Sound Studio 3: Record, Edit, Add Effects to Audio (Mac)

Other products by Freeverse Software

Product Features

• Mac OS X software application for recording and editing audio digitally
• Easily digitize tapes and vinyl records or record live performances
• Create mixes with crossfades; tweak levels and EQ; apply digital effects
• Save in all major file formats including AIFF, AAC, MP3, and Wave
• Record professional-sounding Podcasts and other audio dialog

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BNKBDM
• Item model number: 22476
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,262 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Sound Studio 3 is an easy-to-use Mac OS X application for recording and editing audio digitally on your computer. Digitize tapes and vinyl records, record live performances, create your own mixes with crossfades, tweak the levels and EQ, apply digital effects, and save in all major file formats with Sound Studio 3!

Perfect for Podcasts

With Sound Studio 3 you can record professional sounding Podcasts and other audio dialog.

Positioned perfectly between more expensive programs with steep learning curves, and far less robust apps, Sound Studio 3 is for anyone who needs to record or edit audio. Some other possible applications include:

• Lectures
• Voice-notes
• Sermons
• Performances
• and more!

We at Freeverse have always found Sound Studio to be the perfect app for recording voiceovers, tweaking audio, or creating sound effects (monkey noises included of course). We've used it for years to create all the dialog and sound effects in our games, which is why we're so thrilled to be publishing this amazing new edition.

Features:

Recording

• Multi-track support: layer stereo sounds and save in interleaved format
• Audio Unit plug-in effect support
• Saves in MPEG-4 AAC (advanced audio coding) m4a format
• Saves in MP3 when the LAME framework is installed
• Automator support (launch Automator to see the bundled actions)
• Added "New Mono Document" command for quickly creating a monophonic document
• 24-bit / 96 kHz sample quality, in stereo or mono
• Low latency monitoring, using Core Audio
• Automatic recording starting and stopping based on timers or audio levels (a.k.a. VOX)

Editing

• Sample-accurate edits
• Markers (a.k.a. Cue Points) with text labels
• Time ruler with units for video and film
• Copy-and-paste editing
• Basic mixing edits
• AppleScript and Automator support

Effects

• Supports Audio Units
• Dynamics: Compressor, Expander, and Noise Gate
• Equalization: Graphic EQ, Low Pass Filter, and High Pass Filter
• Delay: Chorus, Flanger, Echo, and Reverb
• Volume: Amplify, Fade In/Out/Special, and Normalize
• Repair: Interpolate, Silence, DC Offset, and Swap Channels
• Repair clicks and pops by interpolating samples or silencing them
• Tone, FM, and noise generators
• Pitch adjustment
• Backwards/Reverse Audio

File Formats

• AIFF (.aif) and AIFF-C (.aifc) with compression including IMA 4:1
• AAC and MP3 (importing only).
• Sound Designer II
• Wave (.wav, PCM only)
• Tab-delimited text (export only)

Product Description

Sound Studio 3 is an easy-to-use Mac OS X application for recording and editing audio digitally to your computer. Digitize vinyl records and tapes, record live performances, create your own mixes with crossfades, tweak the levels and EQ, apply digital, and save in all major file formats with Sound Studio. A perfect accessory to create and customize your own iTunes tracks!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Roxio's Toast/Spin Doctor, but not up to Cool Edit (PC), May 6, 2007

By	Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm primarily interested in converting vinyl to digital and recording and editing FM audio, though lately I've begun to record live music. The colorful, gaudy, comparably-priced Toast/Spin Doctor program may be slightly handier for converting vinyl LPs, but its wave patterns are unreadable and its editing functions too imprecise to be practical for editing a large file. Sound Studio requires a bit more study than Spin Doctor, at least for the uninitiated, but the wave patterns are readable, offering the user more than the merely decorative squiggly lines of the Roxio product. Moreover, it has a reliable and easy-to-set timer for automatic recording, a very useful feature that's missing in Spin Doctor. Finally, it comes packaged with a handy little hard-copy manual--perhaps the reason Roxio's Toast is once again including printed instructions.

As for the recent, heavily promoted Wiretap Studio, it's definitely the program of choice for recording audio files off the internet (I mostly use it to record files from NPR Jazz). And it enables you to preview about a dozen different compression ratios in real time, a unique feature. Moreover, you can record in any compression ratio rather than convert after the fact, which helps insure against exceeding storage capacity while recording. Still I feel more comfortable recording and editing non-internet sound with Sound Studio. The latter offers a bigger display, more accessible wave patterns, better level indicators, more protection against distortion, and makes the saving of a single part of a large unedited file a simple, straightforward operation.

Later: Sound Studio 3 has updated to Sound Studio 3.5, which lists dozens of additional features and add-ons. It's no problem downloading an upgrade from the Freeverse site. The new version does nothing that's different from my old Sound Studio 2, which was practically free as I recall (the price of the present one seems a bit high when compared to the burning and video features of the comparably priced Toast). But the current program has been, for the most part, stable and dependable.

The other program in this price range worth considering is Fission, which appears to have all of the features of Sound Studio plus more reader-friendly instructions and user-friendly icons. The problem with the program is that it requires a separate recording program (Audio Hijack Pro).

Apple, which is always popular with musicians and artists, doesn't appear to offer any programs comparable to the PC favorite, Cool Edit, but Sound Studio may well be the closest for the reasons given. Although the instruction manual is relatively short and accessible, a few more recommendations and tutorials for the neophyte would be welcome. Otherwise, the plethora of settings and effects can soon become overwhelming. For example, is Normalization preferable to the Compressor setting? Is it advisable to use both? When Normalizing, is it better to use the Peak or Average Power (RMS) option? After hours of experimentation, my advice comes down to this: 1. boost the volume a tad if the signal seems to require it; 2. use the wave patterns to cut out the dead spaces, coughs and clams. Trust a decent mic and recorder to do the rest.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent basic sound editor, November 9, 2006

By	Jitendra Darling "Wavemaven" (San Diego) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have used a number of different "low end"" audio editors and found Sound Edit FAR superior on my Mac. It works smoothly without crashes, which plagued most of the other programs I tried (incl. Audacity). I do mainly voice editing for lectures with some music background mixed it. It is very easy to enlarge and edit out unwanted sound bytes or noises. Only thing it either doesn't have, or I haven't figured out yet, is how to filter the entire recording for crackles and pops. For the price, Sound Edit is way above the rest-even the freeware.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice handy-dandy audio editor, August 8, 2006

By	Professional Strong Man (Selinsgrove, PA) - See all my reviews

I like this software because it is a nice and easy editing program. It operates mainly in two tracks, so if you're looking for someing a la ProTools, keep looking. I use this program mainly to check audio files that students submit for grading - its quick and easy to pop in their disk, open the file and check levels, etc. Its also nice for quick editing of small files. I'm not too keen on the price but when I remember what Cool Edit 2000 cost when it first came out, its no big deal.

I like that it works with all Apple formats as well as .wav and .mp3. You don't have to worry about compatability problems. Documentation and support are easy to read and understand.

All told, this is not the solution for multi-track work on the Mac. ProTools is still the top dog. But for basic editing, listening, and sharing files, it can't be beat. Its a nice low-cost solution.