Audio Editor Recommendations?

[ladycat]

Hello, I'm looking for recommendations for a good audio editor/composer to use in creating my own work. Although I know a thing or two about composing and theory, I have not taken my musical skills to a computer. I plan on recording my own samples as well as digitally composing. I hope to soon post an online resume of my work(intended for gaming of course)!

[Ryan Clark]

Here's a list for you:

Audio

Ardour (http://ardour.org/)
Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio, produce your own CD's, mix video soundtracks, etc.

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
An excellent free audio editor, for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Audition (http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/main.html)
Audition is Adobe's tool in the sound department of their multimedia suite. It provides a professional audio editing environment at the quality come to expect from Adobe. (commercial)

ReZound (http://rezound.sourceforge.net/)
ReZound aims to be a stable, open source, and graphical audio file editor primarily for but not limited to the Linux operating system.

Sweep (http://www.metadecks.org/software/sweep/index.html)
Sweep is an audio editor and live playback tool for GNU/Linux, BSD and compatible systems.

Music

Acid Music (Commercial) (http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/acidfamily.asp)

Beast (http://beast.gtk.org/)
Beast is a powerful music composition and modular synthesis application.

MusE (http://lmuse.sourceforge.net/)
MusE is a MIDI/Audio sequencer with recording and editing capabilities.

Psycle (http://psycle.pastnotecut.org/)
Psycle is a free, open-source music creation studio with a tracker-like interface (http://psycle.pastnotecut.org/stuff.php?action=docs), many native instruments, and support for external plugins.

Rosegarden (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/)
Rosegarden is a professional audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment.

[Reactor]

Wow, some great links there...

I also use Goldwave, which is nice and easy to use, but isn't the most stable program in the universe. If you don't know anything though, it's great.

[Indiepath.T]

I use Steinberg Cubase SX2 (http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp?Product_ID=2014&Langue_ID=7) for composition, it is on the tad expensive side but has everything you can shake a stick at. For the sample editing I use Sony SoundForge (http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/ShowProduct.asp?PID=668) , again a little expensive but the best in it's class.

[Mark Currie]

I also use Audacity. It's a great freeware app.

For music, you may want to look at fruity loops:
http://www.fruityloops.com/

[mot]

I don't do audio or music editing myself but my musical friends all use Sound Forge, Fruity Loops and Cubase SX. With tons of plugins.

[Vectrex]

I use the free program Buzz but it's NOT friendly :)
Use fruityloops, it's cheap and powerful. Don't blow loads on Cubase unless you really need it. Also there's Reason but for you I'd use fruityloops (as it records real audio tracks aswell)

[gpetersz]

Also www.modplug.com (the tracker) might help if you want to use
modular music (.mod, .xm, .s3m and so).

You can even find plenty of composers there to contact.

[Reactor]

I use the free program Buzz but it's NOT friendly :)

Agreed, but for the price, Buzz and a few free vst plugins gives you an amazing sfx creation machine!

[NuriumGames]

I use FruityLoops, great and affordable (from $50 to $299), you can create the music but is also a very powerful sample editor.
http://www.fruityloops.com/

Also Steinberg Wavelab is excelent for sample editing but more expesive ($700)
http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp?Product_ID=2181&Langue_ID=7

[Diragor]

For recording multi-track audio I like Cubase SX, especially in combination with my other favorite app...

I'm a HUGE fan of Reason (http://www.propellerheads.se/index.cfm). I've used all of the sequencing and composition apps I could get my hands on and Reason blows them all away as far as I'm concerned. And ReWire kicks ass. It's a technology built into Reason and lots of other audio apps whereby you can run the output of one app as an input track in another Rewired app. The way I've used it is to run Reason sequences alongside multi-track audio recordings in Cubase, say to add strings or extra percussion from Reason to a rock song I recorded in Cubase. It's seamless and the controls from either app affect the other one. That is, if I'm working on the string parts I can use the transport controls in Reason and it will cause Cubase to position and play along accordingly. Then I can switch over to Cubase and lay down another vocal track and the Reason stuff plays along in realtime just as if it were a pre-recorded track. Awesome stuff.

[milo]

I'm an owner and big fan of Reason as well, but it has it's limitations. Reason is great if you are composing rock/dance/techno style tracks at steady tempos in 4/4. But it's not really well suited to film scoring or classical composition. If you want to do orchestral stuff, you should check out Garritan Personal Orchestra.

--milo
http://www.starshatter.com

[dflash]

I am with Diragor, I use mostly Cubase SX and Reason. I switched from ProTools to Cubase a little over a year ago and haven't looked back.

I think Reason is a fantastic introductory piece of software. It is easy to use, is pro quality, and is incredibly versatile, including orchestral works. While I wouldn't say that Reason is the best thing out there for orchestral/classical works, I disagree that it is limited to rock/dance/techno. Listen to this: Reason Orchestral (http://www.flashcracker.com/citytheme.mp3). I did it (and a bunch of other pieces for a Neverwinter Nights mod) entirely in Reason.

[milo]

Yes, I've faked orchestral stuff with Reason as well. That is what led me to try GPO instead. For $250 you get a full set of beautifully sampled orchestral instruments, a notation program, a sampler, and a sequencer. And it sounds like this: The Seventh Seal (http://www.garritan.com/mp3/TheSeventhSeal.mp3) and this: United We Stand (http://www.garritan.com/mp3/UnitedWeStand.mp3).

--milo
http://www.starshatter.com

[dflash]

Well I don't really think I've faked anything. It is what it is. The only orchestral recordings that aren't 'faked' use a real orchestra.

My point was that as a first piece of software, Reason is incredibly versatile and you can do some orchestral stuff in it. With Garritan you are limited to only orchestral.

On that note, it sounds pretty good, especially for the price. I have read about it, but never knew anyone who used it. I was planning on getting an East West package, but I might give the Garritan another look for the price. How long have you been using it?

[mhuang]

Ladykat,

creative brand soundcards (like the audigy) usually comes bundled with "lite version" of pro audio software.

If your soundcard is by creative, there's a good chance it came bundled with some sort of audio software.
when I brough my audigy card it came with Cubas SX lite and Wavelab lite.

[milo]

On that note, it sounds pretty good, especially for the price. I have read about it, but never knew anyone who used it. I was planning on getting an East West package, but I might give the Garritan another look for the price. How long have you been using it?
Not very long. My wife is the composer in the house. We got it just last month to help her do some scores for local musical theater productions. We've only used it enough to figure out that it really does sound just as good as the demos make it out to be. My wife is a classically trained musician and composer, so she vastly prefers the Overture LE notation program that comes with GPO to the piano-roll sequencer in Reason.

Of course, any music system will only sound as good as the compositions you feed into it, and I don't think we're quite up to the standards of some of the composers on Garritan's website.

GPO does have it's own ideosyncrasies. It basically requires 1 GB of RAM to run well if you are doing anything more complex than a string quartet. Unlike Reason, GPO can't record to .wav files in slow-time, just in real-time. If your computer isn't fast enough to play back the score live, there is no way to get it saved to an audio file.

Bottom line - if you need to do classical / broadway / cinematic style orchestral composition, GPO is a fabulous tool for the money. If you are mainly just doing game scores and you want to have the flexibility to do various styles of music, you may be better off just adding better string and wind samples to Reason.

--milo
http://www.starshatter.com