Freeverse has released Sound Studio v3.5, a major update to the sound recording and editing tool for Mac OS X.

Among the dozens of enhancements in the new Sound Studio 3.5 are:

• New ID3 tag / iTunes metadata editor.
• Apple Lossless, ADTS AAC, NeXT/Sun Audio, and Ogg Vorbis file formats added.
• Chapters in AAC and Apple Lossless formats supported.
• Playback scrolling preferences added.
• MP3 bit rates now support 8, 16, and 24 kbps.
• Loop option for filter previews.
• AppleScript support added for referencing individual tracks in a document, and for changing the pan (left-center-right) and volume of each track.
• BPM grid and a "Tap for BPM" button that lets you determine the tempo by clicking in rhythm with the beat.

Sound Studio 3.5 costs $79.95 to new customers. Version 3.5 is a free update for registered users.

The full changes

New features:

• ID3 Tag / iTunes Metadata Editor. File information and metadata such as artist, album, artwork, lyrics, genre, year, track number, and composer can be read, edited, and saved with files. These tags are supported in MP3, AAC (m4a), AIFF, AIFF-C, Core Audio Format, Sound Designer II, and Windows WAV file formats. ID3 Versions 2.2 through 2.4 are supported, as well as iTunes metadata format used in m4a files. The "Split by Markers" command has been updated so that it also generates ID3 tags and metadata.
• Chapters support in AAC (m4a) and Apple Lossless file formats. Chapters are equivalent to markers.
• Better bit rate support. MP3 bit rates now support 8, 16, and 24 kbps. AAC bit rate options show all valid bit rates (which vary depending on the sample rate and number of channels).
• Handles additional standard AIFF chunks. AIFF chunk support for title ('NAME'), artist ('AUTH'), copyright ('(c) ') and comments ('ANNO'). Other chunks (COMT, INST, MIDI, and AESD) will be passed through when opening and saving AIFF and AIFF-C files.
• CAF Markers saved in and loaded from Core Audio Format.
• Additional file formats supported: Apple Lossless (".m4a"), ADTS AAC (".aac" audio data transport stream), NeXT/Sun Audio (".au"), Ogg Vorbis (".ogg")
• Loop option for filter previews.
• Normalize to RMS (average power) filter setting added.
• Pitch and Tempo filter now has a "Linked" option for old-school pitch control, where changing the pitch also changes the tempo. Also fixed a crashing bug with changing the pitch or tempo settings while the preview was playing.
• Markers available in the "Go To" and "Set Selection" commands.
• Marker names and times are copied to the pasteboard during Cut and Copy, so that they can be copy-and-pasted from Sound Studio into a text editor.
• Markers can be deleted by deleting their name.
• AppleScript application property added that lets AppleScripts ask "Is the app recording?"
• AppleScript support added for referencing individual tracks in a document, and for changing the pan (left-center-right) and volume of each track.
• BPM grid and a "Tap for BPM" button that lets you determine the tempo by clicking in rhythm with the beat.
• Input Levels, when minimized, has a working levels meter for the dock icon.
• Color preferences presets.
• More Cowbell.

Optimizations and tweaks:

• Filter presets now behave like normal preset files, so that changes are saved only when you tell it to save them.
• Marker name display and editing improved.
• Split By Markers now ignores dots (".") in names. It also defaults to saving to the Desktop, and remembers the last user selected folder.
• Canceling a filter or tone generator no longer inserts half-processed data into document.
• Save progress sheet now shows localized text.
• Changed Markers floating window so that it recognizes key strokes for selecting markers in the list, deleting markers, and adding markers.
• Playback volume slider in the document window now stops at 0 dB (for one pixel).
• "Return" key now moves cursor to the beginning of the file.
• Preference for playback scrolling added, to switch between old-style page-by-page automatic scrolling, and the new, continuous style. It can be enabled via user default "edit.scrollWaveform.byPage". The minimum zoom level for all auto-scrolling can be set via "edit.scrollWaveform.minimumZoomLevel".
• Tweaked Auto Recording so that if start mode is set to levels, pressing OK in that dialog will automatically cause the document to go into record-pause mode, ready to start recording when the levels pick up.
• New and updated file icons.
• Updated in-application help book pages.
• Updated localizations (Danish, French, Italian, and Japanese available).
• VoiceOver enhancements.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a bug with editing audio.
• Fixed a bug where Resample would hang or crash.
• Fixed several memory leaks.
• Saving in AIFF-C IMA-4 format has been fixed.
• Fixed a bug in the Crop action where stereo files would become a two-track mono file. Also changed Crop so that the window will scroll to the beginning.
• Fixed bug where Return/Enter key strokes were not being recognized in Filter dialog windows, and where VoiceOver reports the window is busy.
• Fixed several problems with using Audio Unit plug-in filters, including AUBandpass and AUPitch.
• Filter stuttering preview bug and buffer size bug fixed.