I need help finding audio editing software

[Kyle Lorenz]

I've looked high and low, researching on which audio editing software is better than others and to tell you the truth, I havn't learnt a single thing. Every program's description sounds the same to me. This is why I came to my fellow audioholics. I'll be using an audio editor to enhance bass at a specific frequency, raise/lower treble (equalizer), amplify, and some way to get rid of those "crackling" noises (I like to tinker around so this is just skimming the surface). I've tried Audacity and it works fine but I'm looking for something a little more "professional grade". Price is not a worry, I just want an excellent piece of software to edit mainly mp3's. Thanks a bunch!

 

[Hi Ho]

Have you tried Goldwave? It is a very nice program that has a unique trial version.

I have used Adobe Audition and really liked it. I only had the trial.

 

[superstar]

Cool Edit 2000 is pretty easy to use. http://downloads.theregister.co.uk/Windows/Music/AudioComposers/cool-edit.html

 

[angstadt530]

If you don't have an Apple, I suggest Adobe Audition as well. You can do just about anything with Adobe's various editing software. Very professional, but you'll pay for it, though.

 

[MDS]

I use Sound Forge: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/soundforgefamily.asp

 

[skizzerflake]

The Magix Music Cleaning Lab will work pretty well. It has equalization, click removal, hiss remover, cd ripping and you can do things like enhance stereo separation, increase or cut dynamics. You have to register and download an mp3 codec, but once you have it, it does a good job of mp3 conversions. The controls need to be used with discretion but it does pretty well for a $35 program.

 

[joetech]

Audacity

Audacity is freeware. Of course you get what you pay for. I works OK for me. What I do is limited to cutting and pasting and converting a few files. I have an A/D converter and have slowly but surely been recording LPs to CD's. It has a pop and hiss filter that works Ok. If you over do it some of he dynamics are removed from the original so you have to be careful. If a recording is scratched and warped too badly I doubt much of anything at any price will work.

 

[Kyle Lorenz]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I got the trial version of Adobe Audition 2 and I got a question.

How do I enhance the bass? I must be looking in the wrong areas because this should be effortless.

 

[MDS]

There are a number of ways to increase the bass using a typical audio editor.

At a minimum there should be a simple EQ control and you'd just increase the sliders for the bass frequencies. There may also be a parametric EQ where you can actually draw an 'envelope' and increase just the frequencies in the envelope.

 

[Kyle Lorenz]

I'm using Adobe Audition and I love it. There's just so many things to do! I got one question though. I'm upping the bass on the latest Sevendust CD and I noticed that some songs have more bass than others. I just finished editing the CD, trying to maintain an even amount of bass on every track by only listening very carefully. Now that I'm done, I'm starting to wonder if it's possible for the editor to "normalize" the bass on all the tracks or am I going out on a limb here?

 

[skizzerflake]

I'm using Adobe Audition and I love it. There's just so many things to do! I got one question though. I'm upping the bass on the latest Sevendust CD and I noticed that some songs have more bass than others. I just finished editing the CD, trying to maintain an even amount of bass on every track by only listening very carefully. Now that I'm done, I'm starting to wonder if it's possible for the editor to "normalize" the bass on all the tracks or am I going out on a limb here?

You should be able adjust bass with equalization, although you can't put bass in something that doesn't have it. I don't think you can automatically standardize bass over a bunch of songs. You will have to do some listening to do determine what is the right level which which controls to change.

 

[MDS]

It is not possible to make the bass level the same on every song. No two songs are going to have the exact same frequencies at the exact same points in time.

If the intent is to try to make all the songs have roughly the same average level, see if Audition has an 'RMS normalization' feature. RMS normalization is a form of compression but you specify the level.

If you want to emphasize certain frequency ranges (say 50 Hz to 200 Hz) across all songs, you'll have to use the parametric equalizer. Once you get the parameters that work ok, save it as a preset if Audition has such a feature, and then apply the same curve over all the other songs.

Having said all of that, I'd still recommend that you do NOT do any of it. The cardinal rule of audio editing is to do the absolute minimum number of editing steps as each process subtly degrades the audio. Some things are better left to post-processing during playback and increasing the bass is one such process that is better done during playback.

I've been using Sound Forge for at least ten years now and originally my goal was similar - rip tracks from CDs, process them if necessary, and save the WAVs as part of my digital audio archive. The theory being that I would then have a 'pristine' digital copy and would never have to rip the CD again. The reality is that you only want to do minor edits like split/join tracks, fade-in, fade-out, etc. Do not normalize, compress, EQ, etc the original track. Save the original track unedited (except for the minor edits above), make a copy, and then mess with the copy. You then have the original to fall back on for further edits.

I'd love to discuss what should and shouldn't be done but perhaps it would be better to have a new thread devoted solely to audio editing techniques.

 

[jcsprankle]

Audacity is freeware. Of course you get what you pay for. I works OK for me. What I do is limited to cutting and pasting and converting a few files. I have an A/D converter and have slowly but surely been recording LPs to CD's. It has a pop and hiss filter that works Ok. If you over do it some of he dynamics are removed from the original so you have to be careful. If a recording is scratched and warped too badly I doubt much of anything at any price will work.

I use Audacity to pull out parts of songs for cell phone ring tones...works great for that.

 

[abboudc]

You may want to take a look at GarageBand as well.

 

[Sony]

I've looked high and low, researching on which audio editing software is better than others and to tell you the truth, I havn't learnt a single thing. Every program's description sounds the same to me. This is why I came to my fellow audioholics. I'll be using an audio editor to enhance bass at a specific frequency, raise/lower treble (equalizer), amplify, and some way to get rid of those "crackling" noises (I like to tinker around so this is just skimming the surface). I've tried Audacity and it works fine but I'm looking for something a little more "professional grade". Price is not a worry, I just want an excellent piece of software to edit mainly mp3's. Thanks a bunch!

There are a ton of freeware and shareware audio editing software that can get the job done. My suggestion would be check FlexiMusic Wave Editor, an shareware audio editor with free trial version.