Audio
Tools for Video Editors
MAGIX Music Maker 2005 Deluxe
Beyond
Clips
Adobe Audition
Multitrack Mixing -
Wave Editing
-
Compelling Audition
ADS Tech Red Rover
SmartSound Sonicfire Pro
SmartSound Magic
Audio for Video
References
If you are
happy with your video editing software, why would you
want or need a separate audio editing tool? After all,
video editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro already
provide multi-track audio mixing and editing, with
features including subframe editing down to individual
samples, clip- and track-based effects, live recording,
real-time mixing, and support for multi-channel surround
sound.
Video
editors are designed for working with existing audio
clips, mixing and enhancing (also called "sweetening")
different elements into your production, such as
voice-overs, soundtracks, and sound effects. But if you
want to create your own soundtrack clips, or need to
restore and enhance individual audio clips, then it's
time to turn to a dedicated audio editing tool.
The good
news is that you do not have to be a musician, or an
audio technology expert, to enhance clips or even create
new music for your productions. In this article, we'll
look at three different audio software products that
demonstrate a wide range of capabilities that are
available today at relatively modest prices:
- MAGIX
Music Maker provides a cornucopia of options for
having fun with music creation, mixing, and editing
($59.99 list).
- Or you
can step up to Adobe Audition 1.5 for
professional mixing and editing, with amazing automated
tools for common problems like hiss and pop elimination
($299).
-
SmartSound Sonicfire Pro solves a more specific
problem, automatically creating music soundtracks in a
variety of styles that are custom-fit to your clips
($299).
MAGIX Music Maker provides a
plethora of tools for experimenting and playing with
audio (www.magix.com).
MAGIX has been expanding rapidly in North America, now
with more than eighty products, including professional
music software and inexpensive consumer photo music,
photo, and video software. Music Maker 2005 Deluxe was
released May 2004.
Music
Maker is built around the main multi-track editing
window. You can start by using the File Manager tab in
the bottom Mediapool panel to open one of the supplied
demo mixes, with clips spread in the Arranger panel
across multiple tracks. You can add new clips by
dragging Wave files from the File Manager, drag them
over the tracks to position them, split and group them,
and drag the bottom side to extend and repeat loops
across multiple beats. You can adjust volume or panning
for each clip, or use the 8-track Mixer control to set
volume, pan, and effects.
Music Maker multi-track editing
But that's
just the beginning: behind the covers are an astounding
variety of additional tools and features to experiment
with, so many that naming and distinguishing them
becomes difficult. The drop-down menu from each clip
lists an astounding 28 options, some of which expand to
additional nested options (one is even named just
"More"). These include the Audio Effects Rack, Audio
Effects, the 3D Audio Editor, and the Loop Finder and
Remix Agent to analyze new clips for use in your mix.
Music
Maker displays its audio tools as virtual stereo system
components, complete with familiar buttons, dials, and
sliders. The Audio FX Rack components include a 10-band
graphic Equalizer, Reverb / Echo processor, Compressor
dynamics processor, Time processor for stretching, pitch
shifting, and resampling, plus a Distortion sound warper
with distortion and filter presets. The Audio FX Rack
also includes non-realtime effects such as normalize and
surround, as well as access to any available DirectX
plugins.
Music Maker - audio effects
And don't
stop now: there's a Vocalizer to punch up a singing
voice and apply pitch treatments along with a
multi-voice harmonizer, and Vocoder to modulate one
sound (or voice) on another carrier. Or you can use the
simpler Amp Simulation with Amp Model presets with
volume, distortion, and equalizer controls.
Plus you
can apply predefined effects to clips from the Audio FX
section of the Audio & Video Effects panel. These
include presets for reverb, echo, compressor, and EQ.
And there are 3D Audio effects as well.
But that's
just audio clips. Music Maker also includes an
integrated Synthesizer section with an array of software
synthesizers, from concert piano to turntable scratchbox
to drum 'n bass to voice. Plus the new Robota
four-instrument virtual analog drum computer, complete
with a variety of drum and beat templates.
Another
way to make music is to use the Live Mode Arranger, in
which you map audio clips to the number key row and
numeric keypad on your keyboard, and then "play" the
keys like an instrument to arrange a recording in real
time.
Beyond
audio, Music Maker includes additional library tabs to
access a Title Editor with animated effects, and also
allows you to add video clips to your project, and then
apply pre-defined Video Effects to them, and layer them
with Video Mix Effects. Or under the Effects menu you
can access the Video Controller / Realtime Visual FX
Editor with controls for speed, zoom, position, optical
effects, color, rotation, and mixing. And you can add
Visuals, pre-defined graphical animations that respond
dynamically to the sound playing in the other tracks.
And
there's more: the Music Maker product also includes the
MAGIX Music Editor for editing individual audio files,
the MAGIX Media Manager silver version for organizing,
viewing, and editing images, music and video, plus two
more CDs with sample sounds and videos.
MAGIX Music Editor
At $59.99,
MAGIX Music Maker 2005 Deluxe provides a great starting
point for experimenting with music creation and editing,
with loop editing to MIDI, mixing and effects, export to
files or directly to web sites. You can download a demo
of the 2004 version from the web site to try out.
However,
understand that Music Maker is designed for audio
enthusiasts, not for beginners, as the profusion of
tools and features can be overwhelming (I could not even
list all the highlights here), and the documentation
really does not explain why and how you might want to
use them. It's also a consumer application, with limited
undo, sometimes sluggish response, and the sample clips
licensed for non-commercial use. It's also difficult to
use Music Maker for complex projects when you can lose
track of how you have applied effects and options to the
various clips.
Adobe Audition is a professional
audio editing tool, combining audio mixing, wave
editing, and effects processing (www.adobe.com/audition).
Yet while it has a profusion of options for detailed
work, Audition also includes convenient automated tools,
presets, and favorites that allow even non-experts to
perform amazing feats of audio restoration and
enhancement.
Audition
is the former Cool Edit Pro application from Syntrillium
Software, acquired by Adobe in May 2003. It also
available as part of the Adobe Video Collection suite.
Version 2.5 of the Video Collection was released in May
2004, and includes Premiere Pro 1.5 for video editing,
After Effects 6.5 Standard for video effects, Encore DVD
1.5 for DVD authoring, and Audition 1.5 for audio
editing. (The Professional edition also includes After
Effects 6.5 Professional and Adobe Photoshop CS.)
Audition
has two basic working modes: Multitrack View and Edit
View. In the Multitrack view you work with a track
layout to create multitrack mix sessions from clips and
loops, apply effects, and then mixdown and export the
result, i.e., as a track to import into Adobe Premiere.
In the Edit view you edit the waveform of an individual
audio clip (i.e., Wave file), repairing problems and
applying effects down to individual samples.
Multitrack
mixing is non-destructive: Audition creates a Session
file to manage the mix, previews the mixed tracks and
applied effects in real time, but does not change the
original audio files. Wave editing is destructive, since
it modifies the samples in the clip, which you can then
save to the same or a new audio file.
While
Audition's Multitrack mixer is great for musicians to
use to mix their own recordings, you also can use it to
create your own soundtrack mixes by taking advantage of
the 5,000 or so royalty-free music loops provided with
Audition (yes, that's five thousand). Yes, this is more
work than just picking a pre-created soundtrack in a
tool like SmartSound Sonicfire Pro, but the tradeoff is
that you get much more control over customizing the
result. You even can start with one of the twenty sample
sessions, and then enhance and modify them for your
needs. Or build you own mix, perhaps a rock beat with
one or two guitars, a bass guitar, a drum beat, and some
kick cymbal action. Just choose a loop file,
conveniently organized by style and instrument, place it
on a track, and then drag to extend it across multiple
bars.
Audition's Multitrack mixer
Of course,
mixing can be much more than just laying out tracks. You
can adjust the volume and stereo pan of each track, or
edit keyframed envelopes within the track. You also can
change the tempo of a single clip, or of the entire
waveform, simply by specifying a new beats per minute.
Or you can change the global key of the session without
changing the tempo.
Similarly,
Audition can solve a common problem when an audio clip
such as a voice-over does not exactly match the timing
of the corresponding video sequence. You can load the
video in the timeline to preview the sequence, and then
just drag the edge of the clip to match the video.
Audition will adjust the length without changing the
pitch.
To finish
the mix before exporting it, you can add effects to each
track, such as Equalization or Reverb. While Audition
provides plenty of parameters to experiment with, you
also can just choose one of the built-in presets, such
as reverb in a cathedral, outdoors, or a vocal chamber.
The Wave
Editing mode in Audition then lets you edit, restore,
and enhance individual clips. You can view the waveform
down to individual samples, and cut and paste, but more
often you will be applying effects and filters to repair
problems and sweeten (enhance) the audio.
Use the
Noise Reduction effects to remove noise such as
background hiss, and clicks and pops (as in vinyl
records). Audition provides both automated effects to
find and remove common problems, as well as more
advanced filters. For example, you can select a portion
of the clip, sample the background noise into a profile,
and then remove that noise profile from the rest of the
clip with precise control over the precision and
smoothing. Even more amazing is the Clip Restoration
filter that finds the "flat tops" in the waveform where
a recording has been clipped, and then repairs them by
interpolating the original full waveform.
Audition Wave editing - click / pop removal
Use the
Delay effects to add echoes, reverb, and even chorus
effects with multiple voices. Use the Time/Pitch effects
to stretch and bend pitch for interesting effects.
Audition also includes the almost magic Pitch Correction
effect to find and correct notes that are off-pitch. You
can use the automated options to fold to specific key
and scale (i.e., C Major), or use the manual options to
adjust a few notes that a vocalist has sung off-key.
Use the
Amplitude effects to amplify and fade the audio,
normalize, and adjust the dynamics to compress or expand
the volume, especially to make the clip sound louder
without clipping or distortion. Or roll out the Hard
Limiter to punch the volume for an "in your face" radio
sound with everything loud.
To dig
deeper into your audio, Audition provides analysis tools
with frequency statistics and histograms, plus dynamic
phase and frequency analysis views to help visualize
your clips as they play. You also can use them to view a
specific time, or a selection within the waveform. Then
use the audio filters and equalizers to make more
precise adjustments. Another piece of magic in Audition
is the Channel Extractor, which can isolate any portion
of sound within the stereo mix to remove, isolate, or
enhance only that segment. You can remove or lower the
center channel vocals for a Karaoke mix, or punch them
up, or tweak specific effects at any phase, pan, or
delay location between the left and right channels.
Beyond all
this, the most amazing feature in Audition 1.5 is the
Spectral view. Instead of working with waveforms and
samples, you can view your audio in frequency space, so
you can visually isolate specific elements such as the
vocals, different instruments, drum beats, and cymbals.
And instead of just admiring the spectral view, Audition
actually allows you to edit directly in frequency
space.
Audition Spectral view - cough removal
You can
use a marquee selection to isolate rectangular regions
of frequency across a duration of time, and then cut and
paste, for example to repeat or move drum beats. And you
can apply most of the filters in the spectral view as
well, again isolating in on specific frequencies of your
sounds. In this way, you can eliminate transient
problems such as coughs caught on a performance tape.
Instead of trying to cut and paste in that part of the
waveform view, you can use the spectral view to select
just the frequencies that contain the cough, and then
apply the click/pop eliminator to repair the transient
without affecting any other elements of the sound.
Audition
is obvious a deep application, combining audio mixing,
loop-based creation, and waveform editing with
professional filters and effects. It's also part of the
Adobe Video Collection, integrating cleanly with the
other Adobe digital media tools. So, for example, if you
choose Edit Original on a clip in Premiere Pro, it will
automatically open not just that clip, but the original
multi-track Audition session from which it was mixed
down. For even the most video-centric editor, Audition
opens wonderful possibilities for creating loop-based
custom soundtracks with different styles and
instruments, and provides amazing automated tools for
cleaning and enhancing audio clips.
The new
Audition version 1.5 added both more depth and more
automated support, with features like the automatic
click-pop eliminator, channel extractor to boost or
remove the vocals, pitch correction to correct flat or
sharp notes, and spectral view editing. Not bad for a
$299 application (or $999 for the entire Video
Collection). You also can download the tryout version
from the web site, along with the other components.
If you're a fan of Adobe Audition,
but find it clumsy to record music by trying to play an
instrument while simultaneously typing at a computer
keyboard, then you should definitely check out the ADS
Tech RedRover audio remote controller (www.adstech.com).
The
RedRover is small red device (of course), approximately
10 by 9 inches and 3 1/8 inches thick. It includes a
small LCD screen to monitor current session and track
information as well as an eight-step level meter. To
control your session for playback and recording, first
use the knobs to select the active track, and set master
and track volume. Then use the large transport control
buttons to shuttle, play, and record to the selected
track. The RedRover also brings out buttons for the
common operations of Mute, Solo, and Record, and for Cue
and Metronome.
ADS Tech RedRover
Hooking up
the RedRover is very easy: it connects easily to your
computer by USB, with a long cord to reach up to 10 feet
away. And it even includes a foot pedal to stop and
start recording.
The
RedRover device was actually designed at Syntrillium
Software, the original developers of Cool Edit Pro
before it was acquired by Adobe to become Audition.
Since Adobe is not in the hardware business, it licensed
RedRover to ADS Tech, which has been bundling the Adobe
products with an array of hardware products. The
RedRover is available for $199 (hardware only), or $399
bundled with Audition.
SmartSound Sonicfire Pro is a
music soundtrack creation tool, and not an audio clip
editor or mixing tool (www.smartsound.com).
Instead, Sonicfire Pro creates entire soundtracks that
are custom-fit to your videos. You can score your movie
by just picking a music style, auditioning some sample
soundtracks, and Sonicfire Pro does all the rest; you
don't have to compose, or record, or work with loops, or
mix together individual instruments. Even better, you do
not have to chop a piece of music to fit it to your
video clip. Sonicfire Pro actually adjusts the
composition of the piece to fit your time frame,
complete with a beginning, orchestrated theme, and
professional ending.
The
SmartSound process couldn't be easier. You first import
the movie file for which you want to create a
soundtrack. Since your soundtrack can have several
sections to match different scenes in the movie,
Sonicfire Pro lays the video out on a timeline so you
can play through it and add markers for each scene.
Then, you fire up the SmartSound Maestro to audition and
select your music from the SmartSound libraries of
royalty-free music.
SmartSound Maestro
The
Maestro provides several ways to search for music, by
Style (blues and classical to techno and world,
Intensity (calm to very energetic), Instrument
(accordion and big band to steel drum and vibraphone),
and Keyword (over 80 presets, including action, edgy,
heartwarming, mysterious, regal, and uplifting). As you
refine your search, the Maestro displays matching clips,
lists their attributes and tempo, and even provides
handy one-sentence descriptions.
After you
preview the clips and find a good match for your video,
the Maestro will then add it to the soundtrack,
re-orchestrated to fit the current marked section, or
any length that you want. You then can tweak the music
further, choosing from several stylistic variations,
adjusting the beginning or ending, and even trimming.
This is
the SmartSound magic: Sonicfire Pro creates complete,
finished compositions, with multiple layers of
instruments. You aren't mixing multiple tracks by hand,
you're creating the entire soundtrack. SmartSound does
this by breaking each library selection into blocks that
can be adjusted to fit different lengths. For more
detailed work, you even can display the Block Window and
edit these directly.
Sonicfire Pro - Timeline blocks
A diverse
collection of SmartSound music library CDs are available
starting at $49 (22k sampling rate) and $99 (44k), or
3-packs for $249. You can audition the clips online, or,
even better, search and preview the entire collection
directly from the SmartSound Maestro.
SmartSound
Sonicfire Pro is a unique tool for creating soundtracks
to enhance your videos by adding depth and mood. Version
3.2, released in April 2004, is available for Windows
and Macintosh ($299 including two library CDs). Related
SmartSound products include the QuickTracks plug-in for
Adobe Premiere Pro and other video editors ($99) and
MovieMaestro for home computer users and educators
($49). To learn more, check the web site for a guided
tour, on-line tutorial, and to download a trial version.
Audio
often gets lost in the excitement of shooting and
editing video. Yet a noisy or damaged audio track can
ruin a video production, and a compelling soundtrack can
add powerful emotional strength. Video editors are
designed for mixing tracks, and provide some effects for
sweetening audio, but at best you can try to mask
problems so they are not too noticeable. And who has the
talent (or funding) to compose an original movie score
from scratch?
These
applications provide useful answers for video editors,
whether or not you are an audio expert.
You can
use SmartSound Sonicfire Pro to create a soundtrack
timed to the scenes in your production, and based on
your preferences for style, intensity, and instruments.
This can be particularly useful for adding emotional and
thematic backing to your videos.
If you are
enthusiastic for experimenting with audio creation and
editing, then try out MAGIX Music Maker. Its cornucopia
of clips, tools, effects, and synthesizers will keep you
enthralled as you record, mix, and edit music. It even
includes video clips, effects, and animations. You can
share your creations on CD, over the Internet, or
directly to web pages.
And for
more professional audio mixing, editing, and effects,
move up to Adobe Audition, especially if you are already
comfortable with other Adobe tools. While Audition
provides powerful and deep audio processing options, its
convenient presets and automated functions mean that
operations like hiss reduction and click / pop
elimination can be performed quickly and easily.
Adobe - Audition 1.5
www.adobe.com/audition
ADS Tech - Red Rover
www.adstech.com
MAGIX - Music Maker 2005 Deluxe
www.magix.com
SmartSound - Sonicfire Pro
www.smartsound.com
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Technology®
Copyright 1999-2004, Douglas
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