Best 2 track audio editor?

[strikingtwice]

Hey everyone. I'm doing a lot of sfx design lately for a game I'm working on, and i'm sorta getting tired opening up daws to do this work. On the other hand, i'm not terribly floored with some of the 2 track (doesn't have to be 2 track, i just mean dedicated audio editors) that are out. There is the obvious audacity, which well...great for free, i've checked out sound studio which i like a lot of features of, audiofile engineering's wave editor, and as "mac" as it is, it's pretty meh. I have not been fortunate enough to check out peak or dsp quattro stuff because i figured if i checked it out, i'm still probably priced out of it right now. Are these two really where it's at?

I would like

Real time preview with audio units (a major shortcoming of most of these
preferably stackable audio units sort of like apple soundtrack (non destructive)
maybe the ability to add other tracks if needed
whatever other cool features you think about whatever editor you use

looking for opinions! thanks

[zed]

Sound Grinder Pro is one worth considering:
http://www.monkey-tools.com/products/sound-grinder-pro/

[Michael Canavan]

I have not been fortunate enough to check out peak or dsp quattro stuff because i figured if i checked it out, i'm still probably priced out of it right now.

Actually I believe it's on sale right now. FWIW I use DSP Quattro and really like it. I felt the same way about Wave Editor, couldn't get past the to me anyway, ugly interface and awkward workflow.

Real time preview with audio units (a major shortcoming of most of these
preferably stackable audio units sort of like apple soundtrack (non destructive)

DSPQ does both of these things, really well.

maybe the ability to add other tracks if needed

Don't think you can get more than a single playback track going, but you can work on multiple tracks at the same time, CD making features etc. and you can record tracks.

whatever other cool features you think about whatever editor you use
looking for opinions! thanks

You have VST and Audio Units for both the Master output track and each audio file.
So for instance you can open up spectral analyzers and graphs etc. in the Master out and keep them there while you use different plug ins for each audio file.
It hosts virtual instruments. I have Live so I've never bothered with it, but you can play an audio file and play an instrument, then record all that into another track.
I use it for mastering, it's much much faster IMO than dealing with DP or any big DAW for this, as you can listen insistently to the rendered tracks and hit undo if it's too quite or loud.
Batch conversion, and it's very reminiscent of Spark looks wise if you ever used that audio editor. They guy who makes it has been writing it since OS9 days when it was called D-Sound Pro. Also he answers his emails.
Just checked and it's still on sale for $99.
http://www.i3net.it/dspquattro/asp/homepage.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zed]

DSP Quattro looks like a very nice interface. But does it do batch conversions?

One of the most powerful things about Sound Grinder Pro is that you can do batch conversion of things. For example, if you had a bunch of WAV files that you wanted to convert to Mp3, while adding some EQ or other plugin effect, you could simply set that up quickly in Sound Grinder and then have all the files modified and resaved for you in seconds. I like that!

That was my main reason for my interest in getting it.

And I use Fission for editing files where I want zero degradation of the data. It is lossless editing.

[Michael Canavan]

Yeah, it will do all that. The batch converter covers VST and AU plug ins, format (including mp3), bit depth, mono/stereo, sample rate, SRC Quality, DC Removal, Pitch, Fades, change gain, Dither, L&R channel swap.. don't see anything for appending the beginning or end of the file name? but OSX can do that with Automator!

Funny? I think Stefano needs a marketing department or something?
It does everything you two have mentioned so far except I don't think it does multitrack tracking or surround sound? It's $99 right now BTW.

[Radiogal]

I use Wavelab for this.
Available for Mac & PC

[zed]

I use Wavelab for this.

I've gotta say that I am not that impressed with the product page for this:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/shop/buy_product/product/wavelab-7.html

Being able to see images of the GUI is kind of an important thing you want to see right off the bat. There don't seem to be any screenshots. Such an oversight makes me wonder what kind of oversights exist in the product.

It could very well be the best editor on the market, but I come away from their site feeling unenthused (and unclear on the actual price), whereas when I saw the GUI from the DSP Quattro page, I found myself quite impressed with the look of it, was clear on the price, and was thinking that I would like working in that environment if I needed a new editor. They, however, did not announce their product's ability to do batch processing, which was an oversite that required Mr. Canavan to clarify.

Seems like any developer with a product like this should be going out of their way to make the product look enticing, and to list all the cool features it has. Kind of strange that they are not being more careful with their marketing.

[NazRat]

I use Wavelab for this.

I've gotta say that I am not that impressed with the product page for this:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/shop/buy_product/product/wavelab-7.html

Being able to see images of the GUI is kind of an important thing you want to see right off the bat. There don't seem to be any screenshots. Such an oversight makes me wonder what kind of oversights exist in the product.

Look here: http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/wavelab/details.html

[kgdrum]

From my perspective i3/ DSP Quattro has no actual marketing whatsoever. They received a few great reviews a couple of years ago and then it seems to have disappeared in the marketplace.
Generally users who have it love it,for me it's been an elusive puzzle.
I originally got it to burn CDs, never got my head around it and forgot about it.
I guess I need to reexamine it again.
For me it has to be the most puzzling piece of software I have, never figured out & never actually used. lol
i3 used to have a active presence on another forum but here in the USA the last few years they seem to have become invisible.
I also wish i3 had a more informative manual.
My next side project will be to learn how to use it & figure this out.
maybe it's not drummer friendly;)

[zed]

Look here: http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/wavelab/details.html

Indeed, indeed. This is a very nicely detailed page. Thanks for that!

I swear I tried a couple of times to find more details and they kept bringing me to the store page where there are no details. But it was user error -- I failed to see the obvious. Sometimes I'm a nincompoop.

This looks like a very nice Editor, by a name brand that goes back many years.

The price is more expensive than the others, but it has the audio restoration built in. I really like that feature a lot. I have RX2, which works wonderfully, but to have restoration built into your main audio editor is very cool. This would make it so easy to remove artifacts and do other unique kinds of edits in a snap -- that would come in handy all the time.

[bayswater]

DSP Quattro looks like a very nice interface. But does it do batch conversions?

It sure does.

Michael, DSP will play multiple tracks but each under its own transport. A master transport is something I've asked for a few times. But in a pinch you can use the CD master function to get two tracks going.

[Michael Canavan]

Michael, DSP will play multiple tracks but each under its own transport. A master transport is something I've asked for a few times. But in a pinch you can use the CD master function to get two tracks going.

Yeah I thought of mentioning that, but it's such a work around. Though you're saying you can play two stereo audio files in the CD Master area? IMO it's a two track editor, the real thing it's missing is surround sound file support, that's a rarified market though.

AFA Batch Processing not being highlighted on the web page, it's clearly in the list of features, under Main Features, it's also one of the screenshots of the GUI.


I'm not exactly sure why kgdrum has issues with it? it's really pretty straightforward if you're looking for an audio file editor that does batch processing and designs CDs for you etc.

[frankf]

Hey everyone. I'm doing a lot of sfx design lately for a game I'm working on, and i'm sorta getting tired opening up daws to do this work.

Excuse my ignorance on 2tr editors, but can someone summarize what the advantages of a using a 2 track editor over using DP to edit? I've been editing mixes in DP for a long time, but don't do mastering. I do use 3rd party software to batch convert (Barbabatch), and use DP or Toast to burn reference CDs when needed. OP says he's "kind of tired of opening DAWs" Do the aforementioned editors open that much faster than DP for audio only work? Just want to know what I'm missing.
Thanks,
Frank

[zed]

Excuse my ignorance on 2tr editors, but can someone summarize what the advantages of a using a 2 track editor over using DP to edit? I've been editing mixes in DP for a long time, but don't do mastering. I do use 3rd party software to batch convert (Barbabatch), and use DP or Toast to burn reference CDs when needed. OP says he's "kind of tired of opening DAWs" Do the aforementioned editors open that much faster than DP for audio only work? Just want to know what I'm missing.

I find myself editing audio files on an almost daily basis, whether it is an Mp3 mixdown of a song I am working on in DP, or a field recording from my ZOOM recorder, or something I have captured on my computer from YouTube or elsewhere. These files open up in seconds in my audio editor and I can quickly trim the ends, raise or lower the volume, or add or remove sections from within the file.

It is way easier to do these simple tasks in a dedicated audio editor. For audio edits of things that are already outside of DP, it seems way too complicated to have to import the file into DP in order to achieve similar results. If you wanted to overdub new parts or overlay different audio tracks or do something more fancy, then DP is definitely a solution.

But for straight forward changes, I use Fission. It is nothing fancy – It's just a simple loss-less editor, so that I know I am not degrading the quality of the file when I resave it with the changes.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if the other editors mentioned in this thread have loss-less capabilities? I would imagine that they probably offer something like that, but I'm not sure.

[bayswater]

Lossless is an odd term to apply to editing of AAC and MP3 files. Does that mean it edits them directly instead of converting to SD II, AIFF etc.? I'm pretty sure DSP Quattro converts MP3s to the default file format in the preferences.