Certainly, many people saw its potential a celebrity endorsement from famed audio editor and film editor (and self-avowed Final Cut aficionado) Walter Murch is nothing to sneeze at. Soundtrack was flying high in the press, but reviews were mixed to poor on the user forums. Then, when that was fixed by early summer, odd random instability and other strange behavior lingered. Also, users were understandably frustrated with early bugs: first, the much-touted integration with Final Cut Pro didn’t work right. (I would opt for the usual suspects on a job like that: Pro Tools, Cubase/Nuendo, SONAR, DP, or Logic I don’t think Apple ever claimed - or envisioned - Soundtrack would make sense for such a task.) I think many users misinterpreted Apple’s enthusiasm for the product as a statement that it was the only audio tool they need. I got an email from a fellow who was trying to record an entire symphony orchestra - as 80 or 90 tracks or something like that - into Soundtrack Pro. Notably, many of these were trying to use Soundtrack as something it’s not: a full-featured multitrack audio recorder. Apple raised expectations pretty high as they tend to do for all their products, and based on reactions I heard, some users were disappointed. Soundtrack Pro, despite the similarity in name to Soundtrack, was really a 1.0 release when Apple launched it a year ago. And if you’re thinking about getting it, or thinking about getting an Intel machine, I’ll give you a sense of the rather complicating pricing and purchasing scheme, which could mean bad news for you - or an incredible bargain - depending on your situation. I’ve already reviewed the product, but here’s a sense of what using Soundtrack is like from a personal perspective, after nearly a year with the application. There’s a simple reason: I use a lot of sampled audio, and I’ve found no better tool for manipulating samples than Soundtrack. But whatever Apple thinks of its potential for the music market, I still use Soundtrack heavily in my own work, with and without Final Cut. Apple has quietly discontinued Soundtrack Pro as a standalone audio product you’ll now only be able to get it as part of Final Cut Studio. Of all of these, though, I strangely enough find Soundtrack Pro is the editor I keep coming back to. (Yes, there’s also the free Audacity, though if you can spare the money, these other options tend to run more smoothly and offer more features.) Whichever you pick, I certainly endorse finding one you like and investing in it. Your options are plentiful, too: Peak Pro and Soundtrack Pro are both fantastic on the Mac, and while I personally use them less, PC users have three great choices in Steinberg WaveLab, Adobe Audition, and Sony SoundForge. Standalone audio editors can save tremendous amounts of time, preparing samples for instruments, batch processing recordings, fixing problematic audio, and generally letting you focus in on anything that needs to be done to individual pieces of sound rather than a whole multitrack audio product. The software itself aside, here’s why it matters to me - and why its transition to Intel will be different from its pro brethren. Soundtrack Pro 1.03 finally feels about perfect.
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