Hi guys,
I wonder wether you still use a dedicated audio editor like Wavelab, Sound Forge or Audacity alongside your DAW for tasks like mastering or editing a rendered stereo file or use your DAW for all that, too - and if you prefer an audio editor for such finalizing tasks, which one would it be? Some years ago I got myself a budget-priced version of Sound Forge, but I don't like it too much because I dislike Magix and also it looks kind of outdated... Just like Audacity (which is at least free), so only yesterday, I tried Wavelab - and didn't like it at all anymore (I used to use it many years ago); to me, it appears confusing and not in the slightest user-friendly! Also it was crashing numerous times...
So I wondered what other audio editor I could try instead, before I eventually asked myself: Do I need one anyway, being a happy user of Studio One Professional....? So I'd like to forward this question to this forum in order to get a second opinion. Thanks in advance!

ive always used reaper and realband for editing.
now with coming of 2022 biab i anticipate i'll also
use biab editor more.
i used to use forge, but no need now.
tween pg products and reaper i can do anything.
reaper is very deep if one is willing to plunge the
depths of its features (see vids at reaper.fm)..
(includeing denoising)
and pg rb has some triks up its sleeve too...check out
vinyl plug in dx sometime.
i recently used rb to "tart up" an old song i did in the tape age that i digitised.
best
om

I don't do much audio editing, so I cannot realy comment, But...

I have bought iZotopes RX9 Audio Editor, and that may be worth checking out.
I only use it to separate complete mixes into stems (musical balance), which is working fine. This was my sole reason to buy it.
But you have a lot more tools in there. All of those also as a PlugIn within Studio One. Only musical balance is "stand alone".

Being a Studio One user myself, I share your feeling that nothing else is needed.

I have been using Studio One Pro since v2. I've tried most of the audio editors and really didn't get on with any of them until I bought Acoustica Premium by Acon Digital.

Acoustica

The primary reason I wanted an audio editor in addition to SO Pro was for the spectral editing. That's something that no DAW offers. I work out of my house, not a studio. Lots of background noises of various types that need to be dealt with.

Acoustica is stable and FAST. It loads faster than just about any other app of any type that I own. It's user interface is light years ahead of SpectraLayers, my previous spectral editor.

For BiaB users, the included Remix tool could be very useful. It creates different instrument stems from 2-track stereo recordings.



Acoustica offers a 30-day free trial.

The Premium edition also includes the following:

- Mastering Suite consisting of Equalize 2, Dynamics, Multiband Dynamics, Limit and Dither.

- Verberate 2, our renowned natural sounding reverb plug-in

- Restoration Suite 2 with four plug-ins for audio restoration: DeNoise 2, DeHum 2, DeClick 2 and DeClip 2.

- Extract:Dialogue automatically reduces background noise in dialogue recordings

- DeWind:Dialogue automatically reduces wind noise from dialogue

- DeRustle:Dialogue automatically reduces clothing rustle and microphone bump noise from lavalier
recordings

- DeBuzz:Dialogue automatically reduces buzz and hum noises such as neon light buzz, AC power hum, RF transmission interference from dialogue recordings

- Transfer, an AAX plug-in that makes audio transfers between Pro Tools and Acoustica a breeze.

About the only thing NOT included is their Deverberate plugin; that's a separate purchase.

EDIT: I may need to walk back my comment re no DAW supporting spectral editing. Studio One v5.5 is due to be released today (11 January). It's 7h30 here in France, but it's not up yet. A screen shot looks like spectral editing of some type.

Realband for editing?? "Biab editor"??? I'm confused...


That's funny 'cause I actually already have RX! I just haven't installed it yet as it was part of the "Holiday Bundle" which I purchased about two weeks ago; need to migrate my system first onto a bigger SSD and plan to install all the Bundle's software (and it really is a lot!) in one go then.

I thought RX is a specialized program for restauration jobs, which is great, of course - but I can do all the "basic" stuff with it, as well??


No-no, that's not what I said; I said - or at least meant - I'm not sure about it. And considering the benefit of probably quicker results when it's about simple tasks like less space in the beginning or volume balance and things like that I think I actually might need an editor (again).


Sounds good! But I don't think I need these things you listed since I owe all that great iZotope stuff from the Holiday Bundle (as mentioned above). But maybe the standard version...? That one is only 59€, right?
But maybe I don't need that either... I guess I just have to check out RX which I already owe anyway!

Editing and mixing I do in Reaper...I used to do the same in Cakewalk ProAudio 9.3.
Audacity is way to clunky for me.
I like to render a final mix to 24bit prior to sending it to an M.E.
I don't master myself - haven't the ears for it.
Exporting your mix from your DAW is a good thing but into Audacity - nah.

Export the final mix at high quality & rate then import it into a simplified editing/mastering project/template within the same DAW to finish it as best your plugins & ears can manage.

Occasionally I do a faux master when collaborating so we can assess the likely impact of mastering on things like reverb.
I have that set up as a template with the expected stacked limiters n EQs ready to click as/if needed remembering that mastering is only doing small touches and only if needed. If it takes a stack of plugins and such then the mix isn't right yet.

With the release of BIAB 2022 for Windows and PG Music's emphasis this year on completing projects using only BIAB, a lot of users, beginners through experts, are discovering BIAB's robust Audio Edit Window and audio editor. No exporting and re-importing audio tracks edited in a DAW. A user get immediate feedback of edits. The track remains synced, aurally and visually to the BIAB project Chord Sheet.

Importantly, a factor unachievable by any external DAW, is all of BIAB's midi and RealTrack generation capability remains accessible in the BIAB Audio Edit Window along with instant access to the Chord Sheet. BIAB features and processes that aren't available in RealBand or the DAW Plug-in can be applied in the BIAB Audio Edit Window.

Multi-Riff's, MultiStyles, Part Markers, Chord changes, tempo changes, Key signature changes, micro chords, partial bar regeneration, repeats, tag endings, 1st & 2nd endings and more features are instantly available to use and audition.

The commands one normally export to Audacity or DAW's for simple editing like trimming the beginning and end of a track, cross-fades, fade-in, fade-out, instrument transitions, volume automation, amplify + and -, silence, insert silence, aligning and syncing audio to BIAB generated tracks, detecting chords and automatically inserting chord progressions, creating a tempo map, equalizing tempo, normalize, cut/copy and paste are included in the BIAB Audio Edit Window.

This is a good tip Charlie. I need to dig into this more.

Jeff

I started with Cool Edit Pro, which turned into Adobe Audition. That turned into bloated Adobe Audition, then Adobe CC. I've tried those later versions, but I still use version 1.5

I've also tried Wavelab and it's OK, but I still use Adobe Audition, daily.

On MacOS, I point Logic to Sound Studio for permanent audio file editing; it's part of Logic's preferences. With all the stuff I've acquired in the last year, though, I guess I should point it to something like SpectraLayers.

RX9 does a lot of cool stuff.

The guitar squeak fixer is enough for me. Kinda magical when you consider the alternatives.

And it will rips stems.

Not bad.



Oh, I also fixed annoying clicks on a drum stem recently with one button press and it fixed everything in a millisecond.

It also does a LOT of other useful things.