Can editing sounds be as easy as editing pixels in a tool like Photoshop? That’s the question asked yet again by an audio editor, in the announcement of a new tool called Spectral Layers, seen in a new teaser.

Visualizing sound is not a simple problem, but you can do worse than the spectral view. Mapping frequency over time rather than just amplitude, the graphic spectrum illuminates components of a sound as we hear it, showing sonic energy of different frequencies in brightness and color. And audio editors have routinely made use of these views, whether as displays in various audio editors (some editable, some non-editable views), or in graphical tools like the ground-breaking MetaSynth. In fact, even Adobe themselves have weighed in on the “Photoshop for sound” notion with their own Soundbooth app, which, naturally, copies the toolset verbatim from the company’s flagship Photoshop image editor. See also: Photosounder, which perhaps comes closest to this tool, and SPEAR, which is available free on Mac and Windows and has some fascinating resynthesis features. (Spectral sound design probably deserves its own post, later on!)

Spectral Layers nonetheless looks to potentially break new ground by focusing entirely on the idea. Whereas many audio editing tools that use spectral views have had modest editing facilities, here, it’s the entire program — and with some nice twists. On-the-fly selection previewing means that you’re constantly listening to your audio, not just looking at it. Advanced selection brushes make honing in on certain parts of your sound more precise, including by essential harmonic editing tools. (We hear harmonic relationships intuitively, so editing wave spectra at the literal frequency, rather than in the logarithmic proportions with which we hear, doesn’t work nearly as well.)

Spectral Layers also works with visualizing spectra in more compelling ways than just the typical, two-dimensional frequency vs. time view. Three-dimensional visualizations make seeing details in the sound easier.

Then you get into the actual editing. The developers are promising some powerful features, from extraction to independent pitch and time transformations, all moving this well beyond eye candy to the realm of deep sound editing. (The UI shows other features as well.)

There’s a new UI tutorial, but some of the features in brief:

• Cross-platform Mac and Windows compatibility
• Non-destructive layers for editing, plus compositing audio either by adding or subtracting a selection from a sound. (The latter sounds fascinating for sound design.)
• A multi-pane UI, similar to tools from Apple and Adobe and familiar to people with a graphic software background.
• 32-bit float spectrum.
• Surround project support.
• Pattern matching algorithms for still more-sophisticated selection and editing.
• An “open project format” (presumably something XML-based or the like).
• SDK for file formats, devices, tools, and filters.

In other words, the whole thing sounds mind-blowing and gives us everything we’d want … on paper. Presently described as “alpha stage 2,” the tool is still in development. But we’ll be watching.

DIVIDE FRAME, the developer, is a Paris-based house led by engineer Robin Lobel. Unrelated to the music side of this site, they also have a GPU-based video decoder, but no trial of the audio software – yet. Stay tuned.

Spectral Layers

Updated: while this is just a teaser, lead developer Robin responds with some more details for CDM:

There are 4 categories of tools: info (to get extensive info on the spectrum), extract (brush, frequency, harmonics, multichannel, noise (wip), time (wip), and others incoming), modify (so far only erase/amplify, but much more coming to transform the sound, like blur and other graphical modifications), draw (any tool to directly draw sound, as frequencies, harmonics, noise, etc).

Available Q4 2011, no price range yet (expect it to be the high, but there will probably be a light, affordable version too)

3D visualisation can display both amplitude or phase velocity using the GPU (OpenGL), it is seamlessly integrated with the 2D view (right clic+drag to make it 3D as you want, double right clic reset to 2D)

I do independent R&D in audio/video for several years now, have worked in some French [post production] companies as R&D developer and [graphics artist], wanted to start my own business (first with GPU Decoder as a small project, then came Spectral Layers). Spectral Layers came from the need to get clean voice tracks when shooting movies (as I do short movies too), then I thought of extending the concept to a general purpose, Photoshop-like tool. iZotope RX and Adobe Audition were not enough for my needs — I found the spectral editing pretty limited — so I decided to do my own.

Thanks, Fahad, for the tip!

Hardware workflows can be musically productive and rock-solid reliable. But why choose between hardware and software? Combine them.

DirectEMX is a VST Editor for a Korg Electribe MX. Now, why would you want to drag a mouse around when you have physical knobs? DirectEMX has a number of answers to that. You can copy and paste patterns and parts. You can dump content from the groovebox for backup or fine-tuning. You can record and automate every parameter from inside your VST host of choice, for tightly-controlled sequences. And you do all of this without lots of mucking about with MIDI messages, which can be complicated on a groovebox. In fact, you can even import and export patches from inside your host, right from the plug-in.

EUR25, Windows-only, and sounds like a major, major hit with Korg owners. Naturally, those with the ESX groove sampler want support, too, and it sounds like the developer is considering adding that.

http://directsynth.com/

Thanks to reader cooptrol for the tip! Oddly, he starts his note with “I know you’re not a fan of grooveboxes.” I’m not sure where he got that idea. Some of my best friends are grooveboxes. If you’ve got groovebox (or other) stories to share, feel free to let us know.

In particular, got a groovebox + computer workflow you like?

Speaking of audio editors for the Mac, Adobe has its own wave-editing tool for Mac and Windows. Soundbooth is different from other entries in the field, in that its aim is really to woo a wide audience and not just those of us who work with sound regularly. Got a Flash project and need to make some quick sound effect adjustments? Making a swooshing noise for After Effects? Transcribing notes from a workshop session? Soundbooth CS4 is aimed at you.

Now, you can buy Soundbooth on its own for US$199 list, though I expect almost no one would. (For one thing, if you’re spending your hard-earned dollars on an audio editor, you’re likely to choose one of its rivals, like Adobe’s own superior Audition for Windows.) More likely, you’ll get Soundbooth as part of Adobe’s creative suite.

I actually quite like Soundbooth; because it was built from the ground up, it has a clean, elegant interface, and some unique features. Unfortunately, CS4 was not the step forward I hoped it would be for this fledgling tool. You can read a review by Mac guru Christopher Breen in Macworld; I know that review up and down as I was its tech editor.

Review: Adobe Soundbooth CS4 [Macworld]

Basic sound editor adopts more-advanced features

The problem I have with CS4 is that while adding multitrack capabilities make sense, the implementation just doesn’t seem finished. Many of the options in the wave editing view don’t work in multitrack view, including some you’d expect to work with multiple tracks visible, like adjusting effects, markers, and slicing up chunks of a waveform. (In every other program I’ve ever seen, those are mixing functions.) Apple Soundtrack Pro, Sony SoundForge, and Adobe’s own Audition all seamlessly allow multitrack edit working methods. I have a feeling we’ll just see this addressed in CS5, but Adobe, if you can manage a point-5 release of Soundbooth that fixes this, I’ll be the first to applaud.

Note that you can simply choose to stick to the Editor view and not bother with multitrack, which is what I’ve taken to doing. But needless to say, if Adobe wants audio newcomers to be comfortable with Soundbooth, these kind of idiosyncrasies won’t help.

It’s also a bit odd that Adobe allows non-destructive saves exclusively, rather than letting you “flatten” changes when you want to make them permanent.

Now, in my own Peak review, I complained about the lack of multitrack functions and non-destructive editing. Soundbooth CS4 demonstrates that it’s better to add these features late than add them half-baked, so BIAS, I’m willing to wait. But part of the reason I’m being a stickler on those issues is that I know it’s possible to add these to an audio tool successfully.

That said, I’m actually really happy to have Soundbooth around on my hard drive as an additional audio utility, alongside these other tools. I’ve got a stack of interviews to transcribe, so I’m eager to try that feature. Expect a report back (plus, hopefully, some published interviews with musicians) once I’m done.

The simple truth is, while Soundbooth doesn’t stand so well on its own, as an integrated part of Creative Suite, it’s fantastic. Let’s assume this is just an off release and the third version restores some of the fresh promise of the first.

For one last Macworld review, see my take for Macworld.com on Apple’s Soundtrack Pro – now, sadly, only available in Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio, not on its own (though the latter can be a nice option).

Soundtrack Pro 2.0.1: Improved editing and new features help you sync audio with video

“Peak” is a long-standing name in audio editing on the Mac. I recently got to review its latest iteration, Peak Pro 6, for Macworld and Macworld.com.

Macworld Review: Peak Pro 6
Sample editor and audio suite tweaked for pros, sound designers, and podcasters

I still believe audio editors are valuable tools, especially for anyone who spends a significant amount of their time on sound design – whether that’s sound effects or building the perfect drum kit. Peak is an unusual tool, in a way, in that it remains a stereo waveform editor only, whereas most of its competitors have added multitrack compatibility. On the other hand, Peak also bundles an unusually rich set of tools in the box, which explains the higher price of the full-blown Pro versions.

Here’s my breakdown for Macworld:

Pros
Attractive bundle; seamless podcast export; powerful playlist assembly and export; envelopes; deep plug-in routing; fantastic cross-synthesis sonic powers.

Cons
Multi-window UI can be clunky to use; still no real multi-channel or surround support; lacks more full-featured, non-destructive editing; no spectrum view.

I do want to call particular attention to a couple of points:

You can get Peak cheaply if you want a deal. Unbundled, more basic versions run under a hundred bucks, and as noted in comments, you may even snag a deal on an upgrade.

Peak Pro is fundamentally a bundle. The full-blown version may indeed cause some sticker shock, but it’s really about the bundled software – if you want that software, it could be well worth it.

Vbox and cross-synthesis really rock. This is the feature that makes me really, really glad I got to stick Peak Pro on my MacBook. As pictured at top, the combination allows you to route plug-ins in interesting ways and then create routings that are impossible in most other hosts. (Add batch processing, and this gets very interesting, indeed. I’m going to try it on a stack of audio files – I’ll post samples soon.)

All products involve tradeoffs, so as always I try to do my best to characterize the tradeoffs I see. (“This is the perfect tool for everything” is the job of the marketing department.) I’m still particularly fond of the Windows-only Sound Forge (now made by Sony), but Peak remains a strong entry on the Mac. It’s also worth checking out Peak’s nearest rival, Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor, which has been developing by leaps and bounds. The Peak / Wave Editor competition could be an interesting one; they take very different approaches to the problem.

As always, I’m happy to hear what readers and users think.

Bias Inc.

A year ago, Mac music and audio producers were abuzz about a preview of what was then called Soundabout. The idea was to have a powerful audio tool that was always within easy reach in the Mac Finder, for not only previewing audio files, but converting and even editing. Developer AudioEase has finished that tool. It’s now called Snapper instead of Soundabout, but all the features are there:

• Preview with space bar, just like Apple’s QuickLook, but with more control
• Immediately see a Snapper interface with waveform preview when you click a file in Finder
• Drag-and-drop conversions to other file formats or your Pro Tools session (50 file formats, including surround and album covers)
• Integrated with Finder, iTunes, and Pro Tools
• Requires 10.4 Tiger or later (no need for Leopard); Pro Tools 6 for PT integration

Sounds great to me, but if you’re not convinced, there’s a massive 100-day demo.

Snapper by AudioEase

Windows users, I have to say, not sure the PC has anything to match this, though feel free to let me know if you’ve got a favorite. In fact, the Mac has not only this app, but AudioFinder, too, which has been maturing since the original Snapper/Soundabout release. AudioFinder also has an integrated waveform editor and a few additional sample editing and management features Snapper lacks. With those two choices, you should find something for juggling samples and audio assets — could be huge for remixers, sample lovers, and game developers, I imagine.

Let us know how you’re using these — or other — tools.

Thanks to TheLoneRoger for the tip!

XO Wave is a basic multi-track audio tool with multi-channel recording and mixing, video support, plug-in support (in the Pro version) and built in DSP, double-precision math, and non-destructive editing. It looks like it could be a strong choice for basic multichannel tasks. And it has some less-common features, like automatic softening to remove clicks/pops at edit points, and versioning so you can go back to earlier versions of files. A very capable version is available free, and a “Pro” version is just US$95 (though that admittedly puts it in slightly more competitive waters).

Interestingly, this is also one of the rare cases of a Java-based audio app. (The app is Java-based, at least; the developer notes that audio processing is not done in Java.) The 1.0 final release is compatible with Mac OS X Leopard, with two caveats: one, 10.5′s new security privileges cause it to gripe the first time you run it about security (as it would with any app), and two, dock/switcher icons appear twice. (Java support on 10.5 has a couple of hiccups; at least they’re non-critical annoyances; the icon issue is apparently a Leopard problem, not Java per se.)

1.0 has also arrived on Linux; in that version the software is free (though closed-source, despite the name, with full JACK support). (Hey, how about a JACK-aware Mac version, too?)

XO Wave downloads; comparison of Linux, free, and Pro versions

If you’ve been on the search for a simple, straightforward audio editor for Mac and Windows, Adobe has officially thrown its hat into the ring with Soundbooth CS3.

Soundbooth Now Shipping [Hart's Audition, from the Adobe audio product chief]
New Soundbooth User-to-User Forum

Of course, to the rest of the world, the big news is that Adobe’s full Production Premium and Master Collection suites are shipping. But Soundbooth is one program that could make sense to buy alone, as a basic audio editor. It sets itself apart both by being cross-platform and by being geared for beginners and people wanting a simple, streamlined tool. And the killer feature: there’s a lasso tool you can use directly on the audio spectrum. I’ve been using that to isolate sounds in field recordings that would otherwise be impossible to grab.

I hope to have an in-depth look at the finished tool soon, so no conclusions about the shipping software yet, but in the meantime, see our preview from the beta.

The $75 app energyXT2 starts out sounding similar to other music apps — but after a long list of twists, seems anything but. It’s a DAW. It’s a sequencer. It’s an audio multitracker. (Okay, not so interesting so far …) It’s a synth. It’s a sampler. It’s a drum machine. It’s a looper. It runs as a host. It runs in a plug-in. Now it runs on Linux — making it perhaps the first significant music creation app to do a commercial, out-of-box release for the penguin. It’s got a modular engine underneath.

And now there’s a big release coming soon. Before we get a chance to spend some time on it, here’s a preview of why it’s on the radar screen.

Release date: June 15. (See the discussion thread on KVR.)

energyXT2 is in beta now, the first big release in three years. In features and interface design, it appears to borrow more than a little from Ableton Live — but, then again, since energyXT2 runs as a plug-in, I’m sure someone is working out some wild performance setup where they use both simultaneously. It also takes some design cues, as near as I can tell, from Cakewalk. But the combination of features here in unique, it’s affordable enough to be an impulse buy, and we’ve heard from several users that you’re very excited about it.

Is there room for yet another music production tool? EnergyXT already has a loyal following, and with music creation as personal and dynamic a process as it is, I think the answer can always be yes.

New in energyXT2:

• Completely re-worked interface and structure
• Higher-quality time- and pitch-shifting algorithms
• Support for MIDI, audio, and dedicated “drum” loops, including a specialized “drum-machine track”
• Clip-based automation
• New mixer, phase modulation synthesizer, and multi-FX processor built in
• Controller maps
• Out-of-box Linux support — yep, that’s right, from a commercial application.

Linux support from a commercial music app should raise a few eyebrows. I’ve talked to a number of music developers who have said, basically, sure, they love Linux, can’t stand Windows, but they don’t see support any time soon. There are two answers: one, it’s two expensive to support, and two, Linux users don’t pay for software. If energyXT2 gets any traction on Linux — as a much smaller developer, no less — it’ll at the very least blow holes in those two excuses. (It may not convince anyone to make the jump, mind you — but as an experiment, it should be telling. And if you’re a happy energyXT2 Linux user, you may not care.)

Even as a secondary piece of software, this has interest. I’m especially intrigued by the “zero load time” claim. I could see syncing into an older PC — even with Linux replacing XP — to turn an unused laptop into a drum machine — or using this in conjunction with another app. And with increased interest in streamlined workflows, for many others this could be a primary solution. The real competition for people wanting a deep sequencer, though, may be trackers like Renoise.

An introductory price drops the total sticker to US$49. The interesting question to me isn’t will Linux users spend the small amount of cash, but whether the Linux audio community will embrace a closed-source project.

Linux or Windows, we’ll have to do a full review once the full version comes out.

Contained in the Apple Final Cut Studio 2 announcement is a new version of Apple’s video-savvy sound editor, Soundtrack Pro. Unfortunately, Apple still hasn’t restored the a la carte, Soundtrack-only purchase option — you have to get Final Cut Studio to get Soundtrack Pro 2. But the new release does build on some of the unique interface ideas of the first version, while adding the key capabilities the first version lacked — namely, usefulness for actually creating soundtracks. And look closely at these screen shots, and you just might see something of the next Logic. (Yeah, I know, you wanted solid information, but it wouldn’t have made sense to talk about a music product like Logic at a broadcast production show like NAB, where Final Cut Studio 2 was launched. When Apple’s ready, I’m sure we’ll hear from them.)

The big news here: Apple is certainly making an effort to push how we edit, in terms of spotting for video and interfaces for surround and effects. We’ll have to see if they pulled it off, and if these paradigms can effectively “trickle up” to their flagship DAW — and whether other developers can push even further in the same direction.

New in 2:

1. Easier editing for video: “Rolling” edits and a new multiport video editor are designed to make spotting easier.
2. Better take management for dialog: One nice feature of the first Soundtrack was its integrated takes; the hope was you’d use this for dialog recording, but it wasn’t quite there yet. The new version lets you take bits of different takes to get ADR right for fixing dialog after the fact. (Needless to say, this kind of take management can be used in other situations, as well, not just video. But unless you buy Final Cut Studio …)
3. Automatic conforming, integrating with Final Cut: This sounds promising, but since some of you actually do conforming, and Final Cut Studio 1 botched a lot of the round-trip integration features between Soundtrack and Final Cut, I’m going to sit on my hands for now. Any thoughts, from those of you who know and what you can see in these … uh, product materials? Okay, never mind.
4. Directly edit spectrums, as seen recently in Adobe Soundbooth CS3, which you can buy a la carte, for both Mac and Windows, or get free with the upcoming Adobe production suite.
5. Surround: Noticeably missing in the first version was surround capabilities, and they’re here in Soundtrack Pro 2. The new surround panner looks beautiful aesthetically, at least. And it’s nice to see panners integrated in the track view. And there’s one unique feature:
6. Combined surround and stereo in one project: Delivering to multiple formats? Now you can keep track of both in one project file. Nice.
7. Surround clips: Since Apple is a big fan of giving you lots of pre-built sound effects and beds, these are now in surround. Hint to production people wanting to look professional, though: hire a composer and sound designer.
8. Tape-style scrubbing as seen recently in Peak Pro 5.
9. New Sound Palette for applying effects via a tooth-achingly pretty interface.
10. Lift & Stamp for matching audio via effects. Done before with EQ, but seems to be done differently here; this is one I’ll definitely have to test to understand. (And, while they say matching EQ, did they say you can match other effects, as well? How?)

Soundtrack Pro 2 might be more interesting to the music market if it were available separately. And Windows users are now spoiled for choice in audio editors, with Audition, Sound Forge, WaveLab, and others.

But you might be able to spot some of the direction in Logic 8 in Soundtrack, as I had argued previously. You’ll see a new, layered interface for plug-ins, a lot like what we’ve seen in tools like iPhoto and Motion. And the surround interface (along with some subtler details to the former-Emagic plug-ins in the screen shots) are definitely an upgrade over Logic Pro 7.

Here’s a quick view of what Logic might offer. The effects have at least gotten an eye candy upgrade. The “Fade selector” to me should at least save some time, even if it’s not quite revolutionary. And as a sound design and effect addict, I love the idea of the Sound Palette and Lift & Stamp features, which let you freely apply effects and match EQ and other effects from sound to sound, respectively. Of course, I won’t be using them the way Apple intends. I’ll be trying to create ungodly applications of convolution reverbs that sound like a Javanese gamelan floated out the port airlock.

Consider this a preview. All bets are off until there’s a shrink-wrapped box in my office. More soon. (Soundtrack is shipping: May. Logic: no one knows.)

Apple Soundtrack Pro 2 Product Page (filled with plenty of demo videos … enjoy)

Peak Pro 6 top features:

1. New fades, volume envelopes, and editing tools for playlists and mastering
2. Faster, RAM-based editing
3. Loop creation tools
4. Ducking DSP for lowering music in voice overs (hello, podcasters)
5. Cross-synthesis, for mixing, convolving, vocoding, and modulation
6. Updated interface, with global contrast controls (hello, Adobe suite on Windows), magnetic windows, new high-res meters.
7. Integrates with iTunes, direct podcast uploads, and advanced playlist PQ support for those of you too pro to touch either iTunes or podcasts.

Meanwhile, on PC, Sony has beefed up Sound Forge. (Note that Adobe Audition, meanwhile, didn’t get a refresh in the new CS3 suite — though I don’t care, because Audition does everything I need it to.) The big feature: multichannel.

1. Multichannel editing, processing, and recording, with drag and drop between channels
2. Channel conversion, multichannel spectrum analysis
3. Hardware meters with output gain control. (Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean they’re bundling lovely analog hardware meters in the package. You know what they mean.)
4. New wet/dry mix and crossfade options for effects

Channel Converter tool for multichannel files


5. Upgraded UI and color customization. (Obviously something in the air.)
6. Enhanced file support: multichannel, Windows Media File support, included MPEG-1, MPEG-2 QuickTime import, 5.1 Dolby Digital AC-3 export
   
7. Bundled effects: noise reduction 2.0, mastering effects bundle from iZotope
8. Vista-ready (though old versions I believe run just fine, too)

More commentary at noizone.com.

Decent stuff; mostly I think this comes down to which tool you prefer. There’s also new SWF file import in Sound Forge in an attempt to compete with Adobe, but since ActionScript and embedded video and audio are unsupported, that’s not much of an enhancement. The new Adobe suite will come with its own integrated audio tool which may do Flash audio design better.

The other question we’ve been asking around CDM is whether the increasingly complex wave editors out there are actually overkill, even for so-called “pro” work — many of us want a streamlined tool for wave editing; it’s why we go to the editor in the first place. We’ll be pulling apart some of these tools over the coming weeks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, what’s your waver of choice?