Sound Forge vs. WaveLab

[phanatik]

Which is better? advantages/disadvantages to each other?

And how does the batch process work; making each song of equal volume to the next(if both have this feature).

Has any1 used any1 of these programs and came with a clear,crisp and clean - thorough Cd?

[shroud]

Wavelab smokes Sound Forge and Steinberg is a much better company as far as support & service goes. Sound Forge does not have as smooth a batch processing feature either (unless they refined it since 4.5)

More plug in support is happening in Wavelab as well, so you can definitely get a sweet CD.

[Mu2ik]

What do you think about Cool Edit Pro 2?

[TeeCee]

shroud:
That's incredibly opinionated when it sounds like you haven't used Sound Forge since version 4.5. Not that I don't want to hear your opinion, but I'd like to know what it's based on.

When I first looked for a replacement for Turtle Beach's Wave II, I tried both Sound Forge and Wavelab. I went with Sound Forge because it was easier for me to use.

As for the Batch Converter, it is now a stand alone package that comes with Sound Forge that can run saved batches on selected files. Excellent for converting a batch of anything into anything else supported or for applying any FX that you can apply without prejudice to multiple files. I don't often come across that situation.

[shroud]

TeeCee - I guess I do have a bit of an issue with some of Sonic Foundry's corporate practices over the past year or so...sorry to everyone that this has affected my bias...

Mu2ik - CoolEdit is not bad as just a multitrack audio program. It all depends on what you are trying to do. Maybe you can explain that in an email to me at:
matthew_craig@Sweetwater.com

[TeeCee]

shroud said
TeeCee - I guess I do have a bit of an issue with some of Sonic Foundry's corporate practices over the past year or so...sorry to everyone that this has affected my bias...

shroud:
I have some issues with them as well. I have issues with their upgrade practices. I could think of ways that Acid and Vegas could better suit me and I hated to have to buy Vegas Video because they decided to consolidate the audio and video versions.

But, I try not to let what I think about their corporate decisions affect statements about the quality and effectiveness of their products.

That said, I don't like that the bug I've found in Sound Forge 4.5 and 5 wasn't corrected by the betas of 6. This means that my Sound Forge 5 will never be fixed. This means that if I want it fixed, I have to buy the upgrade. It's not a crash, it's just some anomalies in my processing and statistical analysis results. I haven't tried my full release of 6 for the bug yet.

But I do like what I can do with Sound Forge in general and it would seem that not many if anyone else has found this bug in Sound Forge. Maybe it's my fault because I didn't point it out before Sound Forge 6 went to beta. Sure it is.

I can't talk much about the current state of Wavelab. Which is better? If it were that cut and dry, only the better one would exist.

Wavelab: doesn't it do multitrack stuff now? It natively supports VST and DirectX FX.

SoundForge: it's often been declared to be extremely easy to use. It does DirectX FX natively and VST FX through VST adapters.

Previously only Wavelab had nondestructive audio editing and a modeless audio plug-in chainer, but now Sound Forge has this functionality as well.

Sonic Foundry's Batch Converter can do pretty much whatever Sound Forge can do including use DirectX plugins. Sound Forge offers normalization based on peak level or RMS level, graphic and dynamic compression, and simple gain.

Anyone want to least other pros and cons? Sonic Foundry has a feature chart for Sound Forge 6 that could be compared to anything you might find on Steinberg's site. And believe it or not, you can probably get demos of these programs and actually try them out yourself.

I can see no reason why a good finalized mix of a song couldn't be created with either of these programs. That's not saying that any given person could do such.

[shroud]

Tee Cee - wow! Thats a long one, thanks for all of the input. Hopefully Phanatik can choose wisely now.

[phanatik]

I thnx all u phanatiks out here and there for ur inouts, xpertice and opinions. I will help me alot n using which ever software. lookin more 2wards WaveLab though. I like its interface and setups. im now or will b tryin 2 get down the part where its possible to level out each song 2 song overall levels.where each song is sonically balanced throughout the cd. other than that, i know its really n the mix(es). with know this -- if a song or 2 is LOUD and others r with good volume, will a RMS type leveler or something degrade to volume on those LOUD tracks or....?

[TeeCee]

Normalizing on RMS in Sound Forge will aloow you to select the RMS level to normalize to. You could use this to drop the RMS level of louder tracks. Wavelab should have something comparable. Sonic Foundry's Batch Converter could do it as well, but I would caution it's use as increasing the RMS level to the point that either clipping or compression occurs is very possible and the built in compression (for the normalizing feature) is not adjustable (IIRC).

Good luck,

[Matthias Powerbomb]

I have used Sound Forge and Wavelab. I prefer Sound Forge, though Wavelab is one of the best also. I use Sound Forge and it supports all DX plug-ins and you can wrap VST plug-ins. As with all Sonic Foundry products, the interface is clean and uncluttered. The zooming and editing is very good. Sound Forge 6.0 supports zooming to the sample which is very good. My CDs come out sounding good too. Either one would be a good choice honestly. I prefer Sound Forge because it supports CD Architect, it integrates into Vegas and ACID, and the interface is better. Batch Converter 5.0 is now a stand-alone app that comes with Sound Forge. It is very good. I've used it and it works smoothly and quickly. I'd vote for Sound Forge.

[SonicParadox]

i love wavelab. i find it excellent. i turned a rough vocal recording with lots of consonant pops into a pristine smooth recording with the help of the phase spectrometer. its a lovely tool.