Sony's Sound Forge Audio Editing Software Coming to Mac?

Silver Box said:

Peak and Audacity are better comparisons.

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And (I guess) Wave Editor: http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/waveeditor/

Don't understand why it's not more known when it comes to audio editors for the Mac. Seems to be one of (if not the) best.

But I'm not a ”hardcore” user so these are just my impressions.

Last and least time I used Sound Forge was in 1998. It was great and equally complicated.

I do not see myself using it today. But is good to have it around, it is a serious piece of software.

Icaras said:

Although very great news, please wake me up when Logic Pro X is released.

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If Final Cut Pro X is of any indication, I suggest you stay asleep.

As per me...eh, I'm still waiting for a release of Fruity Loops (though I don't think it'll ever happen). More useful to me...

petsounds said:

This has been a big hole in the Mac world.

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Petsounds, meet fission.

A few facts...

Sony's Sound Forge is digital audio editor software. Sound Forge is not digital audio workstation (DAW) software. Comparing it to Logic and Pro Tools (DAW software) is like comparing apples to oranges. The Windows version of Sound Forge is currently offered in two flavors -- a prosumer version for ~$70 and a pro version for ~$400.

burne said:

Petsounds, meet fission.

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Thanks for the introduction, I will check it out. From the feature list, it doesn't seem to offer the breadth of audio-shaping tools that Sound Forge does. But I will take a look.

Another good Mac tool for sound tweaking is Adobe's Audition. Its ability to clean up distorted bits and pieces from sound files is quite amazing.

Quie23 said:

Wish they would announce FL Studio for Mac

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Well they've done it for the iPhone/iPad, so were half way there...ish.

Also, I really do wish they'd put Sony Vegas on OSX, I mean I just love the simplicity and power of Vegas and its the only real reason I have bootcamp on my iMac...

From the looks of the graphics in the teaser video, it does look like it's referencing Sony Sound Forge. Sony (and Sonic Foundry before it) always uses a red icon to identify Sound Forge. But as a video editor, I would LOVE to see a Mac version of Sony Vegas (which has a blue icon). Vegas started out as an audio-only editor, and they added video editing features on top of it. This resulted in an audio-centric workflow when working with video, and editing multi-track audio into a video project was simply a breeze. I often exported AAF files from other editing software and opened them in Vegas simply to sweeten the audio. The extra step was worth it considering how elegantly Vegas edited audio. And I know of a lot of musicians who use Vegas exclusively to record multi-track audio. Hopefully Sony saw the gap left open by the underwhelming FCPX and is thinking about porting Vegas to the Mac as well.

-racher

racher said:

From the looks of the graphics in the teaser video, it does look like it's referencing Sony Sound Forge. Sony (and Sonic Foundry before it) always uses a red icon to identify Sound Forge. But as a video editor, I would LOVE to see a Mac version of Sony Vegas (which has a blue icon). Vegas started out as an audio-only editor, and they added video editing features on top of it. This resulted in an audio-centric workflow when working with video, and editing multi-track audio into a video project was simply a breeze. I often exported AAF files from other editing software and opened them in Vegas simply to sweeten the audio. The extra step was worth it considering how elegantly Vegas edited audio. And I know of a lot of musicians who use Vegas exclusively to record multi-track audio. Hopefully Sony saw the gap left open by the underwhelming FCPX and is thinking about porting Vegas to the Mac as well.

-racher

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Totally agree, in my opinion Vegas > FCP.

I tried to pickup/get used to using FCP, but just found it far to illogical. That being far from what I have come to expect from apple, Logic is quite the opposite.

Audio Editor

As others have said this has nothing to do with DAW's such as Pro Tools, Logic etc.

It's main competition is probably Wave Lab. I hope the Mac Port lives up to the Windows version.

Is it just me - or does the whole video / website look like it's been put together in a hurry with no brand guidelines adhered to?....

Just doesn't seem like its legit..

Hope this means Sound Forge and Vegas Pro

The only reason I use Bootcamp and Windows 7 on my Mac Pro is for Vegas Pro - I have my fingers crossed that Sony has realized the potential of Vegas, and all the Sony Creative Software, for the Mac. The speed and intuitive workflow/interface has always seemed like it should be running on the Mac - been hoping for this for YEARS.

There has also been a sticky at the top of the Sony Vegas forums for the last few weeks looking for Mac/OSX beta testers for Sony Creative Software. I would say this is legit.

I would also note that Sony Creative Software, for the last few years at least, have introduced their products at IBC in September each year. If the site has placeholders for the next 9 weeks of teasers, that would put the last one the week before IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) on September 7th.

I would put money on announcements of several Sony Creative Software products at IBC in September.

burne said:

Petsounds, meet fission.

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I checked it out. Looks good for chopping up audio, but I didn't see any shaping tools at all. So I'd say there's still room for Sound Forge on the Mac...

MysteriousKiwi said:

Totally agree, in my opinion Vegas > FCP.

I tried to pickup/get used to using FCP, but just found it far to illogical. That being far from what I have come to expect from apple, Logic is quite the opposite.

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Whenever a "newbie" asks me what video editing tool they should learn to do some serious editing, I alway recommend Sony Vegas Pro (if they're on a PC, that is). By far, it has the shallowest learning curve of any professional video editing tool. Mind you, I'm not counting iMovie or Windows Movie Maker here. I've used a lot of video editors over the years (good ole Premiere 4.2, DPS Velocity, Avid MCXpress, Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro 7 and X, the modern Premiere Pro), and I've always enjoyed the ease-of-use in Vegas. Too bad it never really caught on in some professional circles. I also agree that FCP 7 is clunky by comparison, but that version of Final Cut is so entrenched that many folks won't even consider anything else.

-racher

Music to my ears!

I haven't used Sound Forge since I moved to the Mac platform in 2010 and I've missed it dearly. I've used it since 1.0. Wrote articles about it back in the day, and even demo'd it for the company at a radio station back in 2000.

I've written to the few contacts I have left there a few times begging them to do this... though the new Sony bosses are a lot less responsive than their Sonic Foundry counterparts used to be.

I sure hope this is the case.

The only thing hopeful about the video in regard to Sound FORGE was the metal working clip. The product used to be owned by a company called Sonic Foundry. Forge. Foundry. Get it? Hah.

Oh & I'm in agreement about the video lacking professional brand identity polish too.

I've tried Wave Editor by Audiofile Engineering but the GUI is totally old style classic Mac "too many floating windows/palettes" nonsense. Also, the ability to zoom via the mouse wheel, something pretty basic, has only ever worked well for me in Sound Forge. Wave Editor gives customization options but it doesn't help. Audition does it, poorly (as in, no option to change the zoom focal point, so you have to fuss with scrolling AND zooming together instead of just zooming, if you want to get around). I keep an eye on Wave Editor now and then in case of changes. But if Sound Forge is ported and works the same or better than it does on Windows, I'll be super happy.

Next: Cakewalk Sonar!!

Quie23 said:

Wish they would announce FL Studio for Mac

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They are bringing FL Studio to the Mac and it's in closed beta right now. But if I understand correctly it's just the Windows version ported over using CodeWeavers Crossover (a commercial product related to Wine that implements the Windows API). I haven't been following that very closely, though, maybe they are rewriting low-level parts of it for OS X, and it's just the GUI that they are using Crossover for. In any case, it doesn't sound like it will be as good as a native OS X port, but maybe it'll turn out nice. I've heard of people running FL Studio in a Windows VM successfully; but these are cases where low-latency is not required. I imagine this version will be quite a bit better than that.

Underwhealming

I'd rather be using GarageBand then some piece of **** software from Sony.

CplusplusFTW said:

I'd rather be using GarageBand then some piece of **** software from Sony.

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Well Garageband is logic express minus a couple features. I could record a band in Garageband no problem, but if I was doing serious editing I would go nuts. Just an FYI. Sony did not create Sound Forge. It was created by Sonic Foundry, a company that Sony bought out a few years ago. I do not know anything about how that deal went down, but Sony did not have a dog in that fight previously, so it wasn't a "competitor buy out" where they just let the product wither and die.
If anything the impression I get is that it was merely a platform to leverage the Sonnox plug ins to a more prosumer market. And if you know anything about the Sonnox stuff, it's no joke.

I'd much rather have Sony Vegas come to the Mac. I've never got on with iMovie, Final Cut or Premiere/After Effects after coming from using Sony Vegas on Windows.

This would be pretty amazing. Aside from a couple proprietary apps at my work, this is pretty much the only windows app I really need. I just haven't found a mac app that has all the features SF has, particularly a few that I can't live without.

That said, I hope it's a major new version with significant updates, there are some really annoying things about SF they haven't got around to fixing (and for me, 10 doesn't add enough over what 9 already had).

basesloaded190 said:

Can't imagine anyone switching from Pro Tools to this though.

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Sound Forge isn't really competition for PT or Logic, those are multitrack apps and the strength of this is destructive editing of single files. This is more competition for Soundtrack Pro, which Apple dumped earlier this year.

Akarin said:

Funny, when seeing the video, I didn't think about Sony stuff but about Sonar. Who knows?

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This would also be great for the audio industry, cross platform options are always a good thing and it would be huge to see Motu take DP to windows and Sonar come over (hopefully 64 bit from day one).

milo said:

it would be huge to see Motu take DP to windows

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Digital Performer 8 will be available on Windows.

http://www.motu.com/newsitems/digital-performer-does-windows

Why is everyone comparing this to Logic or Pro Tools? They are almost incomparable because SoundForge is not a DAW. It is used for recording, cutting, editing and mastering audio.. You can do this stuff in Logic but with it only being a small part of the DAW the functionality and polish is not quite as refined as SoundForge, it is one bit of software i missed when i moved over to Mac and i'm currently using Adobe Audition which i don't really like so this is great news..

Thank god!! I like Bias Peak, but it doesn't stand a chance to Sound Forge. This was one of the biggest things I missed about Windows when I made the switch 12 years ago. Woohoo!

PS: why are people comparing sound forge to protools? Don't really thing people know what they are talking about at the beginning of this thread.