At 6:09 PM -0700 10/8/09, Lily Plants wrote:
> Hello, all you nature people. I need help. This is my second email today=
.
>
>Please advise on a sound editing program for two purposes: (1) clean
>up 150-250 cassette tapes of telephone interviews and (2) edit/mix
>sounds which fit short videos (one to ten minutes). I'll also be
>shooting for sound/video installations.
>
>I'm new to recording and sound. I'd like to get settled with
>software that's capable enough. I'm sure there are options other
>than Apple, but that's what I have access to other than Lynda.com.
>
>I don't want to buy too little or too much software. will abandon
>the inexpensive AudioHijack Pro which records from input sources and
>supports plug-in filters during recording. It's harder to control
>than Apple's Soundtrack Pro as I discovered today at an Apple
>one-to-one session. Soundsoap sounds "ify" - an example of too
>little software.
>
>Soundtrack Pro is not a stand alone program. It comes with either of
>two apple packages, Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio. I'm getting
>mixed advice from the Apple people. So I don't know if Soundtrack
>Pro is good enough, but I can get help with it from Apple (or
>Lynda.com.
>
>I own Final Cut Express, but it doesn't have enough sound capability
>to clean up the tapes. Final Cut Studio comes with Soundtrack Pro
>and other software packages. It's $850 & and sort of duplicates the
>video of FCE.
>
>Logic Studio is $415 and has music software I don't need.
>
>Any advice or suggestions?
>
>vividly grateful.
>lily
>
Hi Lilly--
I'm guessing you'll probably enjoy being able to edit/mix multiple
tracks for the video soundtracks and you'll need reference video
playback for synchronization for this too. You'll also need the
ability to insert the aforementioned processing plugs into one or
more tracks for the phone interview and other material too.
It looks like FCP Express has "Mac OS X Audio Units plug-in support"
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/specs.html so you should be
able to use third party plugs like ApEq, noise reduction and other
plugs. FCP Express a very workable application for sound editing
unless you need to make a whole bunch of sub-frame edits (shorter
than 1/30 of second in duration). Rather jumping up to Logic Audio
Pro for this, you can take this material to a stereo editor like Peak
LE or Amadeus Pro and then import the edit back into FCP Express for
layering/effects/mixing. I'd try some audio editing in FCP Express
ASAP to get an idea of its capabilities. Here are some tutorials
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/tutorials/
Take some time to learn the short-cut keys designed to streamline
audio editing. I believe you can customize the window layout to
accommodate audio editing priorities. If you sense that the video
overhead of FCP Express is too much for audio-only editing, you might
try a demo of Cubase. Its a little more robust than Soundtrack Pro
and supports reference video playback too. Around $150USD I believe.
As Vicki says, the audio plug-ins are likely to be a significant part
of your investment. All "Audio Unit" or "AU" plug-ins you should be
accessible in any Mac-based sound or video editing application,
including Peak, Cubase, etc.
As for which noise reduction plug to buy, you can install demo
versions of all of them and test settings with your interview
material. It should be pretty easy to decide for yourself. There are
some free AU noise reduction plugs too. The most popular audio plug
type I've seen people invest in is multi-band parametric equalization
and I agree with Vicki that you can't go wrong with APeq.
http://www.apulsoft.ch/apeq/ There's discussion of this plug in our
archive.
Here are some other useful (I believe, free and donationware) AU
plugs you should be able to add to FCP Express and test out 3rd Party
plug support:
http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/4549/software/Zimple-Gat=
e/#
http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/4537/software/Bitter-Swe=
et/#
http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/2895/software/Black-Wate=
r-Reverb/#
http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/4474/software/Octave-Shi=
fter-2/
http://www.dontcrack.com/freeware/downloads.php/id/4556/software/Side-Chain=
-Compressor/#
http://www.apulsoft.ch/freeports/C3_Multi_Band_Compressor_1_2_2007_06_11.dm=
g
http://www.apulsoft.ch/freeports/lpgeq2_010505.dmg.gz
Rob D.
--
"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause
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