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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Gold Standard in Affordable Audio Editing, July 17, 2009
This review is from: Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 (CD-ROM)
For years I've used different audio editors from Steinberg's Wavelab, to Cool Edit Pro (now owned by Adobe), to Soundforge's current only real rival Audacity (which is free), which I still currently have on PC. I still choose Soundforge (like Willie Hutch sang), and here's why: There is no other affordable audio editing program that has the ease and workflow of Sound Forge.
There are the high end programs and plug ins like TDM Waves, but unless you are running a multi-plantinum artist recording studio you most likely don't need a program like this, and wouldn't get any mileage out of it if you did have it. Soundforge is a good place to hone your audio editing skills. Alot of people always think they have to use the most full blown and expensive versions of audio, music, and video programs, but a good program won't make up for a lack of skills.
That said I currently use Sound Forge Studio with a suite of Sony plug-ins, and some Focusrite Saffire audio plug-ins (which are very good). It should be noted also that Sound Forge Studio 9 has more features than many of the older versions of Sound Forge Pro (which are probably floating around the internet, not recommended). The Vinyl Recording (once you tweek the settings) feature is great, it can use VST and Direct X plug-ins, and it works hand in hand with the other suite of Sony Creative programs (Vegas Studio 9 Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro Pack, Acid MusicACID Music Studio 7) which I own.
I've had no problems with installation on both a laptop and desktop, and have mixed and edited my own recordings, converted non-copy protected songs I purchased to MP3s with my own mix settings, and have converted a small part of my vinyl catalog to digital. If someone is having installation problems they should make sure they uninstall all older versions of Sound Forge, especially the old Sonic Foundry versions, that may help...
Sound Forge vs. Audacity
Audacity is a great program and if money is an issue this a good place to start using auditor software, being that its free. There are alot of third party plug-ins available for Audacity, however, for me Audacity does not have the speed and workflow of Sound Forge, and there are many tasks in Sound Forge that are done in one mouse click, that would take multiple clicks in Audacity, it also does not natively support as many file formats as Sound Forge, such as windows media audio, which is a downside for me.
Overall, people may have their pro and cons, and yes the Sony registration can be a bit annoying, but in terms of ease of use and reliability Sound Forge studio has been great.
As a last point, it does take some audio know how to get the most out of SF hence the four stars, you may have to select either Microsoft Sound Mapper (if you don't have a high end soundcard), or use the ASIO drivers (at least under Windows XP) under preferences to get the most out your sound playback. Enjoy.....
Also recommended Steinberg Cubase Essential 4 - Personal Music Production - Windows Macintosh, Ableton Live 7 LE - Windows and Macintosh, Focusrite Saffire LE 6 In/8 Out Version 2 Firewire Audio Interface
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great inexpensive alternative to the Professional Software, November 5, 2008
This review is from: Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 (CD-ROM)
For my purposes, Audio Studio is a really nice editing program. I do not use it to create my own music, but only to edit existing music files. My husband is a drama teacher, so we're often mixing and splicing music to get the right amount of time for a certain piece. I also edit curse words out of lyrics so that his students can listen to a musical without warranting a parental advisory. For this, Audio Studio 9 is very user friendly and includes all the tools to do so, if you're creative.
My only beef is the bogus claim that its "Vocal Eraser" can erase vocals and create a karaoke track. NOT AT ALL TRUE! Every music file I have tried, you can still hear the lyrics very clearly. They may be more faint, but they are far from removed. You cannot use the vocal eraser to create a background track, nor to remove curse words. But, other than that, it Audio Studio performs as advertised.
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28 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM, November 7, 2008
This review is from: Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 (CD-ROM)
I am using Windows XP Home version. Installed the program. Registered the program with Sony. Program ran OK immediately after installation. Tried to run in again several days later and got following error message: "This application has failed to start because AudioStudio90k.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."
I re-installed the program, and it asked me to register the program again! Not knowing if Sony would let me register it twice, I took the "Register later" option. I was able to use it for one session immediately after re-installation. I tried to use it again [for a third time], about a week later and got the SAME error message that "AudioStudio90k.dll was not found."
I have not installed or removed any other programs since I first installed/re-installed Sound Forge Audio Studio 9.
I went to the Sony support, FAQs but found nothing that matched my problem. Tried to submit as a technical question. This was not easy since they ask you a question you have to be able to load the program to get the answer to. Finally was able to fake my way through and submitted my question including the error message. Got an automated response that suggested things I had already eliminated. It thought I was having trouble activating the program, to which I responded I am not having trouble activating my software; I'm having trouble KEEPING it activated.
Finally got in touch with a person via their e-mail system. Her suggestion was long and complicated and required me to change the registry, but in order to do THAT, I had to download a program that saves registry settings. This is crazy. I didn't even have the warm and fuzzy feeling that this solution was going to fix my problem [much less that I would badly screw up something else], so I tried to get back on their e-mail and open my problem number. Couldn't do it; they didn't recognize the problem number, me, or anything else. What a joke for tech support. Sony should have an update that fixes this problem.
And guess what the upshot of all this is. Using Windows Explorer, I found the .dll file the program is looking for IN THE FOLDER THE INSTALLATION ITSELF CREATED !!!!
Update 10/20/2009:
I placed a copy of the .dll file in EVERY directory and sub-directory of the program folders, and it still couldn't find it.
This is my first and last Sony software.
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