by Mark Lewis
by Mark Lewis
The butchery which audio for multimedia applications must undergo should be deemed a crime against humanity. Originally, digital audio was developed for superior quality and facile editing capabilities which far surpass that of analog technology. However, with the Internet forecasted as the new medium of the next millennium, digital audio must be masticated to fall within the present bandwidth constraints of the Information Superhighway. Since multimedia audio becomes "tarnished" to say the least; many multimedia companies, mine included, are reluctant to spend a few thousand dollars on professional audio hardware and software for their workstations.
SoundEdit 16 was originally released by Macromedia as the sound editing tool for their multimedia authoring application, Director. Although not as powerful as the pricy professional audio packages, SoundEdit 16 offered a comprehensive palette for audio editing at a much more reasonable price. With the expansion of the Internet, SoundEdit 16 version 2 now incorporates features for the web site developer.
Although professional audio packages still offer the most powerful audio editing tools, Macromedia has provided a wider funnel for the low-bandwidth audio professional who is trying to piss into a straw.
Disregarding the faux pas of altering the command key assignments which were established in version one, the major downfall of SoundEdit 16 v. 2 are its complement of effects. One great hindrance which hasn't been corrected from the first version is the inability to preview the effect. When applying an effect algorithm in Sound Designer II, a portion of the soundfile can be looped while adjustments to the effect parameters are made. Hence, you can immediately monitor your settings. In SoundEdit, you must actually process the soundfile with the effect algorithm. Depending on your file size and the kind of effect, such a process can take quite some time. For example, in version one, applying an EQ effect to a nine second, 44.1K, 16 bit file took a minute and four seconds. You can then audition your effect after processing is complete. If the effect doesn't suit your taste, you must UNDO the process and apply the effect again with different settings. However, version 2 is now
native for the PowerMac. Applying an EQ effect to a nine second, 44.1K, 16 bit file takes only nineteen seconds. Although the processing speed is a bit faster, constantly UNDOing your processes also eats up a lot of time. Thank goodness SE16 v.2 is now equipped with an open architecture which leaves the door open for Macromedia and potential third-party companies to correct such inconveniences.
Macromedia has adopted a plug-in feature, dubbed Xtras, which mirrors that of Adobe's plug-ins, Netscape's plug-ins, and Digidesign's TDM's. Now other companies can contribute their DSP algorithms and other code providing many more features than Macromind could have provided alone. The beta version I reviewed contained only one plug-in from MM, CD Audio Capture.
Apparently, SE16 v.2 will be shipped with two other Xtras: a loop tuner and a multi-tap preverb.
The currently available Xtra, CD Audio Capture, allows audio recording directly from an audio CD in the CD-ROM drive. Granted, recording from CD was available in the earlier version by choosing the CD-ROM drive as the sound input source in the Sound Control Panel. However, the Xtra allows you to set in and out points, sampling rate (44.1K, 22.05, or 11.025), and bit depth (8 or 16). Audio can be captured as stereo files as well as mono. Stereo files were not supported by version one. Version 2 even allows you to position a track in the stereo image using handles similar to those using in Digidesign's ProTools. Hence, the track can move across the image over time.
