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themaddog « Strong DAW software »
Published on 10/07/11 at 04:42I've been using Cool Edit in one form or another since around 1999. The latest and last version, 2.0, is the culmination of many years of development and is a fairly stable, easy to use platform. Essentially, if the user knows how to operate a real mixer and recorder, then he or she should have no problems with the concepts of running the Cool Edit Pro virtual mixer and recorder. Whether you plan to clean up individual audio tracks or record and mix a song, Cool Edit is relatively intuitive and easy to use.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
The program is relatively small, meaning that it runs pretty efficiently on a variety of computers. I've only had it crash on me a couple of times, which I suspect is more due to Windows problems than that with Syntrillium's software. I run Cool Edit Pro 2.0 on a Pentium 3 with Windows XP Service Pack 2. I am easily able to record on 8 tracks at a time with my M-Audio Delta 1010 LT sound card.
OVERALL OPINION
For PC software it's relatively easy to use. But, I now prefer to record with a real mixer with actual knobs, rather than "virtually." If I were in the business of recording and mixing bands, I likely would use this software or Pro Tools or some other DAW mixing program as it would be very easy to make subtle changes to the mixes, as they would be saved on hard drive. But, since I'm recording for myself, I work how I prefer to, which is mixing by hand. If I were employed by a band, or were in the habit of doing so, Cool Edit Pro would be invaluable to me in order to make the minute changes to make the recording artist happy, whereas with how I work now I would have to likely start the mix all over again. Instead, I don't have the time or energy to focus hours and hours on a single song, so mixing by hand gets it done for me and keeps me happy. But, I would have no real qualms about mixing with CEP, and have done so in the past.
As this company is no longer in business, it's relatively easy to find a copy online, which is a shame they went under because future improvements to the software would have been great.
The only thing I wish this program had would be better MIDI support and a better infrastructure for slaving to MIDI Time Code (MTC). When slaving to MTC, the user has to constantly re-trigger this ability every time he or she stops the master recorder. I also wish the video integration were better on this program, but I think that's more a limitation from when the time this software was made.
Still, for cleaning up audio tracks, this is by far my favorite program to use. It's very easy to remove hiss, and with the noise reduction feature, it's quite easy to locate problem noise that was previously recorded as silence and remove just those frequencies.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
The program is relatively small, meaning that it runs pretty efficiently on a variety of computers. I've only had it crash on me a couple of times, which I suspect is more due to Windows problems than that with Syntrillium's software. I run Cool Edit Pro 2.0 on a Pentium 3 with Windows XP Service Pack 2. I am easily able to record on 8 tracks at a time with my M-Audio Delta 1010 LT sound card.
OVERALL OPINION
For PC software it's relatively easy to use. But, I now prefer to record with a real mixer with actual knobs, rather than "virtually." If I were in the business of recording and mixing bands, I likely would use this software or Pro Tools or some other DAW mixing program as it would be very easy to make subtle changes to the mixes, as they would be saved on hard drive. But, since I'm recording for myself, I work how I prefer to, which is mixing by hand. If I were employed by a band, or were in the habit of doing so, Cool Edit Pro would be invaluable to me in order to make the minute changes to make the recording artist happy, whereas with how I work now I would have to likely start the mix all over again. Instead, I don't have the time or energy to focus hours and hours on a single song, so mixing by hand gets it done for me and keeps me happy. But, I would have no real qualms about mixing with CEP, and have done so in the past.
As this company is no longer in business, it's relatively easy to find a copy online, which is a shame they went under because future improvements to the software would have been great.
The only thing I wish this program had would be better MIDI support and a better infrastructure for slaving to MIDI Time Code (MTC). When slaving to MTC, the user has to constantly re-trigger this ability every time he or she stops the master recorder. I also wish the video integration were better on this program, but I think that's more a limitation from when the time this software was made.
Still, for cleaning up audio tracks, this is by far my favorite program to use. It's very easy to remove hiss, and with the noise reduction feature, it's quite easy to locate problem noise that was previously recorded as silence and remove just those frequencies.