If Pro-Tools is the well-muscled, handsome (and rich) jock of the audio recording world, then Audacity is the smart (yet perpetually stoned) kid sitting at the back of the class. He’ll help you with your homework, sure, but don’t count on him to come through on exam day.
Two programs at the two ends of the spectrum. But what of the people who need an app that’s dependable, easy to use, and won’t break the bank? Sound Studio 3 ($79.99 from Freeverse) is a solid middle ground. I’ve been using it for the past couple of months, for anything from recording podcasts to voice overs. My setup at home is really basic (M-Audio Fast Track, SM57 mic) but I’ve been extremely happy with the sound quality of those tools with Sound Studio.
Features:
Take advantage of your Mac’s built-in audio capabilities.
Record and edit digital audio in 32-bit floating point accuracy, at any sample rate (hardware permitting).
Layer sounds with multiple tracks.
Apply any of 24 built-in effects filters.
Use any Core Audio plug-in Audio Unit effect.
Open and save in MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, and other popular file formats. (Saving in MP3 requires a free external framework.)
Create podcasts with chapter markers in AAC format.
Edit iTunes song metadata and ID3 tags.
Connects to any standard USB audio device or other Core Audio device.
Batch process files using Automator or AppleScript.
The preferences couldn’t be easier to use, which is a nice change from a lot of the high-end audio programs out there. And the toobar at the top of your audio track gives you easy access to features that you’ll be using frequently, like fade ins and outs. It’s far more intuitive and simple than the toolbar on Audacity.
Lee Sherman over at Macworld has a really excellent review posted, and I agree with his points. The lack of VST plugins may bother some people who are accustomed to using them (say, in Pro-Tools) but that won’t stop you from becoming the next self-recorded indie legend or podcasting star (the chapter markers mentioned above are super helpful for that).
Since I don’t have a rating system for software on this blog, I think I’ll invent one. Sound Studio 3 gets 4.5 lime cats out of 5.
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27 Responses for "Sound Studio 3 (mini-review)"
Have you ever used Wire Tap studio for podcasting from Ambrosia??
Veronica,
It looks solid, but what does it have that GarageBand doesn’t as far as podcasting goes? For $79 I can get all of iLife. I’m always interested in other apps, but GB always seems to win because there’s SOMETHING missing in these other apps.
@Starman – This is way more straightforward than GarageBand, to me at least. Like iMovie 08, I find GarageBand to be so simple as to be confusing. Personally. I’m not a huge fan of the iLife apps, iPhoto excluded.
Good post. I agree. iLife needs an overhaul. iPhoto is good but there are better apps that combine rich client with the web- Picasa.
the Lime Cat rating system is LMFAO (:
I normally used Ableton Live for heavy projects but for smaller project I use Amadeus Pro. It has real nice feature but only $40.
Check it out here:
http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html
Completely off-topic, but I have three invites to FlyTunes, and thought you and Ryan might like to try it out if you haven’t already gotten in.
Another very similar app is Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
and it is for free!
Tomas – read the first sentence of the article.
Hey Veronica!
Sound Studio 3 is very very good, best for simple editions, cut , volume and equa adjusts.
Thanks for good post!
ps.: version 3, works 100% on Leopard.
[...] Sound Studio 3 (mini-review) [veronicabelmont.com] [...]
I’m still good using Cool Edit 2.
For $40 you can’t beat Amadeus Pro.
http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html
It’s probably not the best for PodCasters that aren’t very tech savvy. But it supports MANY formats, batch processing, multi-track, and VST.
Also, I will ALWAYS love it because I was able to save someone’s Pro Tools session that was copied from a MacOS9.2 HFS+ drive to a FAT drive. I was able to open up raw files and tell them that they were 24b/48k wavs… Being the hero is the awesomest.
Audacity does it for me for all three of my shows. Someday I want to move up to generating multi-track recordings. At that point, I’ll have to give your suggestion a try.
Video is killing the internet radio-star anyway, however.
I’m curious as to why you prefer the 57 over the 58.
There are so few people I know in the music world who sing into 57’s and most of them have VERY deep voices. Are you doing it to add bottom end?
@Eric – It was cheaper
Hey gr8 article, I’m going to check out Sound Studio with my Samson USB mic. There is like a 50ms real-time sound delay when recording with audacity on the mac—could be USB 1 but I really want to improve the latency in real time sound—
@Chris ugh… lol… ya my bad
Ok… so… SS is $79.99. Audacity is $0.
Is Sound Studio 79.99/0 times better than Audacity?
Along the same lines, Cubase LE is a “light” (lite?) version of the $800 pro app Cubase. LE is a freebie; it ships with a lot of semi-pro audio hardware, and it totally rocks. You can do MIDI sequencing, work with loops, as well as complete audio editing. Did I mention “free?”
Anything is better than Audacity. Every time I go back to it I want to pull my hair out.
I’ll give SS a try, V. Thanks for the heads up.
Hey V, nice post. It’s cool to know that such professional sounding results can be gotten with relatively modest hardware.
I documented my own music setup at Flickr. I don’t do much (well, any) vocal recording but my setup is similar. The big difference is Ableton Live. It’s a perfect tool for me with it’s audio, midi, virtual instruments and effects, and great UI. Alas, it is $400 or so. Also, tablet PCs make Ableton on Windows quite compelling!
I would personally be interested in what you use for the Mahalo Daily videos. I would guess Final Cut Pro, or Premiere.
Peace.
Gee, smart yet perpetually stoned. That sounds like me.
Hi V!!
After 8 years of not touching a recording interface I got an M-Audio Fast Track Pro, i think it’s one of the best interfaces available por the buck.
back in the days of my amateur sound engineer life I used to use sonicfoundrys Soundforge and Vegas, now i found out that Sony bought Sonicfoudry, yet Vegas 8 Still does the job elegantly, i know that it´s more complex to use but i like to think of it as the poors protools =)
For Mics I suggest Beta87 and KSM27, both are more expensive condenser mics but i think you lovely voice deserves it.
Cheers!
Alex
Ok no one has asked yet, so what is a good software for Windows when it comes to podcasting for both video and audio and especially multi-track on the audio?
Hey Veronica:
I’ve used Sound Studio since version 2.2 when it was a Felt Tip before Freeverse bought it. I think it’s been about four years that I’ve been using it to edit my weekly radio show to prep it into a podcast. It’s simple and intuitive, and handles a 2-hour broadcast nicely.
The only thing I’d wish for would be if it can display multitracks ala Cood Edit/Audition. Otherwise, I’ve been happy with the foundation and its enhancements.
Best of luck with it!
V.
I use sound studio on all of my podcasts and edits of interviews for my radio show in the uk. I’ve been using it since version 2.2 and was given a copy of v.3 at macworld 2006 by the creator of sound studio, as I’m a well known presenter!
Want more info? Visit me online at: http://www.dsoundz.co.uk
Xlolx
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