whats the best sample editor to get?

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by jestermgee » Tue Jul 26, 2011 2:35 am

Wavelabs been my editor since old goldwave.

It is WAY quicker to edit in than Ableton for a number of reasons:

- Dedicated editing tools for level adjustments, FX processing, editing and zooming
- Large uncluttered wave display windows
- Quicker navication with mouse when editing fine details
- easy to add silence at start/end of files for pre/post fx processing

Wavelab also has tools for finding glitches and pops in audio (great for recordings from vinyl) and a good pencil tool for scrubbing out pops, clicks and peaks. Always served me well and I could never try and do the editing in ableton except for simple loops.

anybody human
Posts: 1049
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:27 pm

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by anybody human » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:34 pm

If someone could indulge me; What are some of the advantages of using a dedicated sample editor?

I apologize in advance for such a basic question.

trevox
Posts: 659
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:58 am

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by trevox » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:52 pm

Windows - Sound Forge
OS-X - Peak

I wish Sound Forge was available for OS-X - by far the best audio editor out. Wavelab is okay but clumsy IMO. Each to their own though.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by jestermgee » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:01 pm

anybody human wrote:If someone could indulge me; What are some of the advantages of using a dedicated sample editor?

I apologize in advance for such a basic question.
Uh, I rattled off a few but I guess there's more:

- easily focus and compare edited and unedited samples
- create much more precise loops and edits
- change gains, swap channels, mix to mono, convert between formats and bitrates
- large wave display windows
- simple cut/paste and edit functions for waveforms
- personal choice.

If you need fine editing controls it's just easier.

anybody human
Posts: 1049
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:27 pm

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by anybody human » Thu Aug 04, 2011 5:20 pm

jestermgee wrote:
anybody human wrote:If someone could indulge me; What are some of the advantages of using a dedicated sample editor?

I apologize in advance for such a basic question.
Uh, I rattled off a few but I guess there's more:

- easily focus and compare edited and unedited samples
- create much more precise loops and edits
- change gains, swap channels, mix to mono, convert between formats and bitrates
- large wave display windows
- simple cut/paste and edit functions for waveforms
- personal choice.

If you need fine editing controls it's just easier.
Yeah you did, thanks man.

Can you draw envelopes or Bezier Curves on the waveform? For instance, to shorten a drum sound and then export it as a new sound file? Thanks.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by jestermgee » Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:07 pm

Sure can. Think of a dedicated sound editor like paintshop. You can do pretty much what you like to waveforms.

H20nly
Posts: 16057
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:15 pm
Location: The Wild West

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by H20nly » Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:12 pm

i have soundforge and like it... like a previous poster mentioned it comes with CD Architect and some decent plugs for mastering and such. the price was fairly low and i got a bigger discount for buying version 9 just a few days before 10 was released.

you can chop samples in Ableton sure, but you can't get in there like you can with a dedicated editor. it's not even close. besides, like yet another poster mentioned you can do all this chopping without hogging Live's resources (4 GB RAM cap) in the process.

lastly... i got Soundforge because leedsquietman (RIP) recommended it, but not before a lengthy post explaining what he thought the advantages were. :D

anybody human
Posts: 1049
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:27 pm

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by anybody human » Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:51 pm

I miss Leeds.

Machinesworking
Posts: 11416
Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2004 9:30 pm
Location: Seattle

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by Machinesworking » Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:11 pm

If you're talking a sample editor for samples to load into Sampler/Kontact/EXS24 etc. then nothing beats Keymap Pro.
http://www.redmatica.com/Redmatica/Keymap_Pro.html

Matsun
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:01 am

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by Matsun » Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:13 pm

I just repeat :)

Wavelab
NI Kontakt

Tommy Gunz
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:23 am
Location: Alanta, Ga

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by Tommy Gunz » Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:38 am

I've used various wave editors. Part of the reason I started using Ableton is because of what you can do to manipulate audio. Ableton can be used as a wave editor. In my humble option Ableton is not just a DAW but the Ultimate wave editor as well.

Tommy Gunz
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:23 am
Location: Alanta, Ga

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by Tommy Gunz » Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:49 am

I have to agree with Machinesworking as well. If you are looking to edit samples and load into Kontakt EXS24 etc. Redmatica's Keymap Pro is a great sample or wave editor provided you are using a Mac.

icedsushi
Posts: 1652
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:36 pm

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by icedsushi » Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:14 pm

There's so much you can do to the way that a sample plays back in Ableton with clips, clip envelopes, Sampler etc I rarely have a need to "edit" the sample itself. Even cropping a sample I rarely see a need for when I can just do something like change the start & end points of the sample within a clip or in sampler. Editing samples & saving them as new files just seems like extra steps to get to the same result, when most things can be done non-destructively within a Live set.

There might be a few oddball things that can be done to a sample destructively which cannot be done eddectively non-destructively. But off the top of my head I cannot think of what those would be.

enveehaa
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:35 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by enveehaa » Wed May 08, 2013 3:40 pm

Is an editor still recommended?
And is SoundForge the overall winner now, since it came to osx?
MacbookPro
OSX 10.8.3
Live 9.0.4 Suite
Push
PXT Live
YamahaHS50M monitors

re:dream
Posts: 4598
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:42 am
Location: Hoerikwaggo's sunset side...
Contact:

Re: whats the best sample editor to get?

Post by re:dream » Wed May 08, 2013 5:07 pm

I used to use Wavelab, but am on Soundforge now. Mostly for reasons of cost. The two are preferable but in terms of ease of use, flexibility, and good mastering plugins, Wavelab seemed to have the edge. But for my limited uses, there's little difference, and Wavelab is really expensive.

I would love to use Soundforge for my Mac as well, but they want me to pay for a full new install 8O :evil:
Last edited by re:dream on Thu May 09, 2013 6:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post Reply