For many of us here at Sweetwater, titles such as ACID, SOUND FORGE, and Vegas virtually defined parts of our careers. These consistently accessible programs, along with many others in their lineup, have made music creation, audio production, and video editing easy for generations of media students and professionals, and they've been among the most popular applications available at Sweetwater. Under the direction of MAGIX, they've continued to develop and flourish, and we're as proud as ever to offer them to our customers.
Many of the electronic musicians at Sweetwater began our careers creating music with ACID. Originally, this fun and creative music creation system centered entirely around arranging prefabricated loops that you could stretch and organize to quickly assemble original music. Over the following decades, ACID expanded into a full-fledged DAW, complete with audio recording, MIDI, virtual instruments, and plug-in support.
While ACID Pro is significantly more capable than its predecessors, one thing we still love about it is how simple and accessible it still is. Even if you've never touched an instrument, you can start making music in minutes with ACID Pro. What's more, if you work in video or broadcast media and need to create music beds on a tight time line, then you couldn't ask for a better application.
As opposed to ACID Pro, which centers around a loop-based music production workflow, Samplitude Pro began its life as a complete DAW. It's easily on par with any other major DAW on the market! At the same time, Samplitude Pro offers a refreshingly straightforward design with a low learning curve that makes it highly accessible. And still, it features powerful tools for recording, editing, mixing, and mastering music.
One aspect of Samplitude many of us here at Sweetwater appreciate is its flexible user interface, which you can arrange to fit your ideal workflow. In addition to industry-standard tools such as VCA faders and comprehensive automation, this DAW comes loaded with excellent virtual instruments and excellent tools for writing music. And when it comes to mastering, you get an exceptional suite of plug-in processors that lets you perfectly polish your final mix.
On the subject of mastering, SOUND FORGE is another one of those titles that's been an essential part of many creative engineers' setups for generations. Even when it first came out in the early '90s, SOUND FORGE offered a tool set for in-depth audio editing that was way ahead of the curve. You couldn't find a broadcast studio without it! Over the years, the developers continued to add powerful new tools, building on its already impressive editing and processing capabilities.
Today, over a dozen revisions later, SOUND FORGE Pro is still recognized as one of the best mastering and editing application suites ever released. It comes loaded with next-gen editing and processing tools that streamline any workflow, while advanced DSP integration covers everything from forensic-level audio restoration to extreme pitch and time manipulation, with processes for maximizing loudness and smoothing out levels serving as its unshakable foundation.
Need to get in deep with your audio? SpectraLayers Pro is an absolutely essential tool for precision audio editing. For many of us here at Sweetwater who also work in audio restoration, there's nothing like SpectraLayers Pro. This application takes a unique frequency-based approach to audio editing, providing you with a detailed spectrogram view of audio that lets you visualize your audio. It's like the audio equivalent of being able to smell each component part of a fine perfume.
There are multiple views, including 2D and 3D spectrograms, while layers let you drill down to the root of the problem. With this user interface, you can easily isolate problem frequencies, background noise, hums, and other flaws in your audio and remove them with surgical precision. And with its advanced frequency-repairing capabilities, even extreme edits result in sound that's so natural, you'd swear there'd never been a blemish in your sound.
Getting into video editing can be terribly intimidating, and if you're coming at it from an audio production background, it's like having to fly the Klingon ship. From the beginning, VEGAS's straightforward layout and drag-and-drop simplicity have taken a lot of stress out of video production. One outstanding feature we've always loved is the way you can add just about any kind of video to your project, without having to deal with transcoding between formats. Want to create a crossfade? Just overlap clips. What about adding captions? No problem — it's super easy!
Years down the road, with VEGAS Pro, you get all kinds of new functions that easily keep up with the industry. High-res 4k video, support for RED and Blackmagic Design cameras, and phenomenal proDAD Mercalli V4 image stabilization are just the tip of the iceberg. On the other side of the Vegas platform, there are all the ways that it's the perfect NLE software for audio engineers. In fact, the audio section is essentially a full DAW, complete with VST plug-in support and a familiar multitrack workflow.
As you can see, longtime creative musicians and engineers here at Sweetwater have nothing but respect and praise for these titles. While they're more recent additions to the MAGIX brand, we're confident in the way the company has continued to develop them. Their history includes over 35 million users worldwide, and more than 1,100 awards for various innovations. Matched by an equally impressive reputation for service, MAGIX is a company we can really get behind. Whatever your background, we're sure you'll love working with MAGIX software.
