Topic: Audio Experts [We have a few]

[Steve]

If you guys feel this belongs in music move it, but it's software so im dropping it here.

What is THE BEST audio editing software for Windows? My main interests are importing VOC/WAV/MP3 audio files and then isolating, amplifying, chopping, looping, etc. Must also have a bookmarking feature.

I need something that can really bring the most out of the audio and be reliable. Willing to pay good money for it.

[Steve]

something like this maybe

[Perspective]

Have you tried audacity? It can do all of those things but probably isn't as fancy as the paid sony stuff... but it's free and opensource.

[micah]

I was going to recommend soundforge.  Its a great home-level product. My copy is several years old so I'm sure the latest versions are even better

[Steve]

Have you tried audacity? It can do all of those things but probably isn't as fancy as the paid sony stuff... but it's free and opensource.

Yea i have used audacity a ton. My main area of interest is Noise Reduction, and audacity seems to fall a little short there. I have a buy before i try install of sound forge (if u will) and im really impressed. My only issue with it is that no matter what i do the "Noise Reduction" option under tools is greyed out and i cannot use it.

Any ideas micah? If i overcome that hurdle im going to buy it tonight

[hans]

If you're willing to pay money, Adobe Audition (previously CoolEdit) is the way to go. I've been using it since it was CoolEdit. We use an older version (1.5) here at my work.
http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/

Audacity is pretty good though and there are a couple newer ones that I haven't spend much time with yet but also look promising (more like Audition).

Start with Audacity and if it doesn't do what you need, then step up.

[hans]

My only issue with it is that no matter what i do the "Noise Reduction" option under tools is greyed out and i cannot use it.

You need a noise profile first. Let me try to find a tutorial website.

[hans]

Assuming Audacity 1.3beta (what I'm currently running).

Select around 2sec (or more) of "noise" audio from the track you want to remove noise from and then select effect->noise removal, then click the 'get noise profile' button. Then select the entire wave and use the same menu option but tweak how much "removal" is applied.

In noise removal, the less the better if you don't want lots of artifacting (crappy sound).

The "noise" profile should basically just be the ambient background noise. You want at least 2s so you can create a good "profile" to basically invert against the other audio.

[Steve]

i dont have anything that is really ambient due to the location (it was unavoidable) but i do have a section that should be a good baseline. Let me give that a try.

Also Audition was on my top list, but i read a lot of really bad reviews. May have to try that one too. I dont have to order it tonight, but since im willing to pay for something that does what i need i feel weird having pirated copies lol

[Steve]

still cant select it. heres a screenshot. Thanks for helping i am new to this stuff and its important for me to learn

[Steve]

in case it helps, this is the procedure in SF

http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1107

[hans]

My bad, my instructions were for Audacity's noise reduction, not SF.

[Steve]

I may download Audcaity to get this file fixed, but i gotta find the root of my problem with SF because i think i am buying it.

Do you know how it works in Audition? Got that downloading now.

[Steve]

Audition just won the battle and i dropped the cash to order it.

Thanks guys