Sound Forge Studio

Software Review

by Jenni Keith

Sound Forge Studio 5.0 is published by Sonic Foundry and I choose to review it because we licenses for it at our school and I wanted to learn more about it. This digital sound editor came bundled with the music creation program (also published by Sonic Foundry) Acid Pro 3.0.

Sonic Foundry has recently released updated versions of both programs. The most current release of Sound Forge Studio is 6.0. Although I used version 5.0 to create my sound files, I am including information on version 6.0 since it is currently available for purchase. I should also mention that Sonic Foundry publishes Sound Forge in addition to Sound Forge Studio. Below you will see a brief description of each package.

The industry standard in digital audio editing, Sound Forge, is our full-featured audio editor designed with the audio professional in mind. It includes over 35 real-time audio effects and processes with more than 200 presets and much more. Review of Sound Forge 6.0 by Kurt von Behrmann

Perfect for entry-level audio editing but powerful enough for media professionals, Sound Forge Studio is our entry-level audio editor. Sound Forge Studio is built on the same powerful technology in Sound Forge, but with a streamlined interface and reduced price.

Features

	Simple editing and navigation
	Drag-and-Drop operations
	Automatic left and right mono to stereo merge
	Mix, paste, and crossfade
	Overview window
	Unlimited Undo/Redo
	System and user-defined function presets
	Effects previewing
	Crash recovery
	Time Compression
	Mark-in, mark-out, drop markers in real time
	Sample rates from 2 kHz to 48 kHz
	8-bit, 16-bit file support
	Video and AVI file support
	Embed summary information in files
	Mono and stereo sound files
	Real-time play and record meters
	Save files to popular multimedia and Internet file formats
	Standard keyboard commands, mouse shortcuts, and toolbars
	Compress sound files for 8-bit distribution

Added Features in v. 6.0

	Real-time nondestructive editing
	Multitask background rendering
	QuickTime™ and WMV import
	Tabbed docking windows
	Fully customizable toolbars
	Enhanced Preset Manager
	Full support for 4 GB and larger files
	New video rendering options
	User interface enhancements

File Inputs and Outputs

I am a novice at sound editing and I found this program easy to navigate and use immediately. It is deceptively simple, because the program interface is limited to one very simple toolbar and your typical menu bar. However, powerful tools lurk beneath the surface. I typically play around in a new program to get the gist of things, but when I need to do something and can't quickly find the answer I'll open the help menu and do a quick search. This usually provides a quick answer for me and I can continue to play around. It worked beautifully in Sound Forge Studio and I was able to learn quite a bit rather quickly.

For most teachers and classrooms the power of Sound Forge Studio is plenty and with its significantly reduced cost it would be my choice in most circumstances. I did like using the software, but would need spend time learning and getting more experienced with the program in order to use all its features and understand it fully.

Sound.wav	Sound.mp3	Sound.wma
WAV, 13mb 16 bit, time 1:17 41hz sampling stereo	MP3, 608kb 128kbps CD Quality Audio 16 bit, time 1:17 41hz sampling stereo	Win Media Audio, 923kb 96 CD Quality Audio 16 bit, time 1:17 41hz sampling stereo
Sound2.wav	Sound2.mp3	Sound2.wma
WAV, 6.51mb 8 bit, time 1:17 41hz sampling stereo	MP3, 608kb 64kbps FM Radio Quality 8 bit, time 1:17 41hz sampling stereo	Win Media Audio, 923kb 96 CD Quality Audio 8 bit, time 1:17 41hz sampling stereo

I used three sound effects and two music clips to create my sound. The Don Williams song, I've Been Loved by the Best, was an MP3 and the Jewel cut, Have a Little Faith in Me, was a wav file. I opened each song and cut the clip I wanted to use. Then I pasted each into a new file using the crossfade process. I then added one voice wav at the beginning and faded into the beginning of the Don William clip. The final two voice wav files were added to the end after fading out the end of the Jewel clip.

I then set about saving in three formats. Based on my PC sound card and speakers, these files all sounded very similar and I really couldn't tell much difference in the sound quality. However, the wav file is prohibitively large at 13mb so I would choose to use the mp3 sound on a website. I then took the wav file I had created and used the Bit-depth converter to go down to 8-bit file. This decreased the file size to 6.51mb, but also reduced the quality. I then took the mp3 file and the wma file and made some format changes to those as well. I only noticed a slight quality change in the mp3 and no file size changes.