Free or Inexpensive Audio Editor (for Teaching)

Hi Everyone,

I'll soon be teaching a course about recording/editing/mastering audio, in a computer lab with 15 iMac workstations. The problem is I'm completely accustomed to a Windows machine w/ Sony Sound Forge.

I know there are Mac equivalents to Sound Forge, but the program doesn't have the budget for any more software. From what I've seen in GarageBand, it's really not made for audio editing (it's more for simplified multi-track sequencing).

The only thing this leaves is Audacity-- But it feels clumsy and unpolished to me. Can someone recommend something else??

Thanks for any input...

Sound Forge... ah Yes! I've used that for the past 9 years along with CD Architect. What fond memories!

IMHO... Audacity is a great program... definitely not compared to SF but you are pretty much get what you pay for (FREE) going the freeware route.

Recently I've tried out Audiofile's Wave editor which to me is the closest audio editor program to mimic SF for a Mac.
There is also NCH Software's Wavepad but it's not as great as Wave Editor.

I know the budget it tight but I wonder if Amadeus Pro - Audio editor / sound and voice recorder for MacOS X would meet your needs. It's not free but the site license isn't unreasonable. The author has an excellent history of updating the program.

Thanks for the tips... it sounds like there is a shortage of free software for the Mac OS, and I may have to give Audacity another shot. These programs seem to range between $40 and $80 per license, correct??

PS JUKE nice XL.. I recognize your name from the MPC forums! (my name = elevated)

Awww Hey! What's up Bro???!!!!
Good luck on that teaching gig! I'll see ya around here or the MPC-Forums!

If you're with a school, get in touch with your Apple sales rep, get a great deal on iLife and use Garage Band, or get the school to invest in Logic Express. The software here is nice, but you're students will learn to "record/edit/master music like bedroom amateurs, as none of that music gives a professional set of tools, it's all hobbiest software.

BenB said:

If you're with a school, get in touch with your Apple sales rep, get a great deal on iLife and use Garage Band, or get the school to invest in Logic Express. The software here is nice, but you're students will learn to "record/edit/master music like bedroom amateurs, as none of that music gives a professional set of tools, it's all hobbiest software.

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Why didn't my school have programs like this??? lol

Thanks for the replies everybody... What if I refined my question to be about ease of use-- What I like in Sound Forge so much is the keyboard shortcuts and how nicely you can scroll to zoom into the waveform, especially for looping. What mac audio editor has the best zooming/scrubbing controls?

More specifically-- I like using the scroll wheel on my mouse to zoom into the waveform. I can't seem to do this in Bias Pro, which I'm trying out. Anyone know of a wave editor with scrolling/zooming functionality??

BedrockBeats said:

More specifically-- I like using the scroll wheel on my mouse to zoom into the waveform. I can't seem to do this in Bias Pro, which I'm trying out. Anyone know of a wave editor with scrolling/zooming functionality??

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Just tried a few I have here. Amadeus Pro does the zooming with the mouse wheel like you want. Also normal Amadeus does that same thing. Both are very nice audio editors and do all Audacity does and more. Audacity does not work with the scroll wheel the way you want and I could not find a way to change that setting.

dtravis7 said:

Just tried a few I have here. Amadeus Pro does the zooming with the mouse wheel like you want. Also normal Amadeus does that same thing. Both are very nice audio editors and do all Audacity does and more. Audacity does not work with the scroll wheel the way you want and I could not find a way to change that setting.

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Thanks, appreciate that!! I'm downloading it right now. I'll report back...

GarageBand, stick with what will help them in the REAL world of music production.

Music Editing

Have you looked at Sound Studio?

Okay, so reporting back as I said I would-- I REALLY like Amadeus Pro, after trying a few others. The Side to side scrolling combined with up and down zooming is excellent and very smooth! Thanks DTravis7 for the tip on trying it.

BenB said:

If you're with a school, get in touch with your Apple sales rep, get a great deal on iLife and use Garage Band, or get the school to invest in Logic Express. The software here is nice, but you're students will learn to "record/edit/master music like bedroom amateurs, as none of that music gives a professional set of tools, it's all hobbiest software.

Click to expand...

Though the tools are not the same as what professionals have today, they are light years beyond the digital tools that were available to professionals not long ago.

BedrockBeats said:

Okay, so reporting back as I said I would-- I REALLY like Amadeus Pro, after trying a few others. The Side to side scrolling combined with up and down zooming is excellent and very smooth! Thanks DTravis7 for the tip on trying it.

Click to expand...

Okay I take it all back. I'm using Amadeus to do some heavy editing (chopping up long sections of a song at zero-crossings for rearrange). It's smooth, but awkward and not precise. The whole program feels crude and homemade compared to Sony.

But in lighter news, I'm dropping the Audio Editing class entirely, and doing two sessions of Music Production instead! Garageband for sure, unless I can get them to install Logic.

I use Amadeus Pro for both podcast editing and radio commercials. I've tried a lot of other suites, nothing compares for solid, basic multitrack + AU plugin editing that doesn't require a year to learn.

There are obviously better packages out there for music/high-end audio creation, but that's not what I'm doing.

I haven't read through the thread replies so sorry if its been mentioned, but "Sound Studio" is a very good program, IMO better than Sound Forge.