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Sound Forge

What is Sound Forge? Who’s it made for? And if it is made for you, which version do you need? In this brief introduction to this ever-useful audio editing software, we’ll answer all of these questions and more.

Sound Forge: Always the Most Up-to-Date Edition

One of the many beauties of Sound Forge is that, no matter which version is printed on the virtual ‘box’, when you download it, you’ll always get the latest and most up-to-date version. Take a look at the list below, find the edition of Sound Forge that you need, and when you order it (and as long as it’s in stock), your download code and link will usually be emailed over on the same day.

Sound Forge editions

What Can You Do With Sound Forge?

In basic terms, Sound Forge is an extremely extensive audio editor. You can use it for simple things like neatly cutting away the silence at the beginning and end of an audio recording. You can use it to perform more complex tasks like normalisation, which makes a recording as loud as possible while keeping every element as balanced as possible. You can also loop short or long audio samples and easily add effects, including reverb, chorus, delay, compression, equalization and so on (VSTs are also supported to open up entirely new sonic dimensions). And if you want to test out ideas, whether you’re playing with a melody or the parameters of an effect, then you can simply use the complete synthesizer that comes included. While it’s maybe not as rich and streamlined as your average virtual instrument, this synth is a handy little extra.

Things get more fun when you start creating your own virtual instruments using external controllers like a Kontakt or Halion. Simply record the instrument into Sound Forge by playing in all the notes you need, one after the other, whether it’s chromatic or in whole steps. Sound Forge then offers functions that are able to take the recording and automatically cut up and export everything into a numbered list. Basically, from the simple to the complex, this software is able to do everything you can do with audio.

What is Sound Forge Audio Studio?

Sound Forge Pro and Sound Forge Pro Suite are the biggest packages, but for anyone looking for something more trimmed down, there’s Sound Forge Audio Studio. Since it’s not as function-rich, it’s perfect for more simple audio work and thankfully, the price is a lot lower. However, while it is a lot cheaper than the bigger versions, this software is no toy. You’re still getting a lot of excellent functions to play with, and the range of options on offer only gets better every year (even if only because computers are getting faster and faster by the year), bringing the capabilities of Audio Studio up to a pretty professional level. Just to illustrate what we mean: you can make 5.1 multi-channel recordings in 32 bit, 384kHz quality with the current version of Audio Studio. This is something that not many (if any) entry-level audio interfaces are even able to do.

Who is Sound Forge Made For?

Of course, you could answer this question by saying ‘For anyone who works with audio’, but to be more specific:

  • Anyone recording audio: this could be in a musical context, but can also be expanded to include voice-over or podcast production.
  • Anyone who needs to prepare samples for virtual samplers like the Kontakt and Halion. With this software, you can neatly cut down audio snippets so they can be looped.
  • Anyone who, in the broadest sense, wants to improve the quality of any audio. Maybe you’re digitising your tape or vinyl collection and want to improve the audio quality using an equaliser to give it a more modern polish.
  • Anyone who needs to master audio.
  • Anyone who wants to study audio. This might seem like a step too far, but for anyone who wants more insight into how audio works, Sound Forge is an excellent learning tool since it allows users to explore audio files in depth, whether you’re zooming in on the timing or the loudness. You can actually learn a lot by just looking at the visual sound waves of an audio file and as such, it’s actually recommended for a lot of sonology and music technology students.

Sound Forge Audio Studio 16 Highlights

  • modernEQ
  • modernReverb
  • Advanced effect plug-in editing
  • New resampling-engine
  • Remote recording
  • Instant Action
  • Improved Windows context menu
  • wizardFX Suite
  • Truncate Silence
  • Wizard for exporting Audible, iTunes or Amazon audio books using the ACX standard
  • iZotope Ozone 9 Elements
  • New visualisation meter
  • Audio recording in max. 32 bit, 384 kHz, multichannel 5.1

Sound Forge Pro 16 Highlights

  • Loudness Visualization
  • Improved workflow and multichannel workflow
  • Expanded Plug-in manager
  • New resampling engine
  • Remote recording
  • iZotope Ozone 9 Elements
  • iZotope RX 8 Elements
  • Zplane élastiquePro v3 Timestretch
  • Audio recording in max. 64 bit, 768 kHz, multichannel 32
  • VST-Engine, ARA2 support

Suite Edition extras

  • dynamicEQ
  • wizardFX Modern Reverb
  • Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro 8
  • Celemony Melodyne 5 essential
  • essentialFX Suite (11 plug-ins)
  • Analogue Modelling Suite (4 plug-ins)
  • Vintage Effects Suite
  • VariVerb II
  • Vandal

The History of Sound Forge

There’s actually an entire generation of sound engineers that grew up with Sound Forge. This audio editing package already existed as far back as the nineties, and while there were plenty of other audio editing packages around at the time, the interfaces were often over-cluttered and the effects and operation was usually slow and stuttering. In this context, Sound Forge was considered the best - perfect even. To the point that the super-old Version 5 still flows pretty smoothly today.

One of the things that Sound Forge has always had an edge on is speed of service. The editing controls have always been quick and easy; the hot keys alone meant users barely had to reach for their mouse. However, as the audio editing market got increasingly competitive, the original developers, Sonic Foundry sold the Sound Forge blueprints to Sony for millions, and in 2016, Sony then sold them onto Magix, who thankfully, continue to develop the software to meet the demands of the current age.

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