Ableton - Make us a sound editor!

webslave · Post by **webslave** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:45 am

Dear Ableton,

Once upon a time I was a PC user and used Sound Forge, which was okay and I used it for mastering and doing the kind of messing about in sound you can only really do in a sound editor.

Well time moves on and now I'm a Mac user (please no comments on this - well all many have a preference) and I find out that although Live runs fantastically on a Mac and I can get many of the plugins I'm used to, plus a few new unusual ones, there is no good sound editor on the Mac, at least not one as good as sound forge (which is kind ungly but works). I've gone through most of the contenders starting with the awful Audacity and there's nothing that quite hits the spot.

So, Abelton, you guys know both platforms, you know how to throw sound around and know how to handle plugins. How about a stand alone sound editor - something that's great for messing about with multiple format sound files, creating mp3s and polishing final renders?

So how about it dudes? Anyone else think there's a need here?

Sly One · Post by **Sly One** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:39 pm

If you're looking for something in the same league as SoundForge, BIAS Peak seems to be the one that gets menioned time and time again. Problem is, I don't think there is anything as easy to use as SoundForge - it always seemed to be the only one that obeyed the proper Windows key and mouse conventions (Wavelab - eugh).

I would suggest that adding a sound editor might be an unsound commercial idea for the Abes (especially as they could build a separate sound editor application or the same effort level and sell it separately "with excellent Live integration"!)

OvertoneZero · Post by **OvertoneZero** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:52 pm

Sorry to say that there are much more pressing issues with the development of the Ableton Live sequencing software. BIAS Peak is a good editor for OS X, check it out.

webslave · Post by **webslave** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:48 am

Thanks for the replies. I checked out Peak and it does do what I want to do, but is somewhat expensive (even in Lite form).

Thinking about it more applying effects directly to clips rather then relying upon automation end evelopes could be said to achive the same result but I'm currently finding the whole automation thing fiddly. In a way I'd like to work more like you do with images in Photoshop, for a whole track or small changes effects with automation are great, but when you want to do lots of small changes I find it gets overly complicated. Would be nice to just go in there and mess about with elements directly at time - just altering the EQ of a small passage without having to set up the automation. I find editing a file directly as opposed to apply affects to a track sometimes are different ways of thinking and end up with different results. I'd like to polish the tracks (remove pops and reduce noise at times) then mix them in many cases and it'd be great to do that in Ableton directly.

Cheers

Stew

forge · Post by **forge** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:01 am

audacity is a good free one and Amadeus is quite powerful - not free but not expensive I dont think

rydan · Post by **rydan** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:27 pm

No, please. There are plenty of editors out there (just as there is plenty of effects and instrument plugins), better to place the efforts on perfecting live itself I think...

guly · Post by **guly** » Fri May 09, 2008 9:39 am

ignore my post, i'm dumb.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:35 pm

Check out Wave Editor by Audiofile for a great, cheap editor.

Kristijonas · Post by **Kristijonas** » Fri May 09, 2008 4:32 pm

Also try Sound Studio: http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=5012

Soma · Post by **Soma** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:54 am

IMHO
The only thing missing from live that would make it a full on sound editor are some looping tools and some bezier curves.

But these for me are not high priority compared to recording automation to clips, making groups more like racks and routing midi from VSTs that output midi to Live/VST parameters.

dr.wackler · Post by **dr.wackler** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:01 pm

Live itself is a great audio editor. I dedicate a track to this purpose. When I need to do destructive editing, I drag the file to that track, solo it, do the processing, freeze, drag to flatten, done. IMO much easier and much more comfortable than opening the file in an external editor.

jlgrimes · Post by **jlgrimes** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:34 pm

Soma wrote:IMHO
The only thing missing from live that would make it a full on sound editor are some looping tools and some bezier curves.

But these for me are not high priority compared to recording automation to clips, making groups more like racks and routing midi from VSTs that output midi to Live/VST parameters.

I would also like to add:

Applying offline effects.

Some other unrelated things but helps in eliminating editors.

Clip effects.
Bounce to Track function.

Live does have a lot to work on but it is hard to say where to start.

baseinstinct · Post by **baseinstinct** » Wed May 14, 2008 5:49 pm

I'd rather Ableton did not get distracted by anything other than Live.

There are enough simple editors and and complex ones, cheap and expensive. How do you know you would like their audio editor? And why do you need to test one with their logo.

jpv · Post by **jpv** » Fri May 23, 2008 5:22 am

dr.wackler wrote:Live itself is a great audio editor. I dedicate a track to this purpose. When I need to do destructive editing, I drag the file to that track, solo it, do the processing, freeze, drag to flatten, done. IMO much easier and much more comfortable than opening the file in an external editor.

Yeah, try doing a crossfade loop that way.

funknotik · Post by **funknotik** » Sat May 24, 2008 8:26 pm

Switch to pc and get Adobe Audition 3 it's beautiful! Mac is shit.