Question: I'm very interested in the audio aspect and would like to edit the sound data before I burn it to CD. Which software packages do you recommend?
Answer: We don't have experience of this ourselves, but here's what our customers say:
Federico Pomi <Fede@AmyResource.it> recommends AudioLab2 from Maurizio Ciccione. He says there are numerous versions depending on the sound card you have. The list shows which version you need for your hardware:
The special versions are intended to use the specific card as efficiently as possible.
The software should also recognize the major audio formats (e.g. AIFF, MAUD, MAESTRO, WAVE, SUN, STUDIO16_3, 8SVX, RAW).
There are numerous methods to edit the sound wave, e.g. with Cut/Copy/Paste, or by mixing up to 16 channels. AudioLab2 works exclusively with the topaz/8 font. There is a heavily restricted version on Aminet. There is conflicting data about the price. Someone said the software would cost us USD45. Glenn Mrosek wrote to us explaining that he had already paid USD 45 and was supposed to spend another USD 50 for an update. Floyd Diebel said that the software now costs USD 125 and is distributed by the author's firm. Glenn Mrosek told us that there were two versions (Pro and Standard).
Adam Hough <adamh@spots.ab.ca> recommends Soundprobe from
HiSOFT. It does not have as many features as AudioLab2, but it can be easier to understand and has good support for the 16 bit formats. Please contact HiSOFT for details: http://www.hisoft.co.uk/soundprobe/. The IFF-8SVX, AIFF(8/16-bit), WAV(8/16-bit) and RAW formats can be read. Formats that can be written include AIFF(16-bit), a format recognized by MakeCD. Soundprobe offers many special effects, supports sound cards and can save to RAM or directly to hard disk. There is also an undo/redo function and clever allows you to edit parts of the sample not in main memory but on the hard drive. HiSOFT recommend an 060 board and a defragmented hard
drive for recording at 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo. Soundprobe costs about UKP 25. A new version of Soundprobe, version 2, is imminent at time of writing!
Torsten (mac) Buecheler <mac@cs.uni-sb.de> recommends
Samplitude from SEKD. He especially likes being able to edit data which in not in memory but is stored on the hard drive.
Torsten Buecheler <mac@cs.uni-sb.de> uses AmiSOX 3.3, ported
from UNIX. Like many UNIX programs, AmiSOX has a command line interface. AmiSOX converts sound data from one format to another and can perform sound effects. The data types include AIFF, 8SVX, voc, WAV and RAW. The program can be freely copied and can be found on Aminet under mus/edit/AmiSOX33.lha.
Glenn Mrosek <Gremlin@I-Memory.dame.de> suggests Audio Thunder (from Asimware), AudioLab and Samplitude, which can all edit the sample without it having to fully reside in memory.
Andreas Thedens <thedi@amt.comlink.de> advises not to use Samplitude with MakeCD since it cannot save in the AIFF format. From version SamplitudeOpus V3.5 (according to Friedhelm Bunk balu-bu@t-online.de) this no longer applies. This version apparently reads and writes CDDA L/M, AIFF, WAVE, MAUD, MAESTRO and IFF 8SVX. You can download a demo at http://www.act-net.com.
Jens Maertens <sysop@outreach.prometheus.de> suggests SoundConvert from Aminet. Simply download it from `mus/edit/SoundConvert.lha'. SoundConvert supports many formats, including AIFF, WAV, IFF 8SVX, MP2 and MP3. You can also change the sampling rate. Jens uses SoundConvert and MakeCD to change audio CDs to MPEG Layer 2, letting him burn about 130 songs to a single CD. Such CDs can then be played on the Melody sound card. Jens also likes the user interface.
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