real-time clip stretching and automatic speech alignment. Helps you save a lot of time.
GoldWave v5.67
This professional sound editor is capable of processing complex sounds, restoring, enhancing and converting.
An audio editor can greatly simplify working with audio tracks.
With the development of new technologies, working on audio recordings has ceased to be exclusively the responsibility of professionals.
Now every home PC user has the opportunity to trim, mix and apply effects to sound files.
What can we say about transcoding them into various formats. Along with installed programs, online services also allow such actions.
The most convenient of the programs and services will be discussed further.
Downloadable editors
The traditional way to edit audio is to use installable programs.
Such programs provide ample opportunities, but for solving simple tasks, such as transcoding a file or trimming a composition, there are “too many” of them.
However, many users prefer to use programs.
"People's" program for sound processing. With a free distribution model, it offers a solid toolkit.
The first version of the software became available to the public in 2000. Since then, the project has been continuously developed and improved. The latest version for today was released on March 29, 2015.
Audacity supports reading and writing many formats, and various codecs, including: WAV, AIFF, AU, Ogg, MP2 and MP3.
A wide range of options for transcoding audio signals between formats is available.
In fact, any source file can be recoded into any format supported by the program.
Among other features, it is worth mentioning an unlimited number of tracks for mixing and a large number of additional filters and effects.
Wavosaur
A free music editor that can seriously compete with other audio processing programs.
In this case, the program does not require installation and does not make any changes to the system registry. A special feature is the ability to display a detailed track in 3D mode.
Wavosaur supports the most common formats: WAV, MP3, OGG, AIF, AIFF.
Ample opportunities are available for signal transcoding between formats, editing an unlimited number of tracks and processing in real time.
A significant drawback of the editor is that the supported operating systems are limited to the range from Win XP to Vista. Owners of common , 8 and 8.1 will have to look for an alternative.
Audio Editor Gold
Audio Editor Gold, unlike previous programs, is not distributed free of charge. Trial access is limited to 30 days and constantly pops up a reminder to register.
It features a friendly interface.
Track editing is done on a wave model, which can be scaled in detail to more accurately highlight sections of the track.
You can edit each channel separately.
The software supports free transcoding between all supported formats, including WAV, WMA, Ogg and MP3.
Any file can be freely recoded into one of the available formats.
Online audio editors
Network technologies are evolving. Their current level makes it possible to transfer the functionality of many programs to the browser.
Editing audio and video using network resources is no longer fiction, but a reality accessible to any network user.
TwistedWave
With TwistedWave, there is no need to download and install proprietary audio editing software.
The service offers the ability to trim, re-encode or add a filter to an audio recording using a browser.
Among the possibilities are about 40 VTS effects, fading effects over the entire track or sections of it, transcoding and saving the finished track in the cloud.
The service supports working with many formats: WAV, MP3, FLAC, Ogg, MP2, WMA, AIFF, AIFC, Apple CAF.
TwistedWave allows you to freely transcode files between supported formats.
For the saved recording, you can manually set the bitrate from 8 kB/s to 320 kB/s. That is, the service turned out to be a good audio converter.
Info! Free processing is only possible for mono mode. You will have to pay extra for processing a recording in two or more channels.
Online MP3 Cutter
With this service, cutting music will become a simple process that takes a minimum of time.
To get the required segment of the composition you will need only three steps: open the file, determine the segment and download the finished piece of the song.
The saved segment can be recoded into a more convenient format. The service supports five formats: MP3, AMR, WAC, AAC and Apple CAF. It is also convenient to use for simple audio transcoding.
It is enough to simply not define the segment to be extracted from the composition, and choose to save it in a different format.
That is, despite the fact that cutting music is the main purpose of Online MP3 Cutter, it can be used to successfully reformat audio.
Payment will not be required at any stage of using the service. A simple and intuitive interface with a minimum of necessary features is ideal for everyday use.
Make Your Own Ringtone
A convenient online service designed to create your own ringtones. Unlike the previous audio trimming service, it has 16 effects that can be applied to the recording.
Six audio encoding formats are supported: MP3, OGG, AAC, M4R, MPC and MP4. The finished file can be saved either to a computer or to a mobile device.
It is possible to send the finished cut by email.
Make Your Own Ringtone can also be successfully used as an online music converter. All supported formats are freely convertible.
That is, it is not necessary to trim the composition, you can simply save it in the desired format.
The best audio editor and converter
Review of an incredibly cool and, at the same time, free audio editor with a powerful set of tools. You can even turn the track backwards in it
Not every program can digitize an analog recording or create a soundtrack for a film. CHIP will tell you about the best audio editors.
The arsenal of tools available to modern audio editors is impressive. Sound processing is a task no less complex than, say, retouching a portrait, and restoring old audio recordings can be compared to restoring a damaged photograph. But unlike computer graphics, where Adobe Photoshop dominates, there is no clear leader among audio editing applications. In this article we will look at several of the most successful, in our opinion, applications that will allow you to digitize rare recordings from reel-to-reel and audio cassettes, make a ringtone for your mobile phone, remove noise that arose when recording your voice through a microphone, etc.
Sound Forge Pro 10: Restoration Expert
Noise Reduction uses several different noise reduction algorithms. Sony, which is developing this audio editor, has managed to create a very convenient, simple and powerful tool for audio processing. Many users rightly give their preference to this program. Sound Forge Pro is a professional editor that, in the right hands, can work wonders with the material being processed. As with most other sound editors, the loaded track is presented in the program window in the form of a diagram. Any defect, any recording error - all this can be seen on the “sine wave” of the track. By examining the waveform of the signal, the user can accurately determine which part of the recording needs processing. Sound Forge Pro is one of the best solutions for audio data recovery. In addition to accurate restoration of frequency characteristics (the editor has three types of equalizer - graphic, paragraph and parametric), the program contains many tools for removing noise. A recording defect can be caused by various reasons - the crackling of a vinyl record, extraneous hum, etc. Each type of noise requires a special approach to eliminating it, so there are many ways to restore a damaged audio recording. Depending on the nature of the sound artifact, in Sound Forge Pro you can interpolate the value of the sound, “masking” the damaged area with neighboring values, you can replace the missing fragment with data from the adjacent channel. The Noise Reduction module, which is present in the program, can use four different noise reduction algorithms, and the optimal option is determined in most cases empirically. In the simplest cases, you can use a threshold filter for noise - it will cut off all interference whose amplitude is below a user-specified value. One of the most powerful and advanced tools of the program is the composition spectrum analyzer. The characteristics of an audio recording can be viewed in individual channels, you can set the frequency range for plotting the spectrum, etc. Most audio editor commands can be accessed using keyboard shortcuts. If some of them are inconvenient or keyboard shortcuts are not assigned to them, this can be done manually in the program settings. Sound Forge Pro allows you to save lists of custom keyboard shortcuts. They can be loaded depending on the tasks performed in the program or used after reinstalling the system.
Adobe Audition CS5.5: Audio with video
The Audition sound editor, released today by Adobe, was previously called Cool Edit Pro and from the first versions won the favor of audio engineering enthusiasts. When Syntrillium Software, which laid down the basic concept of the application, transferred the rights to the program to Adobe, the deal amounted to a huge figure - 16.5 million dollars, and, it must be said, the audio editor was worth the money.
The integration of a sound editor into the software package for working with video and graphics Master Collection CS only added advantages to the program. Now users of Adobe's popular suite of programs can enjoy end-to-end editing. For example, when working with material in the Premiere Pro video editor, you can quickly switch between video and audio projects, preparing a multi-channel audio track for the video being created. The program also supports batch processing of files.
Many of the tools in this package are so convenient and perfect that the developers practically do not make significant changes, releasing the next version of the program over and over again. Using Audition, for example, you can very quickly clear an audio recording of noise, especially if the noise is caused by cyclic processes, say, interference from the electromagnetic field created by a transformer. In order to get rid of unwanted recording defects, in this case, it is necessary to highlight the noise profile on the sound diagram - the section of the recording where interference is best heard, without extraneous sounds. Next, the program can exclude the cyclically repeating noise amplitude from the main audio material. In some cases, this method makes it possible to suppress noise very effectively.
The editor is quite flexible in customizing the interface. The appearance of the program changes depending on what task the user is working on. If this is a multi-track mixing, the editor will look like a multi-track studio; if the work is being done on two monitors, Audition will occupy both screens. If necessary, the program can build and display a sonogram right next to the waveform of the edited audio track.
The program can work in multi-track mode, in which the interface takes on the appearance of a sequencer. The user can use an unlimited number of tracks, which makes this audio editor an indispensable tool for a musician or DJ. Using a multi-track virtual studio, Audition allows you to create professional mixes from dozens of different recorded parts.
Adobe Audition supports all modern digital audio technologies, including support for 5.1 multichannel audio, ASIO low-latency transfer protocol, and VST plug-ins.
Audacity 1.3.13: Reasonable sufficiency
Audacity can normalize the signal level throughout an audio session, create a smooth fading effect, automatically remove sections with silence, remove vocals from a composition, and it is also cross-platform. Free software that could be used by professionals for their own purposes is a rarity. The Audacity audio editor is one of the few free solutions that can compete on equal terms with expensive commercial developments. Not every commercial audio editor can boast such a powerful audio processing engine - up to 32-bit floating point. The program can also work with audio material in 16/24-bit modes with sampling rates up to 96 kHz. Another undoubted advantage of this audio editor is its support for Linux and Mac OS X platforms. The functionality of the program in any operating system is almost identical (with the exception of additional modules). The program allows you to record audio from an external source, such as a microphone. Recording can start automatically as soon as the program detects an increase in sound volume. The signal level at which automatic recording will trigger is determined by the settings. If the project you're working on uses external files, it's easy to lose some components. To prevent this from happening, you can check dependencies in the editor or specify in the configuration settings to automatically copy audio data to the project when saving it. Audacity makes it very convenient to control the track level. Using control points, you can adjust the amplitude envelope of the sound so that the recording becomes louder or quieter in the desired areas. Audacity can repair corrupted data - open audio files that have a missing or damaged header.
Connoisseurs of “high-quality” uncompressed audio in FLAC, APE, etc. formats will appreciate the tool built into Audacity for generating frequency spectrum. Based on the shape of the constructed curve, you can easily determine from what source the audio disc image found on the Internet was made. Although the program has many tools that can be found in other similar applications, they often differ in how they work. For example, the equivalent of the Pencil tool in Sound Forge Pro is a tool called “envelope change.” It, like the “pencil” in the audio editor from Sonу, makes it possible to manually draw the shape of a sound wave. However, in Audacity it can only be used when the track scale is selected enough to see individual sound samples. You can find many interesting filters in the program, and many of them help solve specific problems. For example, Audacity can normalize the signal level across an entire audio session, create a fade-out effect, automatically remove silence, and even remove vocals from a musical composition, creating a karaoke effect. Audacity contains a built-in hardware performance test. After a short test, the program will show the computer's potential - how many audio tracks this configuration can handle simultaneously. Those who find the standard arsenal of the program insufficient can use add-ons for Audacity. However, in this case you need to keep in mind that many plugins are commercial developments, and you will have to pay for their use. Another advantage of the program is the correct shutdown, after which a minimum of “garbage” in the form of temporary files remains in the system.
Conclusion
In order to make the sound editor interesting to a certain category of users, the creators select its capabilities in such a way that the application is targeted at the target group. For example, if you do a lot of video editing, Adobe Audition will be handy to have on hand. To restore rare recordings, it is optimal to use Sound Forge Pro. Well, if you are not involved in professional processing of audio files and open an audio editor no more than once a month, be sure to take a closer look at Audacity, whose tools are enough to solve the most popular tasks.
Comparison table of audio editors:
| Sound Forge Pro 10 |
Adobe Audition CS 5.5 |
Audacity 1.3.13 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Program website | http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com | http://www.adobe.com/ | http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?lang=ru |
| Interface language | English | English | Russian |
| operating system | Windows XP/Vista/7 | Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS | Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X, Linux |
| Terms of distribution | shareware | shareware | for free |
| Price | from 11040 | 12057 | - |
| MIDI import | - | - | + |
| Import data from audio CDs |
+ | + | - |
| Creating an Effect Chain | + | + | + |
| Pros of the program | High precision sound processing, a wide selection of noise reduction products | Tight integration with Premiere Pro video editor | extension of capabilities with plugins |
| Disadvantages of the program | high price | high price | unusual interface |
| Importing video files | + | + | - |
Many users would like to not only enjoy beautiful music, but also write it themselves. Various computer programs will help in implementing this task, allowing you not only to create your own track from scratch, but also to edit the melodies we have. In this material, I will list the most popular programs for editing audio files, describe their capabilities, and also provide a link to a resource where you can download them.
Types of programs for music editing
The wealth of available music editing programs can be divided into several main types:
- amateur or professional solutions;
- specialized tools for creating mixes;
- programs for writing music using notes;
- other relevant tools.
To work with such programs, you will have to spend significant time learning their functionality. A simplified template for modifying a composition consists of loading the song into the program, transferring it to the editing panel, and making all the necessary changes there.
If you write an audio track from scratch, you will need to use the set of basic samples provided by the program, create them yourself, or use other tools designed for this. Let's now look at the most popular audio editors.
Audacity is a popular audio editor
The Audacity program is the “godfather” of free software for editing music files, one of the most famous programs for audio editing. Its capabilities allow you to work with many popular formats (mp3, wav, flac and others), it supports advanced multi-tracking, recording from a microphone, mixing audio tracks with various quality characteristics and other useful features.
This software is easy to use and has a large number of effects and plugins. At first glance it may seem a little archaic, but Audacity does its job very well. This is a great starter program for free music editing. There are versions for Windows, Mac, Linux OS.
Studio One 3 - convenient software for working with audio recordings
The Studio One 3 program has become very popular in the last couple of years. And this is no wonder, since this DAW has everything you would expect to see in a modern digital audio station. It is fast, convenient, has a friendly drag-n-drop interface, and is simply created for creative people.
The software is a powerful audio editor and midi sequencer, containing tools for mixing and mastering finished tracks. Supports VST effects, music mixing, VCA faders and sound saturation with support for analog modeling and other convenient features. The program runs on Windows and Mac.
Pro Tools 12 - Professional Music Editing
Pro Tools 12 is probably the most popular DAW (digital audio workstation) in the world. This product is the professional standard for mixing and audio editing. Lots of people have either total love or total hate relationships with Pro Tools.
The plugins built into the program are quite good, but the editor itself suffers from the lack of a built-in multiband compressor, which for many becomes a significant problem.
Pro Tools supports WAV, AIFF, AIFC, mp3 and legacy SDII audio formats. The program's functionality also includes the ability to edit video files, so users can import and work with high-definition video formats such as XDCAM, MJPG-A, PhotoJPG, DV25, QuickTime and others. The product runs on Windows and Mac OS.
Ableton Live - high-quality editing of electronic tracks
The world's top electronic music producers use Ableton Live, a convenient and multifunctional software for conducting life sets. Although the program lacks some advanced editing and mixing capabilities, its tools are regularly used by many famous DJs. You can use this product both in studio work (arranging, mixing) and during live performance (DJ-ing).
The program supports different variations of audio output (Core Audio, Asio) and audio plugins (Audio Units), as well as “Rewire” technology. Like other DAWs, the program boasts various audio effects, as well as a library of presets that support them. The product runs on OS Windows and Mac.
Cubase Pro - innovative software for audio editing
"Cubase Pro" is a popular music editor based on innovation, stability and user friendliness. The program works based on a number of proprietary technologies, such as “ASIO Guard” (eliminates sound dropouts under heavy loads) and “render in-place” (allows quick rendering of a fragment of audio or MIDI track to a new track).
Working with Cubase Pro This software works well with internal windows, supports VCA faders, VST plugins, and has other useful features.
Cakewalk Sonar - Audio Editing Software Tool
“Cakewalk Sonar” runs exclusively on Windows OS, has an excellent user interface and many possibilities for working with sound.
Product functionality includes:
- multi-channel recording and parameter automation using envelopes and midi messages;
- flexible signal routing;
- double precision audio processing.
The program has many stereo and surround effects from Vozengo and Sonitus, an editable instrument selection menu is available, and instrument formats such as DX/DXi, ReWire and others are supported.
This software also uses proprietary AST technology, which allows you to control virtual instruments in accordance with the hardware controller available in the system.
Oceanaudio - a simplified editor for working with sound
"Oceanaudio" is a new and fairly simple music editor with a simple and quite colorful user interface. The product is easy to use, fast, and is a kind of simplified version of the famous Audacity. This program supports many effects (including compression, EQ, and reverb) that you can use in real-time editing.
Many free music editors are destructive (recording effects directly onto audio), so when working with them you have to rely on the “pre-listen” button. This is how, for example, the above-mentioned “Audacity” works. But in the "Ocenaudio" I'm reviewing, you can change the parameters of the effect, and immediately listen to the changes you make.
This program supports VST, so you can easily use your own plugins. It provides many other features (such as a spectogram) that will be useful for more advanced users. There are versions of the program for Windows, Mac, Linux OS.
Conclusion
In this material I have listed the most popular programs for editing music tracks. If you are just starting your journey in music processing, then you should start with programs like Oceanaudio or Audacity, and if you are interested in professional solutions, then opt for Pro Tools 12 and other tools with an abundance of specialized capabilities.
- Audio editing features include trim, copy, paste, delete, silence, auto-trim, and more.
- Audio effects include audio boost, normalization, equalizer, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse and many others.
- Built-in support for VST plugins gives professionals access to thousands of additional instruments and effects.
- Supports most audio file formats including mp3, wav, vox, gsm, wma, au, aif, flac, real audio, ogg, aac, m4a, mid, amr and many more.
- Batch processing allows you to apply effects and/or convert thousands of files in a single function.
- Search audio recordings and bookmark them for more precise editing.
- Create bookmarks and regions to make it easier to find, recall, and collect segments of long audio files.
- Tools include spectrum analysis (FFT), speech synthesizer and voice changer.
- Sound restoration features include noise reduction and crackle removal.
- Supports sampling rates from 6 to 96 kHz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bit.
- Works directly with the MixPad multi-track audio mixer
- With an easy-to-use interface, you'll be editing in minutes
