Sound Studio4.9.6

I have been using Sound Studio for 20 years. It is wonderful!

Been using it all my life; still one of the best for Mac. :-)

I've been using this as my main audio editor along with Logic Pro X for years; never failed me!

I have been using Sound Studio for 20 years. It is wonderful!

I can't write a proper review, as Amadeus is still my favourite, but there's one function that I can't find anywhere else: the frequency generator by note (i.e. choosing a note on a keyboard). Great!

I've been using this app for years and it continues to work well for my needs, as a lightweight editor. I prefer the simple interface in Sound Studio to the competition, which at times fails to use musical metaphors in their UI, needlessly overcomplicating the user experience.

DOES NOT WORK

I have been using Sound Studio for ages and it still is the best lightweight but powerful sound editor out there!

What happened to 'change bit rate' in the pull down menu? Now Sample rate is duplicated-one on the interface and one in the pull down menu where CBR used to be

I really like the interface and simplicity of what I see so far. But I have three issues, one of which would be a deal breaker for me. I use this kind of software primarily to put together radio segments such as interviews and arts reporting. Here are the three things I don't see yet, compared with Audacity:

1. There's no way to import a sound file into an already open project; you must open a separate project, then cut and paste into it.

2. No Auto Duck filter.

3. (This is the deal-breaker for me.) There is no easy way to fade up a portion of a file from a non-silent point. You can use Fade Out Special to fade down to a less than 100% volume, but I don't see how you can use that to fade up from a given volume to greater than 100% of your starting sound volume.

Can I get away with saying that someone is asleep at the switch here? I mean, versions come out like eggs out of chickens, with brand new bugs, while old bugs are fixed . . . sometimes. Hawke, you may be right about it being the same designer, but I think he may be on vacation. I'm happy with Audition 6.

I've got problems with 4.6.8 - 4.6.9. Once : Applying a plugin noise reducer on a selected part, it quite cancels this selected part instead of reduce noise. 4.6.10 little bit better but the same problem remain. I hope an update witch correct that.

My experiences with Sound Studio are very good. Handling is fine and it has all the features (including support for AppleScript) I need for recording. Also support ist very helpful.

Sound Studio is awful! Really, it is painfully slow in UI updating, zooming is slow, it crash heavy and the GUI is insanely bad thought-out. I just cannot believe this app is marked as a a 'Hot App'. Its really not a good one. I highly recommend someone at MU does take a closer look at Triumph. Its way better!

Software publisher said the Apple Store will not let them offer upgrade pricing for earlier purchasers. All the same price no matter what. Just buy it again and give us some dinero. Really? Try Amadeus. No upgrade / update problems there and it works just fine.

This is a great audio editing app. It's the closest thing I've ever found to the venerable SoundEdit 16 that was my staple for so many years before moving to OS X. I must say, though, that I'm not particularly happy with the new UI in version 4. The icons are awful, and I'm kinda blown away that there's no way to hide the audio meters at the bottom of every window. There's no way to mute or disable audio input, so the bottom left meter is constantly jumping as it picks up sound from the internal mic in my MacBook, and I find it distracting. Honestly this app was much nicer in version 2. I can live with the hideous toolbar icons, but there *really* needs to be a way to hide those audio meters at the bottom. I'll be sticking with the old version until that happens.

How do I install the Lame framework. I can't find directions anywhere.

I'm getting some CRAZY memory leaks here on 10.6.4, I think the update has something to do, because before that, Sound Studio was working just fine. Like eating up 1.14GB RAM for some seconds, and the like, leading to crashing, etc... I hope this issue is resolved soon (if it's not just for me). I'm using a 20'' Intel iMac, 2.4GHz, with 2GB RAM, on 10.6.4.

I own this software. I wanted to save an .mp3 version. I thought I already installed LAME for use with Audacity but perhaps it's not system-wide. In any case I followed the link from Freeverse's site, and installed the LAME package there. The installer did not say I needed to reboot. Sound Studio still cant save as mp3, only AAC. "The document"..."could not be saved". No explanation or help. I also agree with Koibito-san about #3. Normalizing lots of segments of audio is a pain to do because you can't stop the dialog from appearing. It needs a tickbox that saves the setting!

I'm ripping LPs, so I have a 15-30 minute sound recording. To remove "pops", I use the "Interpolate" filter over very small durations. If I do a lot of such edits, the App starts to look confused (for example, the display does not seem to update correctly) and eventually crashes. The last time the app crashed when I tried to save the file. The OS later recover 248 .caf files, so perhaps I did over 200 edits? This is on a iBook G4 1.0MHz with 768MB RAM, recording through a Griffin iMic. Why am I complaining here? Well, trying to report the issue to Freeverse support using their Web form results in the error "Your message did not clear our spam filter". So, think twice before buying if you ever need support.

Forgot one issue. After both launches I tested under, the "Save as…" stopped operating after a number of files were saved (around 30-40 or so). Unless this is a trial limitation, this is very problematic, as the program doesn't seem affected, but when a Save As… is attemtpted, the dialog vanishes and nothing happens. Once at this point it is no longer possible to save anything -- all editing features continue to work, however.

I tried sending this to freeverse's e-mail... but it doesn't pass their "spam filter." And since I was quite impressed, except with the following, So: I tested the new 3.6 version to see if it would suffice for my needs (I currently require four apps in my chain of work with lossless audio clips). I'd like to reduce that to two... 1. it still destroys ID3 tags: even Apple standardized (i.e., it destroys "show"). Apparently anything not in the info drop-down is killed. It should pass everything through that doesn't appear in that drop-down (this is actually a deal-killer). 2a. There's an odd behavior that happens about 90% of the time with ALAC files. It doesn't seem to recognize that the files were opened from ALAC (apple lossless) files and it attempts to "Save" them as lossy, bringing up an "AAC Options" dialog box. If you choose "Save as…", instead, this is avoided. 2b. After hitting "Cancel" on the "AAC Options" dialog box, SS does a drop-down dialog that states “The document "xxx.m4a" could not be saved.”, and then it wants a click on an "OK" button to continue. Kind of obvious when the user cancels the request. i.e., this drop-down after the cancel should be removed from the program entirely. 3. Normalize should be a one-click process. I'm pretty sure that most people stay with the same settings on an entire project or their entire lives (^_^). The normalize level and options should be relegated to preferences or a menu item. 4. It's really minor, but the dB field does not update the percentage automatically in both the "Normalize" and "Amplify Volume" dialogs. The value should be recalculated on "field change." This value is carried over properly the next time you open said filters, but, you've already had to have executed it. (I don't actually use this readout, but I noticed it was doing it this way.) 5. Really a very minor thing (but until I get a program that doesn't destroy tags, it'll be an issue with our files). Even if dragged-and-dropped onto the icon/dock, SS will not recognize a file if it ends with a non-stamdard extension. It still opens an empty window, but it halts all other activity while it waits for a click on the "OK" button, in the "Could not open this file," dialog. Since all our files are MPEG4, and some are provided in lossy forms, we've been using .m4aL, .m4a3, m4a1, etc, which works real well with our current programs on both Mac and Windows. 6. There still seems to be some sort of memory leak that causes a sudden crash. Couldn't figure out where, but it did a sudden disappearance leaving gigs of files lying around when it did… This was after about an hour worth of testing. 7a. There appears to be a display problem in the overall waveform display (the top one). At the end of all of the files I gave it (where there was silence or near silence), the overall display actually showed bursts of sound after the decay, in the area where it was silent. This was consistent with every file I gave it. This is cosmetic, but confusing. And the scrolling window (bottom) showed proper silence at the same point. 7b In the Scrolling waveform, after some normalization or amplification filtering, the waveform would be distorted into the negative dB area, or spiking severely down into it. The audio sounds fine, but there is no way the actual sound waves in these clips were entirely and significantly below the 0dB mark (which is where several of the waveforms were being displayed after amplification). On the next version I test, I'll try to remember to do a couple of screen-caps to demonstrate this. See you at the next upgrade :) P.S. Sound Studio is way ahead of Fission (the other program I tested over the weekend)... Files I trimmed small bits from and resaved, always came out smaller in SS, in Fission, the same files actually grew in size averaging about 700k of "growth."

I'm wondering just how active Freeverse will be with this application. It's still giving me fits with AIFF saves, and they have not even updated the About dialog since they procured it from FeltTip.

Having just gotten this thanks to the MU promo bundle (thanks, guys!) I'm looking forward to testing it versus my beloved Amadeus Pro. Still -- I've been using Fission a lot lately for "quick" editing because of it's "no further loss" nature, and wondering why AP nor SS offer this amazing ability. For jobs where you are just "cutting and/or pasting" audio, you should be able to save losslessly like Fission offers.

I've used Amadeus for years and have nothing but high praise for its capabilities and for the attentive guy who has steadily developed it over time. So I agree with the others who have commented about Amadeus. Why pay more for this app, when the other is, according to reviews, better?

Ive used Sound Studio for 3 years, this version looks great..love the new polished look, however, it seems to crash more often... hope this problem is soon solved. thanks

I tried Audacity, but it was too buggy, and kept on crashing and working slowly. Sound Studio works great, and I really like that you can zoom in/out with one click of the keyboard. It makes editing out "ah's and umh's" in podcasts very simple. Well worth the money. The only feature I wish it has was a "denoising" function like that found in Amadeaus. Amadeaus, isn't as easy to use (zooming in and out requires a two/three button press, annoying for frequent editign), so what I do it denoise in Amadeaus, and then import into Sound Studio for all other editing.

Uhhh... It crashes too often when using filters (especially EQ)... :-(

FYI: There is no charge to upgrade to the new version 3.5 from any previous version of 3. There is only a charge if you're upgrading from version 2.

Version 3.5 is GREEAAAAT!!!!!!!

You guys at Freeverse did a GREAT job!!! THIS APP IS A MUST HAVE: version 3.05 is screaming fast on my Intel Mac and very stable too. It is absolutely the best waveform editor for Mac, highly recommended (5 stars). Keep up the good work!

I have used Sound Studio many times in teh past for recording and manipulating sound files. It has always worked well and is generally rock-solid. But $80 to upgrade from version 2 to 3? Why? Besides the updated look, are there any new substantive features? For now I am sticking with version 2.

PITCH & TEMPO FILTER STILL NOT WORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - since version 3 :-(

Just great. Freeverse makes it really simple to input audio and do basic editing features. I used Sound Studio to import tape audio into my PowerBook and then burn it to a CD. The learning curve was much lower than I expected.

I have been a loyal user of Sound Studio since almost its starting days. I have recommended it to people, because I am (still) convinced of its fast, simple and effective UI for editing audio. For this, I accepted a price somewhat at the upper limits (around 50 USD) for this kind of an app. I saw the new version, 3.0, and wanted to check it out for new features and upgrade pricing. Fact is, there seem to be virtually no new features compared to version 2.2.4 except for AU support and a marker list window. However, the price has been raised by 60%, and the upgrade pricing for almost nothing new is 40 USD, i.e. almost as much as I originally paid for the full licence. I have to agree with RADD - this is simply "insulting". I'm sorry, Lucius, even with your explanation on your old web site, I cannot imagine how these changes and the move to Freeverse can be good ones for the future of Sound Studio. (It even strikes me as Sound Studio not fitting at all into Freeverse's other applications portfolio...) I for one won't upgrade *ever*, but instead use the still finely working 2.2.4 version (still available from the www.felttip.com website) as long as possible and then settle on a different tool with a reasonable feature set for a - most importantly - reasonable price.

I've been a user of Sound Studio since before the first official release... back in the pre-release betas. I have to say... back then, SS had a very reasonable price, but it had steadily climbed toward more "luxury" oriented pricing. That said, since Freeverse took over, the price has rocketed to "insulting". Not only has Freeverse turned me off to Sound Studio... but now, I will be very wary of purchasing ANYTHING else from them. I'd rather support developers who aren't trying to pull one over on me. They should add a slogan for 3.0... "Average User Functionality At Professional User Prices." Time to come back to planet Earth, Freeverse. It's shareware, not a cure for cancer.

Sound Studio is pretty good. I use it mainly for adding and removing sound portions. However it does not have good denoising abilities and in my view it is over priced.

I purchased an earlier version of Sound Studio for $50, it worked fine for a while but then came down with a number of niggling problems - the most annoying being the input level faders stopped working. I was told by the developer that this was quite normal, and I should simply change the level of the incoming audio from the source. I found this rather cheeky considering I'd already forked out the cash. I finally gave up on this nonsense and got myself a fully functioning app - Pro-Tools.

$80! Riiiiight. Somebody's got delusions of grandeur.

FWIW, if you already own Sound Studio, the upgrade is $40. I think the developer could have made that more obvious. Still steep I think, but I really like it and find its interface the most intuitive, at least for me.

$79.95??? You've got to be kidding. Seriously. This app is a nice, quick recording and *basic* editing tool, but little else. It's not good for sequencing, mixing, mastering, etc. I won't be getting any of the future upgrades, unless the price falls to somewhere within the atmosphere of reason (say $29.95...).

$80? Good program but not worth more than $50. Going to use something else instead.

$80? Not on your life. Too many pro apps I have, this just was for "quickie" samples. Now, for me, it's gonna be at prev version until it doesn't work with future OS versions. Forget about it!

Maybe there was a typo in the price asked. Surely, no one could honestly ask $80 for this app. Because if someone did they will see all their efforts become fruitless and all their customers will disappear.

I recieved version 2 as freeware with my Dual G5 purchase a few months back. I would have happily paid 40.00 for the original program. It was easy and simple to use, contained many effects etc etc.. but with a price of 80.00 today I got immediate "sticker shock". If the price were 40.00 I'd pay today. I will not be upgrading

maybe now when this crappy app crashes a little monkey will do a dance

As below; Versions 1 and 2 were good, just about worth $40 (apart from Felt Tip's poor support). $80 has just priced me out of the market, I wouldn't even bother looking at this app anymore. I really don't see how they expect to make sales.

With Amadeus II you can get the same for 30 bucks and get a trial version. These guys are out of their mind.

I would love to give a review but it's kind of hard when you can't even download it and try it. As like others, $80! Are you off your rocker! The only explanation I can figure is it used to be a FeltTip Program and now it's Freeverse, unless they changed there name? Anycase way to much for this program. Let people try your program and lower the price, then will talk.

OUCH. This is a really nice app, but this is NOT an $80 app. This wasn't even a $40 app. This is, and always has been, about a $15 app. The only explanation I can find is greed. Really a shame.

$80??? Eeek! I remember picking this up back at version 1, then paying for the 2 upgrade... but unless there are an absolute TON of new features... I just don't see how doubling the price can be justified. Don't get me wrong... I love Sound Studio 2 and 1 before it... but... $80? I think more detail from Freeverse (the "new" owners) as to how they arrived at that number is in order.

Been through a lot trying to find that 'perfect' software to record Voice-Over's with on my iMac G4. Logic Express?...Paid way too much for it. Garage band? Nope. Doesn't work. Bias Peak? Stoopid thing doesn't even recognize my M-Audio Fast Track mic recording unit. I needed something that I could understand, with an EASY look to it. Something that you don't sit there for an hour looking at trying to 'get'. Something that recognizes the M-Audio Fast Track. A software that you just hit record...and away you go. Then you save the file...then you convert to mp3 with iTunes...then...viola! AMAZING SOFTWARE this Sound Studio 2.2.4. If you need to record into your computer, and you have a good microphone, and you have a good HD..etc...GET THIS Sound Studio and STOP wasting your time and hard-earned dollars on all that other CRAP.

Works perfectly on a G5 powermac: records, mixes down to stereo, saves as AIFF---which can be quickly converted to MP3 in iTunes if that's desired. I got an early version of this app bundled with an eMac 700 and it's been upgraded several times through that license on the Power Mac. Excellent support, and an indispensable aid to converting out-of-print LPs and cassettes to CD.

I also downloaded 2.2.2 and have the same problem with the application not opening.

Major problems with this release - won't even load, icon flashes in the dock and that's it. Every previous release from V1 onwards has worked fine.

I am using this application for years and must say, that from what's out there is one with little more could be for price the best ONE !

I prefer to use Quicktime 7's built-in recording features now for quick recording. However SS is still nice to edit some files.

I've been using Sound Studio for several years, and am personally glad to see it updated for Tiger. Nothing beats it for quick and easy audio capture and simple edits.

This app would be worth 30 (not 40) bucks if, like 'Amadeus', it had VST and AU plug-in support. As it stands now, I wouldn't pay anything for 'Sound Studio'.

Always good to see more options in audio packages. I think Audacity is more stable, but this one still seems to active active support of OS 9.

SS is a little app wich suits me fine. If I want more features I open a serious seq/editor. SS is ideal to quick editing and to load it with more features will probably make it slower and heavier. SS is fine as it is. If you ppl want more, buy another app. I´m just looking forward to more stability.

YES! it is now compatible with Airfoil. A very hepful feature, since I now can listen on *real* speakers what I just recorded. Perfect to fine-tune input levels! Thumbs up to the developper :-)

is it compatible with Airfoil now? my previous version wasn't :-(

I have always used this software for little things, and have always thought that it needs to be upgraded to os x's standards. If this guy added a multitrack function and the ability to use audio units to this application it would make this app the cheapest and best audio editing application out there. I will continue to use it but dude you need to do some rethinking about your software and package it with some more stuff or people arent going to use it anymore.

I downloaded the software and installed it into my app folder. The 14 day demo gave me only 10 days. I was unable to play any file imported. Unhappy, I deleted the Sound Studio.

SoundStudio F@&KING SUCKS!!!!!! There is a reson why this program is very inexpensive to purchase - it is an extremely unstable piece of software and crashes on a CONSISTENT basis! I am a DJ and was attempting to use SoundStudio on my 1ghz pb G4 to record a demo mix, and decided to use SoundStudio to splice the first and second half of the mix together. What a mistake that was.....each time I attempted to paste the second half to the file of the first half, the program crashed every single time. The features seem good for the cost of the program, but honestly the lack of stability does far more than cancel out any possible benefits this program could ever hope to offer. Musicians and producers do NOT waste your time with this piece of SH!T program, spend the extra money and just get ProTools.

I bought this a long time ago, and liked it at first. However, with each release as many new bugs emerged as were fixed, and the app tended to fail spectacularly at very inopportune moments (at the end of recording a very long file, for example). The author's policy of not answering customer e-mails is/was also, IMHO, outrageous. Now the app appears to be abandonware. I would recommend Amadeus as an app with similar functionality, but with fewer bugs and a much more responsive author.

Grr...this really makes me mad... I am running this program on a PowerBook G3, and every time I try to record more then once, I get all this audio interference! I have one recording I can get out before it all goes screwy. THIS PROGRAM SUCKS!

So what would you use instead then. Equally frustrated. Cannot get the software to work at all (done the hard disk 'first aid' routine and the .dmg fixer program without any joy).

I have been using sound studio semi professionally for two and a half years. I have found it reliable, very easy to use and on top of that worthwhile. In terms of stability, I have used it on both a 500mhz G4 and a 1ghz powerbook G4 and both had no major stability issues. It has crashed on occasion but this happens rarely and when it did, it recovered all of my audio files lost in the crash, saying that I really love this peice of software:) and at it's price it's a bargin. version 2.1.1.b

I cannot believe they would release this program for mac being so unstable. It crashed on me contstantly. I like the interface and the simple effect functions. On their website it says "crashes randomly on dual processors". nice. especially since most macs will soon have dual processors. STAY AWAY from this program. It will only bring you frustration.

Go to their website for latest support email address. Not sure if that will help though.

I have been using Sound Studio during its trial period and have had very good luck using it. It is a pleasure to work with and, unlike other reviewers, I have had no freezes or crashes. I have been mostly recording vinyl lp's to convert to cd's. I am using Sound Studio on a Powerbook 12" 867mhz with 640mb ram and OS X Jaguar. Very easy to use features and enough advanced features to rival Peak LE. I do wonder if this product will ever be finalized as the company does not respond to emailings. Too bad, it's a really nice piece of software that I would gladly pay for if I knew it was going to be supported.

Lot's of nice features for simple sound editing but waaay too unstable. Mine freezes constantly to the point of unusability. I'm running 10.3 on a newer G3 iBook.

I'm a registered user of this prog and I loved it but it's been broken since 2.1 was released in April 03. Despite 3 beta releases since, which have improved it, it still crashes regularly. As Audio Guy says below there hasn't been an update since July and I'm starting to feel that the Developer has lost interest. I've started using Audacity instead. I'll still check back from time to time to see if it's updated as it was a great app. It was also the most expensive shareware fee I've ever paid and I'd like to get my moneys worth. It's a great pity the app's been available in this state for so long. Lots of people downloading it now don't realize how cool this app once was (and hopefully will be again).

Is this app still being supported? $49 seems steep for a demo-beta that crashes, especially with no updates in 3 months. Audacity is open-source free software that seems to be under more active development. And it supports VST plugins. Maybe the authors of this could make it open-source which would let others help improve it.

this app looks promising but it is nowhere near ready for prime-time. it crashes (aka spinning rainbow cursor forever) a lot when editing large (100-300MB) audio files. there seems to be no pattern to the crashes either. totally unreliable. i'm sticking with Peak LE for now although i like the interface of Sound Studio better.

Dollar-for-dollar, this app is where it's at. I've had a few crashes on my G4, but hopefully this latest version (2.1.1b3) will take care of any problems from this point on. If you need to edit sound of any kind, I would highly recommend this one. I've used for recording and cleaning music from tapes, and also editing and enhancing music and sound effects for movies.