What’s the best current audio editor?
Hey guys I’ve been using Sound Forge 6 for many years and I’m considering trying a newer alternative as i’m sure there has to be something better for audio editing work after all these years. I’m mostly interested in hearing about the newer software, but I’m open to all suggestions. cheers
The best years ago for me was “cool edit”…now I think it might be bloated since it was bought out by Adobe and is overpriced too.
I usually just use Abelton and Audacity.
What are you using it for specifically?
+1 for Audacity. It’s stable, small, free, and gets the job done well.
+2 Audacity.
I like it because well FREE! and it just has everything I need to get whatever job I am planning done.
Soundforge is alright as well and I use that on occasion.
Audacity if you cant afford Audition 3
It really comes down to what you want to do. If you want to do basic wave form cutting/effects, get Audacity. There’s also a free download (somewhere, can’t remember where) with something like 90 extra effects for it, none of which completely suck.
Yeah, install Audacity, load a track there, play it and return to your beloved Soundforge and also feel bad for even thinking about replace it.
Adobe Audition is sooooo simple to use. The left, right and scroll buttons on your mouse can control most of the editing functions. I also use ProTools, but never really for editing…it’s a real pain in the ass. I record into ProTools, edit in Audition and finish back with ProTools. Before ProTools, I used to do everything in Audition tho.
at the moment my primary needs in an audio editor
i think that’s it, i only use the audio editor for:
I will try audition and audacity, thanks for your input guys.
Audacity doesn’t take VST/DXI, but it has everything else. It’s just a REALLY bare interface. Literally all you get is the waveform.
well that’s a deal breaker. i can’t be bothered learning 2 seperate audio editors because ones lacking features that I require.
sounds like audition is the way to go 
I was always a huge fan of Steinberg Wavelab, used it for years until I upgraded my PC from Windows XP to the windows 7 RC, and it was the only program that wouldn’t run properly. Now using soundforge 9 instead and happy with it as well, it does all the basic editing i need chopping things up, compressing things etc etc.
When i have to mix something, extend a song or do more complicated work being a sound engineer as well as DJ I fire up Pro Tools.
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Your still not very accurate about what your using this for, your description was very very broad
What are you doing with VST’s ?
Do you also plan to use VSTi’s ?
Do you plan to be able to produce anything?
If so then id recommend jumping up to a program like Ableton, Cubase, Protools, FLStudio and the like so you can pull some real performance out of these tools. If all you want to do is process the entire song with a compressor (for something like an entire mix) then you can get away with the more wav-form orientated programs like sony acid pro, audacity, wavelab. In fact these two different styles of tools usually compliment each other well if your realy getting into your audio editing\producing\studio remixing.
word already set up for producing good, just looking for a new audio editor for those list of things i wrote. i should’ve elaborated i only use the vsts in audio editors for light processing like a bit of limiting on a dj set. Sometimes i’ll use them for touching up audio samples to to use for Sampler instrument withing a DAW software. I’ll try your suggestions
i think i will try wavelab,audition and audacity and see what feels the most intuitive for my needs. thanks again fellas
Adobe’s Soundbooth is really good. Lots of cool features, but it costs some mula, it comes with adobe creative suite 4. If you can get a student discount it would be dramatically cheaper.
Audacity has built in effects for those things. You can download an extra pack. They are really simple, and don’t sound bad at all. I think it would be perfect for just touching up samples. And it’s not like it’s a huge thing to learn. The setup is about as simple as it can be.
Audacity is the way to go.
True story.
I actually love sound forge. quick zooming around with arrow keys. nice drag and drop of clips into a new file. super efficient tool. I feel it is better than the mac editors out there. just another opinion though, and i’m a Mac guy.
what version of soundforge do you use???
LMAO
okay this happened today exactly as you said it (almost)… i installed audacity, got mad because it has no pasting options like SF… had a eureka momement and figured out how to get SoundForge 6 working again so now im good to go. cranking away on new mix as we speak lol
for now i’ll stick with my tried and true sf6 