What editor do you recommend for Windows 10 64bit?

[QuantumMusicality]

I genuinely attempted to search out this answer in this section of the forum but didn't have much luck in doing so. My questions all orbit what is the best choice with respect to an up to date Windows 10, 64bit, Audio Editor?

Whatever you believe to be responsible for the best possible sound quality with respect to final edits in terms of mixing, mastering, and CD assembly. If you believe this can only be done by acquiring multiple programs, I am just as interested, however just as ignorant.

How important would you characterize working with a 64bit application as being?

Why is this such a seemingly low profile talking point? I can't think of anything with respect to audio that is much more important than said audio's final representation.

I typically create in Ableton Live 9 Suite. Has it become common place, or even industry standard, to simply use your creation based DAW of choice as your editor itself?

Thanks!

[bustedfist]

Cubase for recording and mixing combined with Wavelab for mastering and CD production. Cubase 9 is totally 64bit, 32bit plugs have to be bridged via 3rd party apps.

[bustedfist]

How important would you characterize working with a 64bit application as being?

Very, when you consider 32bit OS's are limited to 4GB of RAM.

[whyterabbyt]

My questions all orbit what is the best choice with respect to an up to date Windows 10, 64bit, Audio Editor?

For you, the one that suits you best. No one size fits all.

Why is this such a seemingly low profile talking point? I can't think of anything with respect to audio that is much more important than said audio's final representation.

Well, for a start, I dont really think that an 'audio editor' has anything intrinsically to do with 'audio's final representation'. And I guess that since most people here are focussed on the 'music' subcategory of audio, then they'll often think that composition and songwriting and stuff like that are more important.

Secondly, as you yourself suggest, I think that for most people, the level of audio editing they undertake is achievable within their DAW, as there are only a few relatively specialised editing functionalities that I can think of that arent particularly common to DAWs, such as loop editing.

So at the end of the day the specifics of what you need an editor for may be as important to your choice as anything else. More info will feed more appropriate recommendations, but nothing will be intrinsically 'better' by default.

[nix808]

Yep- WaveLab
Audacity and Wavosaur are good for free though.

I am with SoundForge since 2001, but it's not 64 bit, which- well you can still get by.
You get CD Architect with SF still I think

Adobe Audition is really neat too

[RobGee]

Another vote for Wavelab here. I've used both Soundforge and Wavelab for many years and much prefer the functionality, workflow, user interface and plugin handling of the latter.

[BertKoor]

Whatever you believe to be responsible for the best possible sound quality with respect to final edits in terms of mixing, mastering, and CD assembly

That would be the engineer at the controls and nothing else. Only bad engineers blame their tools. Compact disks with excellent audio quality are made for decades already with all possible audio editors available.

How important would you characterize working with a 64bit application as being?

Very, when you consider 32bit OS's are limited to 4GB of RAM.

NOT, when you consider the 2 GB memory limit with 32bit is enough to hold a couple of hours worth of recording in CD quality.

[fmr]

NOT, when you consider the 2 GB memory limit with 32bit is enough to hold a couple of hours worth of recording in CD quality.

Besides, unless you use BWAV format instead of the more common WAV, 2 GB files is usually your size limit (which doesn't mater at all, since a CD only goes up to circa 740 MB anyway, which is enough to more than 75 minutes of audio in stereo).

But I would like to mention Acoustica, from Acon Audio. It's cheaper than the big ones, yest very professional, and they are in the process of making a new version with some very interesting features, that should be out soon. Besides, it follows closely the Sound Forge paradigm, which has been my favourite in Windows since ever.

[bustedfist]

NOT, when you consider the 2 GB memory limit with 32bit is enough to hold a couple of hours worth of recording in CD quality.

I don't even know what this means. Guess you never heard of the 3GB switch.

[whyterabbyt]

Guess you never heard of the 3GB switch.

The one that doesnt make any difference at all unless the application has specifically been built with IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE set?

[bustedfist]

Guess you never heard of the 3GB switch.

The one that doesnt make any difference at all unless the application has specifically been built with IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE set?

My DAW always has been.

Hmmm, singles me just to repeatedly defend a 32bit OS? Over just one minute reason to go 64bit? Not taking the bait, troll elsewhere.

[cryophonik]

Whatever you believe to be responsible for the best possible sound quality with respect to final edits in terms of mixing, mastering, and CD assembly. If you believe this can only be done by acquiring multiple programs, I am just as interested, however just as ignorant.

Personally, I fall into the category of using a separate DAW for music production/mixing (e.g., Sonar, Logic, Live), and a dedicated audio editor for mastering/CD assembly/audio repair and restoration (e.g., Wavelab). That said, Studio One has a built-in mastering environment, so that might be worth checking out for an all-in-one solution. I believe that Adobe Audition is pretty good at handling all aspects as well, but hopefully someone else with more experience with Audition will chime in here.

Another vote for Wavelab here. I've used both Soundforge and Wavelab for many years and much prefer the functionality, workflow, user interface and plugin handling of the latter.

Ditto. I've gone back and forth between Wavelab and Soundforge a few times. Both are nice, but I've settled on Wavelab and I'm happy with it.

[QuantumMusicality]

I want to sincerely THANK each and everyone that has contributed their experience based opinions and knowledge thus far. My sincere attempt to gain meaningful and broadened perspective concerning an audio editor has been unquestionably successful as a result of everyone's input. Due to some of the differing opinions here, I was inspired today to really dig in and find out for myself what the real/practical advantages of 32bit vs. 64bit were for me as an individual DAW user. Over and over again the efficiency and quality of process benefits from a true 64bit digital audio process, with respect to what it is, and how it is, I am doing what I do musically, were abundantly proved to me as being undeniable. In the effort to shed some of my bit depth relevant ignorance, several of the sources that I used to research and best understand these audio processing concepts were threads from right here on KVR going back numerous years. So much thanks, really.

The clincher for me today was the much echoed, almost universal in fact, praise for Wavelab 9 and the manner in which Cubase seamlessly integrates with it. All information combined, I have purchased Cubase Pro 9, and Wavelab Pro 9, both boxed, as a direct result. Naturally a substantial combined discount for purchasing both simultaneously didn't hurt matters either. Done deal.

[bustedfist]

Congrats, you won't regret it.

[jancivil]

quality of process benefits from a true 64bit digital audio process

Just a heads-up, that wasn't what was being argued above. It was 32 vs 64-bit Operating System and consequently applications.

The big reason for x64 here will be, a lot of plugins aren't made in 32-bit anymore.
I'm not sure why one would need more than a couple gigs RAM for audio editing...