I'd first try Audacity 1.2.6 if I were you. At no cost, there's nothing to =
lose except time (for which you get some experience). It does basic editing=
, has pretty good methods for basic things like conversion to different sam=
pling frequencies, and has a decent selection of basic "effects" (filtering=
, changes of amplitude, etc).
I've hardly ever used Audacity for multi track (beyond stereo) editing and =
would value your comments on those aspects.
Another affordable possibility if "Amadeus Pro" that does provide a basic =
ability to use some "AU" and "VST" plug-ins and does most of the things Aud=
acity does for about $40 (US).
A final thing to consider is Ardour --- I tried it a while ago, it is still=
under development, but was pretty darn good. It was free the last I heard=
, but deserving of a reasonable contribution as it is a very serious effort=
. It also uses a variety of AU and VST plug-ins but not all of them work wi=
th it. ( collection that does is provided as part of the download). Still, =
it'll let you do most basic things fairly easily (but w/ a little more effo=
rt as it is designed to eventually have lots more power). For longer pieces=
it lets you "automate" settings like audio level, pan, parameters of filte=
rs, etc. so they change during the course of the cut. (This means, for exam=
ple, that you can slowly "turn on" a low Hz filter as the sound of an airpl=
ane increases, and then slowly turn it down as the plane passes.) It is a m=
ore elaborate program than Audacity/Amadeus/etc. and takes a bit of effort =
to learn. It requires installing one auxiliary (free) program called "Jack"=
but that isn't too hard.
Best,
SP
--- In "justinasia" <> wrot=
e:
>
>
> > Except, of course, that software is always changing ---
>
> Yes, that was my worry. I suppose a lot of new programs come out too, or =
new Mac verions of existing software.
>
> Greg told me he just got Audiofile Wave Editor, $75, and said it seems go=
od so far. I was wondering if people had experience with that, whether it m=
ight be the most suitable?
>
> > That said, the latest Audacity beta currently has problems on Mac OS X =
but works fine on windows and linux as far as I've heard. Version 1.2.6 wo=
rks well on all systems as I understand it.
>
> Can Audacity do all those things? Does it do them well?
>
> Thanks!
> Justin
>
|