Sony Sound Forge 9

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jason Blum

VETERAN AUDIO EDITOR BRANCHES OUT WHILE STICKING TO ITS ROOTS

VISUAL FEEDBACK

Audio editors are often employed in the post-production process, and good metering is a must when you're prepping material for the public. Sound Forge 9 extends those capabilities with much needed phase and mono compatibility meters, filling a gap that previously required costly third-party plug-ins. The phase meter shows the standard Lissajous curve (harmonic motion) that most people have come to rely on by default, or you can configure it to show a more intuitive polar plot that displays a “real-world” view of the file's stereo image.

For more detailed metering, Sound Forge's spectrum analysis tools put audio files under the equivalent of an electron microscope, offering a staggering level of detail. Spectrum analysis runs offline on a selected range of material, or you can configure it to monitor playback in real time. For superhigh-resolution analysis, however, offline is the way to go — otherwise lag times quickly become unacceptable.

A sonogram view is also available and is particularly useful for zeroing in on pops, clicks, mic thumps and other spurious audio events that can be difficult to locate with a standard waveform view. Unfortunately, Sound Forge doesn't offer any spectral editing tools in the sonogram window. It's somewhat frustrating to see a spot that needs a little cleaning, and then realize you can't clean it up with a pencil or eraser tool. Also, Sound Forge's tendency to stop playback when resizing or zooming in on the spectrum analysis window was somewhat disruptive. (Sony's working on a fix for that).

BUILD IT AND BURN IT

For some reason, Sound Forge still hasn't updated its integrated burning facilities and offers only the most basic track-at-once disc authoring from its Tools menu. Fortunately, the program ships with a companion application, CD Architect, which has long been a standard for burning true Red Book-compatible CDs on a PC. There's nothing new here, but it's a significant element in the Sound Forge package, and it's worth noting that the program remains a capable tool for assembling and burning audio discs. CD index markers are listed separately from generic markers to keep the interface clean, and overlapping audio files automatically create crossfades with six selectable fade curves. The only drawback is a lack of VST support, which is a bummer for anyone hoping to apply any overall compression or EQ to a CD project. You'll need to render each file with VST effects in Sound Forge before exporting to CD Architect for a final burn.

Revisiting Sound Forge after many years was like meeting up with an old girlfriend: I remembered the good times back in the day, but after a while together, the reasons for parting ways became clear. Multitrack and nondestructive editing features have become key elements in audio-editing workflows over the years, and with Sound Forge 9 still focused primarily on working with individual files without comprehensive integrated CD tools, it was more cumbersome to finish a complete mastering session from edit to burn than with other apps. The inclusion of multichannel audio is sure to appeal to anyone mixing surround-sound projects, but some basic multitracking capability would put Sound Forge on par with other editors on the market today.

Despite those drawbacks, Sound Forge's greatest strength continues to be its simple and elegant user interface. For raw audio editing, it remains a powerful tool that's purpose-built to do the job with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency. The fact that its general feel has changed little over its nine versions proves that this time-tested tool has been doing something right.

It may no longer be king of the hill, but Sound Forge 9 is still a solid product when you take it for what it is — a single-file editor made to slice, dice and rework audio files. Sound Forge's broad user base and dedication to simplicity still make it a viable competitor.