Tag Archives: editing

5 best free audio editor (freeware roundup 2014)

Everybody needs a good audio editor.
and you can get it for free !
Here, in the Wavosaur team we know what we are talking about ! If you need a freeware for audio editing, here’s a selection of the best free audio editors available in 2014 :

1. Wavosaur

Wavosaurus Rex

Wavosaurus Rex

Download !!!

We created Wavosaur in 2006 because we needed a light / portable / VST compatible audio editor, with the same professional workflow you can find on Soundforge (this one wasn’t portable) or Wavelab.
By the years we added a lot of features, suggested by our users, and we’ll continue to improve the software !

pros:

  • full VST support
  • VST effect chaining
  • batch processing
  • loop point support
  • can be controled with MIDI surface control (BCR 2000 or UC 33e, etc..)

cons:

  • memory problems with very large file on “old” or small configurations
  • redo is not yet implemented

 

2. Audacity

Audacity !

Audacity !

download : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Audacity exist since always. It’s not really the same philosophy as Soundforge / Wavelab etc.. => Audacity is multi track : you can play multiple audio files at a time : so it’s nice for basic sequencing.

pros:

  • multi-track
  • cross platform
  • open many audio formats

cons:

  • VST plugins are nearly unusable : you can just preview 5 seconds, and you can’t change the parameters while it’s running
  • no support for loop points
  • can’t zoom with mouse wheel

 

3. Ocenaudio

Ocen audio

Ocen audio

Info & DL : http://www.ocenaudio.com.br/

Ocenaudio is available for Windows, Mac OS X & Linux, it supports VST plugins.
Some may prefer its look over the more “classic” audio editors.
It’s one of the most featured audio editor, and has many configuration options.

pros:

  • cross platform
  • full VST support
  • VST effects available from the Effects menu (we have to add this to Wavosaur 🙂 when you don’t need to chain effects, and just want to load a single VST effect)
  • loop points support !

cons:

  • can’t have two (or more) waveforms view at the same time, the navigator windows is easy and fast to use but sometimes we need to have two or more files (old school MDI style !)
  • i experimented some recurrent bug ( like a playing problem when hitting “play”)
  • bugs with many VST plugins we tested (the magic of VST…)

 

4. TWE by Yamaha

Tiny Wave Editor

Tiny Wave Editor

direct download : TWE for Windows

In the last century, Yamaha was giving this useful tool for free.
It works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
The workflow and the philosophy of the software make it suited for small samples. The program is MDI, you can work on more than one file at a time. It doesn’t have many effects and of course is not VST compatible, but it has all you need for working on sample.

pros:

  • light & efficient
  • support for loop points !
  • the time compress / expand is nice ! it has the good old school speed garage style (you have to apply many time the effect, as the max is set to 125%)

cons:

  • development has stopped for a looong time
  • no plugin support
  • experienced some crash when using the effects on samples with duration > 1 ~2 minutes

Continue reading

Free declipper plugins : let’s try to fix clipping / distorsion !

Before & After declipping

Before & After declipping

Imagine you have a sound file that was badly recorded, with no possibility to re-record, and with no clean version : how to deal with the clipping, the saturation, the distorsion ?
Imagine you have a mix/(pre)mastering that was crushed-to-death in a “loudness war” fashion and you have lost all the original files :

how to fix this mess ?

Is there a possibility to clean / smooth the sound ?

how to “unsaturate” ?

can i have declipping ?

-> no <-

it’s too late, we can’t go back to the clean sound!
But we can do our best to limit the damages.
here’s some informations : http://www.wavosaur.com/forum/can-distortion-be-removed-or-minimized-t1262.html

 

 

And now a selection of plugins to help fixing the clipping disasters :

Continue reading

Slice me tender : chop your breakbeats !

Sometimes you need to slice your breakbeat samples into small pieces, with just the hits, then you can import the parts into any sampler / synth / etc to re arrange, change speed, apply effect individually, whatever you want.

This is only 2 or 3 click in Wavosaur !

All the features you need are already in Wavosaur : auto-slice and export all regions.

 

How to auto slice a breakbeat / drum loop in Wavosaur ?

1) launch Wavosaur and load a funky breakbeat, or groovy drum loop

 

breakbeat slicing

breakbeat slicing

 

2) Select Menu Tools -> Slicing/Region -> Auto slice region

auto slice feature

slice me in the morning

breakbeat-slice3

as you can see, you have now 7 markers automatically inserted, determining 8 regions.
you can manually add markers if you want to create more /  smaller regions.

 

3) now go to Menu File -> Export -> Export all regions

exporting all region into multiples samples

exporting all regions into multiples samples

This will save 8 samples, with the name you choose and a suffix : breakbeat-sample_M000 to breakbeat-sample_M008

 

4) bonus track :

in the Slicing / Region submenu you have another funky feature : “Scrambling regions
once you have defined region (automatically with auto slice or manually), the scrambling feature will change the position of the region, in a random way.

now let’s add some pitch shifting (Menu Process -> Pitch Shift -> Simple) and … INSTANT JUNGLE !!

Original drum loop :

 

Auto slice + scramble region + pitch shift :

 

Auto slice + scramble region + pitch shift + a little reverse on some snare