WaveLab vs. Sound Forge

[PHANATIKS ENT]

what r the advantages/disadvantages 2wards the 2 stereo track editors?

And with the batch process,... how do u thoroughly make each song equal volume to the next?(If both have this process)

has any1 used any1 ofthe 2 and had their CD come out clean, crisp and clear all the way through?

[jecahn]

Trying to buy an audio editor this way is like trying to figure out which word processor software will make your documents read better once they are printed. It comes down to personal preference. I find WaveLab a bit more flexible and a little faster than SF. However, I still prefer SF for my purposes. Wavelab is a bit more "fully featured" when it comes to stuff such as the audio montage feature.

The new release of SF supports native CDR burning. So, Wavelab can't claim exclusivity on this front anymore. Also, to use VST plugins in SF, you'll need something like fxPansion's adapter.

I imagine that to a certain extent, it depends upon what you've already got, too.

Already own a whole slew of plugins and want to do some serious native CDR work? Wavelab will probably end up being your choice.

Don't own a substantial amount of plugins? Already familiar with the Sonic Foundry interfaces through stuff like Acid? You'll probably end up with SF. I use SF just because the Sonic Foundry people got to me before Steinberg. It's that simple!

Relative to your second query, dynamics processing isn't something that can be accomplished by simply "normalising" or "massive compression" of a 2 track stereo master. To generate cohesive dynamicism spanning an "album" requires a little more hands on work. At the end of the day, the editor that you use will not affect this. It will be down to your mix-down skills.

Finally, yes, many of us have made great sounding albums without either one of these applications. Resorting, instead, to Cool Edit or something similar. The applications are simply tools. How you use your tools will be the determinate of quality.

Good luck. You can demo SF 6.0 at the Sonic Foundry website. Wavelab, I'm not sure.