posted
Way back in yesteryear, I downloaded the shareware version of a sound editing program called Cool Edit 96. A very nice program: about two and a half megabytes, capable of doing all sorts of nifty things like editing stereo channels seperately, speeding or slowing down a file without changing its pitch, reducing noise, and so on.
The shareware version had its limitations- you have to select two and only two from a list of features to use, one of those features being the ability to save the file you're modifying. But it did more or less everything I wanted it to. The $50 registered version was more than I could afford at the time for the trivial uses I was putting it to, and the $25 "lite" version seemed crippled in ways that made the sharware version preferable.
Fast forward to 2008. I'm again doing a bit of tinkering with sound beyond the capabilities of Sound Recorder, and I'm now comfortable enough that paying $50 or so to support a well-designed piece of software doesn't seem so extravagant. So, what has become of Cool Edit?
Jaws Theme
Adobe has happened to Cool Edit. Or at least, to Syntrillium, the company that made it.
And cute li'l Cool Edit, which did nearly everything I needed in a two-and-a-half-megabyte compressed file, is now Adobe Audition 3, four and a half GIGABYTES, and $350.
Sunuva...
Noting also that sometime in the last year Macromedia Flash abruptly became Adobe Flash, and that Adobe doesn't carry a single piece of software on their website (upgrade versions aside) for under $100, I'm beginning to feel a trifle uneasy about the company's carnivorous nature.
I think I'm going to rummage in the dark caverns of my hard drive and see if Cool Edit 96 still lives there somewhere.
I'm currently playing with some freeware called Audacity for editing sound files. I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but it does allow seperate channel editing, and it *is* free...
posted
If Audacity doesn't have what you're looking for, you could also try goldwave. It's got a fully functional evaluation version available at that link.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
If you're willing to pay a reasonable price for a decent program, get Goldwave. It runs circles around Audacity.
And if you're not willing to pay, I've been using Goldwave's evaluation version for 5+ years now. (I use it maybe twice a year... I'm still evaluating it )
"switch to mac and get garage band for free" umm, that's an awful lot of money for a 'free' program. Posts: 692 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
No offense, but Adobe's buyout of Syntrillium was a smart move. Audition has now become a fantastic audio workstation application, capable of pro-level results, coupled with some very unique features (like selecting parts of the frequency spectrum with Photoshop-like tools). It does suck that there's one-fewer inexpensive audio option on the market, though.
Oh, and if you want cheap (how about free?) and pro-level audio, try Ardour on Ubuntu (both open source).
Posts: 353 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I wanted to mention- I used Audacity to make CDs of some NPR shows for the birthday of a friend with an excessive commute, so, thanks again for mentioning it, anti_maven.
Changing operating systems- whether to OS X or Ubuntu Linux- is rather enough of a time investment to make question of the term "free".
No offense taken, Wonder Dog; I'm sure it was a good strategic move for Adobe. I hope Syntrillium were paid what they were worth. I just find it more than a little irritating that Adobe not only tends to price their software with only the professional market in mind, but is eliminating rivals from the "regular consumer" market.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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