Finally there's a Lite version which sells for $49. Unfortunately they increased the price of the regular version to $99.

I liked demoing Spectre a lot. I write "liked" since I don't specifically NEED Spectre when making music. And since AudioFile Engineering's pricing policy goes towards the ProTools using, rich rockefeller studio rats (whomever they might be) I simply couldn't make myself purchase it at $88 which was its former price. Seeing now that they're at $150 makes me wonder how come most music software is so damn expensive. Musicians earn quite little. Anyway, it seems the developers of this app targets it more at B2B, ie. studios. And of course a studio using Spectre all day, 5 days a week (or more) can easily justify a mere $150.

So maybe it's just me. I started out saying I don't need Spectre. I just have a gut feeling there would be a lot of musicians, podcasters, sound designers, that would purchase a cheaper version of Spectre.

Maybe they should consider a light-version at $69, or even $59, which does not have all the different
choices of scales and modes for each meter, but only the most commonly used, ie. logarithmic for the sonogram etc.

That would be a smart business move, that would only help them sell more, also their "pro" version, since more people would use it, hear/read about it, want to upgrade as they outgrow the lite version, etc.

I have used Spectre intensively for a couple of weeks now and it has surpassed my expectations.

I wasn't sure if the software would meet my needs but there is a free 15 day download trial with full functionality so I could put it through the paces. Compared to InspectorXL I like it much better. And the last I checked there wasn't even a mention of a universal release for Inspector. That's a big deal for me and every other Mac Intel owner. From a development standpoint I like that Audiofile used Apple's builtin OpenGL and Quartz. Many developers not dedicating themselves to this platform fail to utilize the technologies that Apple has offered. The proof is surely in the efficient code because have as many as 9 analyzers running and some with multiple traces. I can still edit audio files while I'm analyzing my results.

Spectre is a fast and extremely flexible sound analysis tool. I use it primarily to view spectrograms in order to visually confirm and help identify various animal vocalizations in a particular biome. This is not specifically what the developers had in mind when they designed these tools. Nonetheless, they have been very interested in hearing about my particular needs. While most analysis tools work as plugins, this is a separate application. I wasn't sure how this would work for me at first but with Apple's AUNetSend, it's a breeze.

I wound up purchasing Spectre even before my 15 day trial has ended. I've never posted a review previously but I wanted to share my excitement with this application. I should also mention that I bought their Wave Editor app at the same time. If there is another place on MacUpdate to review that product, I will. I purchased the full Final Cut Studio just to get Soundtrack Pro's universal waveform editor. I sure wish I could get that money back now as Wave Editor is MUCH faster.