Provides: Digital audio editing

Format: CD

Developer: Felt Tip Software

Publisher: Freeverse

Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.3.9, 500MHz G3, 1GB hard drive space (for storing audio data), built-in audio or other Core Audio compatible hardware

Retail Price: $79.95

Availability: Out now

Version Reviewed: 3.0.2

Throughout this review, I'm going to be tempted to make comparisons between Sound Studio and Peak. I'm going to fight that temptation, though, because I don't feel it's entirely fair. People who are adept with Peak probably won't be looking to Sound Studio 3 for help, whereas those using Sound Studio 3 chose it over Peak for a reason, most likely either price or ease of use. Regardless of which decision you've made or will make, you're going to be just fine.

Sound Studio 3 is a digital audio editing program from Felt Tip Software, now being distributed by Freeverse. As you all know, Freeverse mainly develops and publishes games, so why an audio editing program? Because they use it. Why bother paying for software registration when you can just distribute it, right Freeverse?

Freeverse is playing it smart with Sound Studio 3, too, by marketing it towards proponents of Apple's digital hub. Their recommended uses? Create Podcasts, digitize tapes and records, mix your music, apply effects to your audio, etc. It's all good stuff, and you'll find yourself with the ability to make your audio much more interesting than you could with Apple's iApps alone. The Sound Studio 3 effects, for example, are like purchasing more and better transitions and effects for use in iMovie. The more you can do, the more you'll want to do.

How does all of this work? We'll start simple. I've been meaning for a while to digitize an old Thomas Dolby greatest hits cassette I'd recorded a long time ago, and this provided the incentive. Unfortunately, I ran into some trouble right away. When selecting my iMic for audio input, the level meter started indicating there was noise coming in when nothing, in fact, was (see image below). The levels were reading fine in the Sound System Preferences and in Roxio's CD Spin Doctor, which I ultimately ended up using to pull in the audio. In fact, even if you're not having this problem, I still recommend using CD Spin Doctor to retrieve audio, as it puts more features under your control.

Regardless of how you import the audio, once you have it in Sound Studio 3 (which can work with AIFF, AIFF-C, Core Audio, AAC, MP3 (import only, unless you download and install the LAME Framework), Sound Designer II and Wave formats), it's time to start having fun. Well, provided that's what you want to do. Here, I just wanted to split 45 minutes of music into ten separate audio tracks. Using Peak, I would set up regions, save the single audio document to a Sound Designer II file, then bring that into Jam, which would recognize the regions as individual audio files. With Sound Designer 3, I simply place markers at the beginning of each track (labeling the markers with the song's name), then select Split By Markers from the Edit menu. The file is then automatically saved as individual audio files, but apparently only in its current format. If this setting can be changed, I couldn't find where. Finished with this, you can simply pull the files into iTunes to burn to CD or load onto your iPod (provided they're in a compatible format).

If you used CD Spin Doctor or another application to capture your audio, you may have already fixed any sound anomalies with the file or applied your preferred EQ settings. If not, no worries. Sound Studio 3 has some great editing tools and effects, and it also benefits from Monbots, which I'll cover in a moment. Before that, the tools and effects.

These are guts of the program; they're why you'd want an audio editing application in the first place. Some are there to help you get the best possible sound, whether you're importing music or recording speech or audio effects. You can easily repair clicks and pops, add noise, adjust pitch...oh, I want to talk about that for a minute. The turntable I use to transfer my old albums to my iPod spins a bit too quickly. I don't want to pay to repair it or by another turntable, so I also relied on Peak to fix this for me, as I could adjust the pitch -40 cents, and it would slow down the tempo for me. Sound Studio 3 allows you to adjust the pitch, tempo and duration, but they seem to all be separate of each other. If you adjust the pitch, for example, tempo is unaffected. This is fine if it applies the effect you want, but there should be a way to keep them all linked, too. On the other hand, once you've found the settings for the three individual controls, you can save them to easily recall later.

You can apply equalization to your audio, add various delays, create fades, normalize the tracks, etc. These are all important, but also fairly common. Perhaps not so common are the compressors, low and high pass filters, and even the ability to reverse your audio (great for creating demonic audio effects for your movies, or just for seeing if "Another One Bites the Dust" really does say "It's nice to smoke marijuana!" when played backwards. [Answer: It kind of does, but no moreso than you would if you recorded yourself saying it played that backwards.] And although Sound Studio 3 doesn't directly support VST plug-ins, it can be made to do so with the VST to AudioUnit Adapter.

And then, you've got the Monbots. Freeverse calls these your simian cyborg assistants, but to you and me they're free plug-ins that make it easy to perform tasks on multiple sound files. Download them, install them, configure them, then use them with the simplicity of drag and drop. There are currently three available: Clean and Convert, Master Console and Bookend Audio, the details for which can be found at Freeverse's website. There's at least one more—Stitch—around the corner, but that certainly won't be the last of them.

Freeverse's usefulness doesn't end with all of this, though. As I mentioned, they use this program themselves for recording and editing audio for their games, and have thus provided a wonderfully helpful page on how to record audio. As great as the filters and effects are, after all, they can't save poorly recorded audio; you need good recordings to begin with. Understanding that not everyone can afford to run out to buy a $300 microphone a mixing board, etc., Freeverse offers tips for those who need to record on a budget as well as for those looking for more professional quality results. The good news is that it's possible to buy the necessary equipment and still come in lower than the price of Peak on its own.

Although Sound Studio 3 is great for people who need to record audio for game development, GarageBand, Podcasts, etc., it's priced low enough for those who simply want to touch up their music, convert analog audio for the iPods or CD, or just want to have some fun. You'd be better off learning a bit about the science of audio to get the most out of the program (the manual is actually better at teaching you about the effects than it is at teaching you how/when to use them), but it's not necessary to get done what you need to get done. Sound Studio 3 is no more intimidating to the user than iMovie, and that's pretty impressive. You may become so comfortable working with audio that you'll soon find yourself ready to join the big leagues of Peak. Of course, you may also find that everything you need is already available in Sound Studio 3. Peak, after all, doesn't have simian cyborg assistants.

| | | | | | |