Acoustica 6 Released

[stian]

We are happy to announce the release of Acoustica 6, a major new version of our comprehensive solution for audio recording, editing, mixing and mastering. Acoustica 6 is available in three editions, the free Basic Edition, the Standard Edition ($39.90) and the Premium Edition ($119.90). The Standard and Premium Edition now include multitrack editing and all three editions come with several new features:

Multitrack Editing (Standard and Premium Edition only)

• Create as many audio tracks as you want
• Apply effect chains to tracks or master track
• Clips can easily be looped and stretched
• Add transitions between clips by simply overlapping them in the time line.
• Several transition curves are available
• Double click a clip to open and modify the content in an audio editor window
• Mix-down to 5.1 and 7.1 surround formats (Premium Edition only)

New Phase Linear Equalizer (Premium Edition only)

• Phase linear six band parametric equalizer
• Six different filter types
• No frequency warping when close to the Nyquist frequency
• Variable bandwidths and filter slopes (from -3 to -120 dB / oct.)

New Audio Restoration Tools (Premium Edition only)
Acoustica Premium Edition now includes the same tools as found in the Restoration Suite:

• DeNoise is a plugin designed to reduce stationary noise, such as broadband noise, hiss, wind noise, buzz and camera noise
• DeHum targets hum and buzz typically introduced by poorly grounded electrical equipment, but also other tonal noise sources like electrical motor noise
• DeClick is designed to remove impulsive noise such as clicks and crackle
• DeClip restores audio recordings distorted by analog or digital clipping

Upgraded Processing Tools (Standard Edition only)
Acoustica Standard Edition 6 includes several of the high quality processing tools that were earlier only available in the Premium Edition:

• Superb quality time stretching
• Transpose tool (pitch shift) based on the new time stretching engine
• New reverb with much better control over the room and filter parameters
• The parametric equalizer now offers six different filter types - low shelf, peak, high shelf, high pass, notch and low pass

Other Improvements

• Improved VST preset handling which is more consistent with how presets are managed for the internal processing tools
• Automatic recovery of recording audio if the computer shuts down unexpectedly during recording
• WAVE64 - support for files bigger than 4 GB now also in the Basic and Standard Edition
• The Basic Edition now includes MP4 and AAC import and export filters (only on Windows 7 or higher)

More information is available here: http://acondigital.com/products/acoustica-audio-editor/

[Vitaly]

Hi Stian,

May I ask what is the direction you want to take Acoustica to? I mean, is it going to be a music production host? Audio editor? Post production program, perhaps? Or something else?

I'm asking as it seems there is quite big number of young film makers; however just a few post production programs. And they all are pretty expensive. Acoustica could be a good alternative. The quality of your plug-ins are very impressive. You have original ideas. All that makes me think there should be something interesting for Acoustica, as well. I just don't see it at the moment.

Thanks,
Vitaly.

[stian]

Hi Vitaly!

May I ask what is the direction you want to take Acoustica to? I mean, is it going to be a music production host? Audio editor? Post production program, perhaps? Or something else?

We don't have any plans to turn Acoustica into a music production host with MIDI, virtual instruments and such. Acoustica will continue to be a general purpose audio editor, but audio post production is also very interesting.

I'm asking as it seems there is quite big number of young film makers; however just a few post production programs. And they all are pretty expensive. Acoustica could be a good alternative. The quality of your plug-ins are very impressive. You have original ideas. All that makes me think there should be something interesting for Acoustica, as well. I just don't see it at the moment.

Thanks, I appreciate your friendly feedback! User feedback and suggestions are of great interest, so please don't hesitate to post suggestions for improvements. What is needed to make a Acoustica a good alternative for audio post production in your opinion?

We will also continue the development of plug-ins and plug-in suites. We have received very nice feedback on the Restoration Suite from video producers, so this video production is definitely of interest to us.

Stian

[Vitaly]

Hi Stian,

Thanks for your reply!

1. First of all, video support! Just a single video track, that's all what's needed. Perhaps, syncing Acoustica and a well known video player is a way to go.

2. OMF import/export. Acoustica must have a way to exchange files with other video applications.

3. ITU-R BS.1770 metering. It's becoming a standard. If a user could have the loudness curve going over a signal's waveform, it would be even better.

4. ADR mode. This is when we have a dirty dialogue recording made on set and clean one made in a studio. The task is to match timing of the new recording to the dirty one's. You already have audio stretching algorithm. You just need to "teach" it to do that.

I realize it's a lot of work but I think these four points are a must for an audio post application.

Cheers,
Vitaly.

[stian]

Hi Vitaly,

Thanks for your valuable feedback!

1. First of all, video support! Just a single video track, that's all what's needed. Perhaps, syncing Acoustica and a well known video player is a way to go.

Not quite unexpected... I've been thinking about possible ways to handle this and I think it would be best if both the normal single track editor and the multitrack editor would have static video tracks (no editing) above the time lines.

2. OMF import/export. Acoustica must have a way to exchange files with other video applications.

OK, I'm not really familiar with the format so it's hard to say how much work this would require at the time being.

3. ITU-R BS.1770 metering. It's becoming a standard. If a user could have the loudness curve going over a signal's waveform, it would be even better.

Both ITU-R BS.1770 and EBU R 128 are something we are planning to support.

4. ADR mode. This is when we have a dirty dialogue recording made on set and clean one made in a studio. The task is to match timing of the new recording to the dirty one's. You already have audio stretching algorithm. You just need to "teach" it to do that.

This is really interesting. How automatic are these tools? Can you define markers in both video and audio that are automatically time aligned or do they try to match the content fully automatically?

I realize it's a lot of work but I think these four points are a must for an audio post application.

You are right, this is clearly nothing that will be implemented in the short run, but these are really interesting possibilities.

Stian

[Vitaly]

Hi Stian,

1. First of all, video support! Just a single video track, that's all what's needed. Perhaps, syncing Acoustica and a well known video player is a way to go.

Not quite unexpected... I've been thinking about possible ways to handle this and I think it would be best if both the normal single track editor and the multitrack editor would have static video tracks (no editing) above the time lines.

Yes. The only option you could add is cutting the beginning/end of a video track and shifting it along the time line. Working on a single part of a project is quite common.

4. ADR mode. This is when we have a dirty dialogue recording made on set and clean one made in a studio. The task is to match timing of the new recording to the dirty one's. You already have audio stretching algorithm. You just need to "teach" it to do that.

This is really interesting. How automatic are these tools? Can you define markers in both video and audio that are automatically time aligned or do they try to match the content fully automatically?Stian

We are talking about two different tasks, now.
First is syncing audio to video. This is done by an editor. The process can be automatic or manual. It depends on whether syncing signal was used during recording on set.
The second one (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) is matching well recorded audio to bad recorded audio. This is done by a software. How it is done I don't know though I would guess it involves searching similar transients in both recordings and matching them. The talent who does both (bad and good) recordings is the same. And he/she will do the best to repeat his/her on location performance in a studio. So it is not like matching two completely different sources. You could try the demo of Audition or Nuendo to check this feature out. Sorry, I can't help with the technical details.

Vitaly.

[stian]

Thanks for the clarifications, Vitaly.

Stian

[ZypKode]

Are there any Plans to add a Spectral Display Screen to the Latest Version of Acoustica 6 ?

[stian]

Hi!

Are there any Plans to add a Spectral Display Screen to the Latest Version of Acoustica 6 ?

Thanks for your interest and suggestion! Spectral editing is definitely something we are considering, although I cannot give any promise regarding which version.

Stian