Vi har testet Sound Forges nyeste opdatering: Pro 10 og vil primært kigge på de nye features der er kommet i version 10, men vi nævner også andre funktioner som vi mener er værd at nævne.
Programmet kommer i en rød æske med en program DVD der udover sfp10 også indeholder Izotope mastering bundle 2 for sound forge, noise reduction, preset manager og cd arcitecht 5.2. Der er altså ikke nogen manual i æsken, men der er manualer vedlagt DVD'en og der er også mulighed for at downloade en sfp10 dvd med lektioner hvis man er heldig. Det koster ikke ekstrea og en lille folder med seriel numre til de diverse plugins og selvfølgelig sfp10.
Programmet har nu grafisk fået et rødt skær over sig som er nemt genkendelig under opstarten og ikonet er også ændret til at vise en rød baggrund med en sort condenser mikrofon. Programmets egen brugerflade har dog ikke ændret farve eller layout, og personligt synes jeg at det er dejligt at se at sony ikke er faldet for fristelsen til at ændre programmets layout. Ingen grund til at ændre noget der fungerer bare for at få lidt lir for øjnene. Programmet er langsommere til at starte op end tidligere versioner, og det skyldes de mange nye eksterne plugins der er kommet, det kigger vi nærmere på i denne anmeldelse.
Interaktive lektioner
Ligesom Acid Pro 7 har sound forge pro 10 'interactive tutorials' der interaktivt viser dig hvordan du udfører forskellige handlinger som at dele en lydfil op i to. Når man vælger hjælpefunktionen dukker der et lille vindue op som fortæller dig hvad du skal gøre. Det er derfor funktionen er interaktiv du skal udføre de ting du bliver bedt om, og derfor lærer du samtidig at bruge funktionen. Kan sammenlignes lidt med den notoriske papirklip fra Office programmerne, men knapt så irriterende og den kommer kun frem hvis du beder den om det!
Nye mastering funktioner
Mastering effekterne fra Izotope er af topklasse når det gælder lydkvalitet, musikalitet og ikke mindst brugervenlighed. Det er en leg at eksperimentere med indstillingerne og finde frem til den bedst tænkelige lyd. Når man fx. vælger 'mulitband compressor'. Man aflytter det markerede eller hele lydfilen og justerer på de forskellige bånd(engelsk: band) imens og bruger sit øre til at finde den bedste indstilling. Alle lydfiler er jo forskellige så det eneste rigtige er at prøve sig frem, og det er netop det at izotope er så fremragende til. Hvis du er bange for selv at røre for meget med indstillingerne kan du altid frit vælge en af de mange presets der allerede er gemt i 'preset' rullegardinet. Her kan du ved et klik på musen tilføje mere akustisk guitar til lydbilledet eller give filen lidt mere punch. Du kan også gå helt amok i effekter og vælge modulationer med star wars associationer.
Jeg er positiv overrasket over lydkvaliteten som de forskellige izotope plugins forsynes sound forge med. De er en kærkommen gæst til det ellers udmærkede program som ikke har skortet på egne plugins.
Sound Forge har ingen master fader eller en master channel, som vi kender det fra DAW programmer som Pro Tools, da den fil du sidder og arbejder skal betragtes som selve masteren. Det skulle jeg lige vænne mig til når jeg valgte 'mastering effects fra izotope' for hvad eller hvor er masteren henne når jeg fx. har mange lydspor i det samme projekt? Her skal man forstå Sound Forge's helt egen måde at behandle lydfiler på. Det hjælper at tænke på programmets rolle som lydredigeringens Office program, hvor du jo i fx. Excell kan have mange dokumenter åbne i samme program. Det dokument du arbejder med ender med at være masteren. Eller sagt på en anden måde alle filer som du har åbnet i sound forge har samme rolle, der er intet hieraki, alle filer kan betragtes som master. Når du derfor vælger et mastering-plugin ved hjælp af plugin chainer skal du åbne det på lydspor eller rettere den lydfil du arbejder på.
Multichannel redigering og optagelse
Sound Forge pro 10 har som noget nyt har multi channel egenskaber det betyder at du kan fx. kan have helt op til 32 takes eller kanaler i den samme fil. Hver enkelt kanal bliver sendt til sin egen output kanal. Og hvis dit lydkort har 32 input kanaler så kan du også indstille sfp10 til at indspille lyden fra hver enkelt kanal. Meget imponerende, og det var utrolig hurtigt at navigere og flytte rundt og lægge effekter på de mange kanaler. Dog savnede jeg muligheden for at vælge plugin chainer på hver enkelt kanal så man er fri for at musemarkere hver kanal og manuelt lægge effekter på disse. Men her skal man igen huske på sfp10's helt egen måde at håndtere lydfiler på. Den arbejder ikke med mulitrack optagelser på samme måde som Acid Pro 7 eller Sony Vegas Pro 9, da den ikke er en multi track recoder, men en multirack editor. Det vil sige at du har 32 kanaler men ikke 32 lydspor. De 32 kanaler er stadig kun på én enkelt fil og bliver alle gemt i denne når du vælger at gemme filen.
Hvis du er vant til at arbejde med plugins i DAW programmer som Pro Tools så skal du lige vænne dig til sfp10's måde at håndtere plugins på. Når du vælger et plugin på din lydfil via 'plugin-chainer' på masteren er at det i modsætning til andre DAW programmer ikke nok at vælge et plugin på dit lydspor, man skal også trykke på 'process' knappen for at få aktivere de ændringer man ønsker at foretage. I modsætning til protools hvor en 'limiter' bliver aktiveret automatisk hvis den er valgt som plugin på et lydspor. I sfp10 skal man huske at aktivere funktionen eller står funktionen blot og bruger cpu uden at gøre noget som helst. Igen er det fordi sp10 arbejder med effekter på enkelt filer i modsætning til lydspor og det gør den rigtig godt.
Ny transponerings funktion
Sound Forge pro 10 har en ny transponerings og tempo ændrings funktion kaldet 'élastique Pro timestretch and pitch shift plug-in'. Vi har testet funktionen og fik gode musikalske resultater ud af de ændringer funktionen udfører. Det er nemt at sænke til en halv tone eller forhøje med en hel tone, du indtaster værdien, vælger den i en dropdown liste eller bruger scoll baren til at finde den værdi du ønsker. Nemmere kan det ikke være. Det hele foregår i real tid og du kan previewe dine ændringer på samme måde som du kan med alle andre sony plugins. Effekten er nok den mest cpu krævende af alle de plugins der er i sfp10, så det kræver en rimelig kraftig computer, så der kan godt være lidt forsinkelse i preview aflytningen. Computeren skal jo ligge følge med også.
Mastering exciter
Mastering exciter fra iZotope er et mastering plugin som er helt nyt for mig, da jeg kun kender og bruger almindelige mastering løsninger som 'limiter', 'compressor', og 'eq'. Hvad denne plugin helt præcist gør for lyden ved jeg ikke, men den deler din lyd op i 4-bands og har indstillinger for amplitude, som angiver hvor meget en svingning eller en (lyd)bølge svinger væk fra hvilestillingen. Det er også et mål for hvor meget energi en bølge transporterer, hvis frekvensen er konstant. Derudover er der en indstilling for mix, hvor du kan vælge hvor meget du vil beholde af den originale og uredigere lydfil, altså den tilstand filen var i før du lægger 'exciter' effekten på den, og hvor meget mastering exciter effekten skal fylde. Det indstiller du via et scrollbar. Du kan også vælge at bruge et af de mange vellydende presets der følger med og nærstuderede, men det er uden tvivl et plugin der kan farve din lyd med dejlige nuancer, og som vitterligt kan gøre din optagelse mere spændende. Du får muligheden for at vælge imellem nogle lydemuleringer man kender fra analog bånd, og her synes jeg at presettet 'analog tape enhance' er meget musikalsk vellykket. Det kan ikke forklares i ord, men skal opleves. Det lyder bare godt, så enkelt kan det siges.
Instrument filer
At læse og skrive mange filformater har altid været en af Sound Forge's forcer, og som noget helt nyt og spændende har sfp10 nu også mulighed for at åbne og redigere og ikke mindst skrive/gemme instrument filerne, så du kan med andre ord lave helt din egen instrument fil. Hvad er en instrument fil spørger du måske. Det er et samplings format som sampler programmer som Gigastudio gemmer i. Programmet kan også redigere DLS filer. DLS er en familie af standardiserede filformater til digitalt musikinstrument lyd banker (samlinger af virtuelle musikinstrument programmer). DLS standarden indeholder også detaljerede specifikationer for, hvordan MIDI protokol-kontrollerede musik synthesizers bør gøre instrumenterne i en DLS-fil. DLS familien er tæt knyttet til den proprietære sound fonts-format fra Creative Labs og sfp10 kan også åbne sound blaster sound fontene direkte som sf2 filer. Desværre kan den ikke åbne sample tank filer eller xpand filer, men gigastudio er jo stadig det mest universelle format inden for instrument filer.
Regioner giver nem navigering
Ved at markere sektioner i oversigten kan man springe frem til det sted man ønsker mens man fx aflytter lydfilen ved hjælp af genvejstaster som er nemme at huske. 1 for markering 1, 2 for markering 2 osv. Man kan sevlfølgelig springe frem og tilbage med genvejstaster når man ikke aflytter. Det gælder både for regioner og markeringer. Regionerne er grønne, mens markeringerne er orange.
Ny DAO funktion
Nu behøver du ikke længere konvertere dine filer eller gemme og åbne dem i brændingsprogrammer som Nero for at brænde en cd. Du kan bruge Sfp10 nye DAO funktion til at brænde dine filer med disc-at-once funktionen. Metoden til at brænde dem er dog forholdsvis teknisk kompliceret der kræver et stort kendskab til Sfp10 og dets brug af funktioner som indsættelse af regioner. For at brænde disc at once skal man have indsat regionerne manuelt i data vinduet, så sf ved hvad der skal brændes. Hver region bliver brændt som sin egen wave fil. Man skal også huske manuelt at indstille time display vinduet så det viser cd time og ikke den indviduelle fils tidslinje. Ikke helt for begyndere, men den interaktive hjælpefunktion viser hvordan du gør det, og den kan åbne et allerede gemt projekt for dig så du kan øve dig og se det i praksis. Efter lidt øvelse er det ikke så svært. Programmet har også track at once der er en hel nemmere at bruge du markerer blot din fil, hvis du arbejder i et projekt med mange åbne filer, og vælger burn track at once i tools menuen. Du får at vide hvor meget plads der er krævet og hvor meget din fil fylder målt i sekunder. Du kan også vælge at bruge det professionelle 'cd architecht 5.2' program der følger med sound forge pro 10.
Event baseret redigering
Som noget nyt har sfp10 fået 'precise event based editing', der går ud på at du kan markere hver region i din lydfil og frit trække den rundt via 'event tool' markøren uden at skulle markere noget først. Det sparer dig for masser af musearbejde, og endnu bedre så sørger sfp10 for at den crossfader automatisk når du indsætter dine event. Dvs. når du fx kopieren en sektion af en fil og indsætter den et andet sted og afspiller begge sektioner/regioner. Normalt ville du kunne høre når den ene region afsluttede og den anden begyndte, ligesom du kan det på en båndoptager, men sfp10 sørger for at cross fade imellem regionerne, så du ikke kan høre overgangen (transistionen). Det er dejligt nemt at arbejde med og noget vi kender fra Sony Vegas Pro og Pro Tools og andre lydprogrammer.
Ny dithering funktion
Sfp10 indeholder en helt ny og avanceret dithering funktion, dithering er et begreb man arbejder meget med i lydprogrammer hvor man bevidst har anvendt en form af larm, og så anvender 'dithering' til at randomisere kvantisering fejl, og dermed forhindrer støj på diskrete frekvenser i en lydoptagelse, der er mindre rare end ukorreleret støj. For at udføre dithering på dine lydfiler anvender sfp10 plugin fra iZotope og bruger derse 64-bit SRC og MBIT dither plug-ins. En avanceret til kræver lidt teknisk forståen for at sætte sig ind.
Det er ikke en nyhed, men jeg er alligevel imponeret over spf10's ubesværlige måde at håndtere videofiler, og hvor nemt du kan tilføje fx voice over eller en instrumental guitar til en video film. Du kan godt nok ikke redigere i selve videofilen, men du kan indsætte lyd til den lige der for hvor du ønsker det på tidslinjen.
Floating docked vinduer
En ny kærkommen gæst i sound forge pro 10 er floating docked windows som betyder at du som i Excell kan skifte vinduer i den rare oversigt som faner giver dig, men også kan trække den ene fane ud af fanelisten og bruge den som et vindue du trækker rundt. En rar funktion der forenkler dit redigerings arbejde, og gør det at kunne skifte imellem forskellige lydfiler til en leg.
Vindue konfigurationer kan gemmes
Kender du det at efter to timers heftig redigering i sound forge pro 10 har åbnet den ene funktion efter den anden og flyttet de derafkomne vinduer så dit skærmbillede er pænt og nydeligt opdelt så du nemt kan finde dine ting igen? Så ved du også hvor nemt det er at miste disse indstillinger igen ved at du vælger et nyt projekt og nye funktioner. Ville det ikke være rart at kunne gemme hvert projekts vindueindstilling for sig? Sound Forge Pro 10 har netop denne funktion. Du kan gemme vindue konfigurationer som du selv har lavet eller bruge de medfølgende. Der er fx. indstillinger for 5.1 redigering. Ganske smart.
Bemærkninger
Det har længe været sound forges force at den er lynhurtig og enkel til at redigere enkelt filer i. Jeg vil vove den påstand at alle der er vant til at bruge redigerings programmer som Word nemt ville kunne sætte sig ind i programmet inden for få minutter, så intuiativt er programmets brugerflade.
Når man vælger et plugin fx. Mastering Reverb så ville det være smart om man kunne skifte til et andet plugin fra samme serie fx. Eq inde i det samme pop vindue/dock vindue, uden at skulle lukke vinduet og åbne et nyt.Udover Preview af lyden burde der også være en loop funktion som kan aktiveres inde i det samme vindue, så man ikke behøver at bruge transport menuen, hvis man nu har glemt at aktivere 'loop play' i transport menuen.Når man flytter transport menuen rundt så er den ikke synlig under flytningen.
Når vi taler optagelses vinduet så er der ikke ændret meget her, udover at der selvfølgelig er kommet muligheder for multichannel optagelse, men jeg kunne godt tænke mig at 'enable audio input monitoring' burde fremgå som en knap lige som record og play gør det under optagelser, og ikke geme sige under advanced fanen. Det mener jeg da det at kunne 'monitore' en optagelse er ret vigtigt og alle lydkort har ikke direct monitoring og sådan en vigtig funktion burde være mere tydelig i programmet. Kan være jeg husker forkert men jeg mener at helt tidlige versioner af sound forge havde input monitoring med i knappepanelet. Det er jo vigtigt at kunne høre sig selv. Bevares, øvede brugere ville hurtigt kunne fiske funktionen frem, men det kræver jo at man ved at den findes, og der frygter jeg at mange begyndere vil have svært ved at finde den, og endnu værre vide at den eksisterer.
Konklusion
Er der en årsag til at opgradere fra version 9 til version 10? Det mener jeg at der er, da Sound Forge Pro 10 ikke blot er en panikopdatering, men en en opdatering der indeholder mange spændende nye funktioner som kan være med til at give dine optagelser mere musikalitet via de musikalske mastering bundle 2 plugins fra izotope. Sony's egen elastik funktion er også en forbedring til de muligheder der fandtes i forvejen til pitch og tempo skift. Den virker at være bedre til at bevare tonehøjden under konverteringen, og fremstår lydmæssigt mere musikalsk. De mange gode plugins fra izotope har virkelig shinet programmet op, og understøttelsen af multi channel optagelser er også en kærkommen gæst. Derfor mener jeg at man udmærket godt kan forsvare at sound forge nu har fået 'pro' tilknyttet sit navn. Det er et professionelt redigerings program som nu er blevet meget bedre til at løse de svære mastering opgaver.
Pris: 3274-,
Link til dansk distributør af sound forge pro 10
Opdatering
Der er lige udkommet en opdatering af Sound Forge Pro 10 til version 10a. Af de nye muligheder findes der nu understøttelse af windows 7.
English translation of the review
We've tested Sound Forge latest update: Pro 10 and will primarily be looking at the new features have that came out in version 10, but we also mention other features we think are worth mentioning.
The program comes in a red box with a DVD program, in addition sfp10 also contains IZotope Mastering Bundle 2 for Sound Forge, Noise Reduction, preset manager, and CD arcitecht 5.2. There is no manual in the box, but there are manuals included in the DVD and there is also the option to download a sfp10 DVD with lessons if you are lucky. With no other costs. Also included is a small booklet, with serial numbers to the various plugins and obviously sfp10.
The program icon and startup screen has a red glow graphically, whcih makes it easily recognizable during startup and the icon is also changed to show a red background with a black condenser microphone. The program's own interface has not changed regarding color or layout, and personally I think it's great to see that Sony has not fallen for the temptation to alter the program's layout. No need to change something that works just to get a little candy for the eyes. The program is slower to boot than previous versions, due to the many new external plugins that have arrived that we will be looking closely at in this review. It has now become easier to decide which format to record in, you can select Mono in the popup window and the program no longer insists on stereo recordings, but they can still be chosen. Same goes for 5.1 recordings. Selecting the correct sound driver for your sound card was also an easy task, and you can set which channel to be recorded from, but Microsoft sound mapper is still the default sound driver, one should be aware of.
Interactive lessons Like Acid Pro 7, Sound Forge pro 10 'interactive tutorials' are interactive that showsyou how to perform various actions such as splitting an audio file into two parts. When you choose the help feature a small window that pops up tells you what to do. You must do the thing you are asked by the tutor, and thus learn while using the feature, that is why the the function is called interactive. It can be compared to the somewhat notorious paper clip from Office programs, but less annoying and it only appears if you tell it to!
New mastering functions Mastering effects from IZotope are top class when it comes to sound quality, musicality, and above all very user-friendly. It is so easy to experiment with the settings and find the best possible sound. When, for example, you select 'mulitband compressor'. you preview a part you selected or the entire audio file and adjusts the various bands while using your ears to find the best option. All sound files are of course different, so experimenting to find the best settings is the only right thing, and that is exactly what IZotope is so outstanding at. If you are afraid to change the settings, you can choose one of the many presets already saved in the 'preset' window. Here you can add more acoustic guitar to the sound or give the file a bit more punch, with the click of a mouse button. You could also go berserk in adding effects and choose modulations with star wars associations. I am positively surprised by the sound quality provided by the various plugins IZotope that are included with Sound Forge. They are a welcome guest to this otherwise excellent program, that does not have a shortage of plugins made by Sony itself.
Sound Forge has no master fader or master channel, the oposite being the case with DAW programs like Pro Tools, this is because the file you're working on should be regarded as the master. Something I needed to get used to when I chose 'mastering effects from IZotope' because what audio track or channel should be regarded as the master at, when I was editing a project with many tracks in the same project? To answer this one must understand Sound Forge's own way of dealing with audio files. It helps to think of the program's role as the same role Microsoft Office has for editing paper docuemtns. A program Excel may have many documents open in the same program. The document you are working on ends up being the master. Or put another way, all files that you opened in Sound Forge has the same role, there is no hierarchy, all files can be regarded as the master. Therefore, when you choose a mastering plugin you should use it on the file you are working on, using the plugin chaine.
Multichannel editing and recording Sound Forge pro 10 has new multichannel properties which means you can have up to 32 takes or channels in the same file. Each channel is sent to its own output channel. And if your sound card has 32 input channels you can also set sfp10 to record sound from each channel. Very impressive, and it was incredibly fast to navigate and move around and put effects on the many channels. However, I missed the ability to choose the plugin chaine freely on each channel, to avoid using the mouse to highlight each channel idividually and manually add effects on them. But here again you must remember sfp10's very own way to handle audio files. It does not work with mulitrack recordings like Acid Pro 7 or Sony Vegas Pro 9 does, it is not a multitrack recoder, but a multi-rack editor. This means that you have 32 channels but not 32 tracks. The 32 channels are still only channelstrips used on a single file, and are all stored in this when you choose to save the file. If you are accustomed to working with plugins in DAW programs like Pro Tools then you need to get used to sfp10's way to handle the plugins. When you select a plugin in your audio file by clicking on the 'plugin-chain' to master the file, it is not enough to choose a plugin on your tracks to achieve the effect, you must also press the 'Process' button to activate the changes you want to make, unlike other DAW programs. Unlike ProTools or Acid Pro 7 where a 'limiter' will be activated automatically if it is selected as the plugin on a soundtrack. In sfp10 must you must remember to process the feature by clicking 'process' otherwise the function is simply ignored and uses up ram without doing anything. Again, it is because SP10 work with effects on individual files as opposed to the audio track, and does this really well.
New transpose function Sound Forge pro 10 has a new transpose and tempo amendment function called 'élastique Pro timestretch and pitch shift plug-in'. We tested the function and got good musical performances out of the changes the function made on the file. It is easy to shfit the pitch by a semi tone or by a whole tone, you enter the value, choose it in a dropdown list or use the scroll bar to find the value you want. It could not be easie. It's all done in real time and you can preview your changes in the same way as you can with any other sony plugins. Begin done in real time, the effect are probably the most CPU intensive of all the plugins that come with sfp10, so it requires a reasonably powerful computer, otherwise there might be a little latency in the preview interception. Your computer must of course be able to keep up with the effects being performed.
Mastering Exciter Mastering Exciter from IZotope is a mastering plugin that is completely new to me since I only know and use general mastering solutions like 'limiter', 'compressor' and 'eq'. What this plugin does exactly the sound I do not know, but it splits your audio up into 4-bands, and has settings for amplitude, which indicates how much a vibration or a (sound) wave swings away from the rest of the position. It is also a measure of how much energy a wave carries, whose frequency is constant. There is also a mix option, you can choose how much you want to keep of the original and unedited audio, so the state of the file becomes the same as it was before you added 'Exciter' effect on it, and how much mastering Exciter effect to use on it. The values are set by using a scrollbar. You can also choose to use one of the many sounding presets that comes with the plugin and do close study of the effects, but it is undoubtedly a plugin that can color your sound with beautiful textures and indeed make your recording more interesting. You get the opportunity to choose between some sounds emulations known from analog tape, and I think that the preset 'analog tape enhance' has a very successful outcome musically speaking. It can not be explained in words but must be experienced. It just sounds good.
Instrument Files To read and write many file formats has always been one of Sound Forge's strengths, and as something new and exciting version 10 now has the possibility to open and edit, and not least, write / save 'instrument files' so you can in other words, create your own instrument file. What is an instrument of file you might ask. This is a sample format a sampler program like Giga Studio saves it files in. The program can also edit DLS files. DLS is a family of standardized file formats for digital musical instrument sound banks (collections of virtual musical instrument programs). DLS standard includes detailed specifications how the protocol MIDI-controlled music synthesizers should make the instruments of a DLS file. DLS family is closely linked to the proprietary sound fonts format from Creative Labs and sfp10 can also open the Sound Blaster sound fonts directly as SF2 files. Unfortunately it can not open SampleTank files or Xpand files, but Giga studio is indeed still the most universal format for instrument files.
Regions for easy navigation By making a selection in the timeline by using markers and regions, you can skip ahead to a certain place in the timeline while you listen to the audio file, for example by using shortcut keys that are easy to remember. 1 for marker 1, marker 2 for 2 etc. You can of course also jump back and forth with the shortcut keys, when you do not listen to the file. This applies to both regions and markings. Regions are green, while the markings are orange.
New DAO function Now you no longer need to convert your files or save and open them in cd burners like Nero to burn a CD. Instead you can use Sfp10 new DAO feature to burn your files by using the disc-at-once feature. The method of burning them is relatively technically complex requiring considerable knowledge of Sfp10 and its use of features such as inserting regions. To burn a disc at once you need to manually insert regions in the timeline to tell sound forge what to burn. Each region can be burned as its own wave file. One must also remember to manually set the hour display window to show the CD time format, and not use the default time format on the timeline. Not exactly for beginners, but the interactive help function shows how to do it, and it can open an already saved project for you so you can practice and see it in practice. It is not so difficult, after a little practice. The program also has a 'track to once' feauture that is a lot easier to use, you simply select your file, if you work in a project with many open files, and select burn track at once in the Tools menu. You are told how much space is required and the length of your file, measured in seconds. You can also choose to use the professionals 'cd architecht 5.2' program included with Sound Forge pro 10th
Event-based editing Sfp10 offers 'precise event based editing', as something new. Which means that you can mark each region in your audio file and drag it around freely through the 'Event Tools' cursor without having to select something first by the default tool. It saves you a lot of mouse work, and Sound Forge Pro 10 even adds the crossfader automatically when you insert your event. For instance if you copy a section of a file and paste it somewhere else and play back both sections / regions using the Transport function. Normally you would hear when one region closes and the second begins, as you can on a VCR, but sfp10 takes care of the cross fade between regions, so you can not hear the transition. It is very easy to work with and something we are used to with Sony Vegas Pro and Pro Tools and other audio applications.
New dithering function Sfp10 contains a completely new and advanced dithering function. Dithering is a concept you use a lot in sound applications where you have used a type of noise, and then use 'dithering' to randomize quantization error, thereby preventing noise at discrete frequencies in an audio recording, that is less pleasant than uncorrelated noise. Sound Forge Pro 10 uses 64-bit SRC and dither MBit plug-ins from Izotope to make the dithering. This function is for advanced users and requires some technical understanding.
It is not a novelty, but I am still impressed with SPF10's uncomplex of handling video files, and how easily you can add for instance a voiceover, or an instrumental guitar track, for a video film. You cannot change the actual video file, but you can add sound to it anywhere on the timeline you want, and delete the audio track included with the film, and save the video file with your new sound included. Floating docked windows A new welcome guest in Sound Forge pro 10 is docked floating windows which means you can switch windows in the nice overview, which gives you tabs but can also drag one tab out of the tab list and use it as a window and drag it around, exactly as you do it in Excel and other programs. A nice feature that simplifies your editing work and make it easy as a breeze to switch between different audio files.
Window configurations can be saved If you know that after two hours of intense editing in Sound Forge pro 10, and thus having opened one function after another, and carefully moved the windows around so that your screen is nice and clean split to look at, so you can easily find your stuff again? Then you also know how easy it is to lose these settings again by selecting a new project and new features. Would it not be nice to be able to save each project window setting for themselves? Sound Forge Pro 10 has precisely this function. You can save window configurations made by yourself, or use the included. There are, for example. Settings for 5.1 editing. A very smart feauture.
Comments It has long been Sound Forge strength that it makes editing individual files nice and easy. I would venture to suggest that all who are accustomed to using editing programs such as Word, could easily familiarize themselves with the program within minutes, thanks to the intuiativt program interface. When you choose a plugin for instance: Mastering Reverb it would be cool if we could switch to another plugin from the same series of plugins (izotope), for example choose Eq inside the same window pop / dock window, without having to close the pop up window and open a new one. Besides the preview of the sound one should also have the opportuinity to choose 'loop playing' within the same window, so you do not need to use the transport menu, and you have forgotten to turn loop play 'in the transport menu before previewing the effect. I noticed that when you move the Transport menu it is not visible during the move. Speaking of the recording window, not much has changed, besides the opportunities for multichannel recording, but I'd like to have 'Enable audio input monitoring' appear as a button, just as 'record' and 'play' do appear during the recordings, and not be hidden under the Advanced tab. I think this is important since the monitoring of a recording is quite important and all sound cards do not have direct monitoring, and such an important function should be more explicit in the program. I could be mistaken but I believe that very early versions of Sound Forge had 'audio input monitoring' on the button panel. It is important to be able to hear yourself. That said, experienced users could quickly dig up the feature, but you need to know that it exists and I fear that many beginners will have difficulty finding it, and even worse to know that it exists.
Conclusion Is there a reason to upgrade from version 9 to version 10? I think that there is because version 10 is not just a panic update, but an update that contains many exciting new features that can give your recordings more musicality by using the musical mastering bundle 2 plug-ins from IZotope. Sony's own elastic function is also an improvement to the allready existing transpone and tempo change functions. It seems to be better at preserving the pitch during the conversion process and is presented more musical aurally . The many good plugins from IZotope have really revamped the program, and the support for multichannel recordings are also a welcoming guest. So I think that one can very well defend that Sound Forge has now gotten a 'pro' tag attached to its name name. It is a professional editing program which has now become much better at solving the difficult mastering tasks. Price: 3274 -, Link to the Danish distributor of Sound Forge pro 10
Important update:
Sony is pleased to announce the Sound Forge Pro 10.0a update is now available on our website. This update adds official support for Microsoft Windows 7 and includes a number of feature enhancements and fixes. This release will also be used to freshen boxed Sound Forge Pro 10 Skus and site licenses. Some links of interest: Sound Forge Pro 10.0a Update: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/updates/soundforge Sound Forge Pro 10 Trial: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/soundforge Net Notify: http://www.mediasoftwareapps.com/notify/preview.asp?id=3580&category=update Forum Post: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=3&Mes... Notable Fixes/Changes in Version 10.0a · You can now edit samples in musical instrument files. Select the sample you want to edit, and then choose Edit > Event > Edit to open the selected sample in a new data window. After editing, you can save your changes back to the musical instrument file or to a different format. · Disc-at-once workflow improvements: o Audio moves with CD tracks when dragging CD tracks with the Edit tool. o CD tracks move with events when dragging events with the Event tool. o CD Tracks can now be locked to audio/events using Options > Lock Audio and CD Tracks. · Added automation support to the élastique Timestretch plug-in. · You can now edit the Original Tempo setting in the élastique Timestretch plug-in. · Scrollbars have been added to the Plug-In Chainer. · When you have data windows maximized, the window title is now italicized during playback to indicate which window is playing. · Improved AAC file support. · Fixed a bug that prevented Sound Forge Pro from opening or saving MPEG-4 audio when QuickTime 7.6.4 is installed. · Fixed a bug that could cause corruption in Broadcast Wave Format metadata. · Fixed a bug that prevented the waveform from being displayed properly within a smooth fade-in curve when zoomed out. · Fixed a bug that could cause the élastique Timestretch plug-in to crash on 32-bit PCs that do not support SSE2. · Fixed a bug that could cause markers to shift after using the iZotope 64-bit SRC plug-in. · Fixed a bug that prevented read-only project files (*.frg) from opening properly. · Fixed a bug that could cause Save to truncate tailing silence in certain scenarios. · Fixed a bug that prevented Mix/Replace from displaying the entire mixed result. · Fixed a bug that could cause short clicks at the end of certain preview operations.
