KVR Audio

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:13 am

Hi there,
I use Sonar mainly for composing and tracking. I thought of Adobe Audition and Samplitude for the mixing and mastering stages, but I don't know which one is better in 1. stability and cpu usage 2. ease of use.
Thanks for your opinions

siriusbliss · Post by **siriusbliss** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:06 am

Samplitude is great for mastering.
Don't know anything about Adobe.

Greg

Ja.x · Post by **Ja.x** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:27 am

With Audition you can't go wrong

.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:27 am

Samplitude is becoming a real favourite amongst many mastering professionals. As for ease of use...I wouldn't rate it high in that category.

If you're not a mastering engineer, and you're mastering your own stuff, you might want to look at something like Izotope Ozone or T-Racks24, which include all the tools necessary for mastering, but are pretty easy to get going with, and can be as complex as you need.

I wouldn't go with spending money on an extra editor unless a) you need a dedicated audio editor (good idea anyway) or b) you have good, high-quality mastering software. At least with T-Racks for Ozone you have all your tools in one package, including useful presets. Depends on how detailed and in-depth you're expecting to get with mastering.

You might want to check out HarBal and AAMS for getting some perspective on your mixes also; I find them quite useful.

Just MHO.

Mr. Tunes · Post by **Mr. Tunes** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:28 am

This is where Pro Tools shines. That's why many people go with TDM systems cause they accelerate the effects with hardware. Start out on LE and decide if it's working for you, if it is, many people are getting rid of their ancient MixPlus systems.

papawillow · Post by **papawillow** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:52 am

Vegas.

living sounds · Post by **living sounds** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:08 am

Audition is great for sample editing, but when it comes to mixing and mastering, Samplitude is the clear winner.

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:34 am

Thanks everyone

I'm now between Adobe Audition + Izotope Ozone and Samplitude Classic.
Vegas or Sound Forge needs .Net + SQL Server desktop edition i think to be installed and I don't want to install them really.
Pro Tools LE is a good option too! But I think it is more for persons that have a goal to switch to TDM HD or finding a job in a studio (which I don't), but I could be wrong here. Anyway I will re check all that you wrote.
Thanks again

SonicBreeze · Post by **SonicBreeze** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:44 am

EnGee wrote:Hi there,
I use Sonar mainly for composing and tracking. I thought of Adobe Audition and Samplitude for the mixing and mastering stages, but I don't know which one is better in 1. stability and cpu usage 2. ease of use.
Thanks for your opinions

Actually three points on which your comparisan based 1.stability.2CPU usage 3.Ease of USE.

Audition may kill anything on that ground. But for Mastering you need a nice Mastering suite like Ozone, T-rack as mentioned earlier also consider a look at PSP Vintagewarmer(My Personal Favorite).

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:45 am

EnGee wrote:I'm now between Adobe Audition + Izotope Ozone and Samplitude Classic.

Firstly, I don't know Samplitude enough to compare it, although it does look to me to have a far more complex workflow/functionality, more akin to Sonar which you already have.

Anyway, regarding Audition + Ozone... Audition is certainly a fantastic option for audio mastering, and is to my mind perhaps the best software audio environment currently available. However, I'm not certain that Ozone would be the best investment in terms of a complementary plugin...

Ozone consists of mastering reverb, stereo imaging, limiting, etc. One of its best parts is undoubtedly the multiband compression though, and you will therefore be interested to know that the new Multiband Compression effect added to Audition in version 2 is, in fact, the Ozone one itself, complete with Izotope logo! So in other words, by getting Audition you already have one of the best parts of Ozone bundled and integrated directly into Audition.

Regading the other elements of Ozone, the Stereo Imaging effect and Hard Limiting effect in Audition are as good to my ears as those in Ozone (possibly better in fact). So no need for Ozone for them. And for Mastering Reverb, the Full Reverb Effect and Convolution effect in Audition are great, although if you have Sonar 5 Producer (not clear from your OP), then I would say that Perfect Space is better still! And Perfect Space (as well as all the Sonitus effects suite from Sonar) can all be accessed and used as DX/VST effects directly in Audition.

So I would advise you to check out the Audition demo and if you decide to go down that route buy Audition only to start with, then assess whether there are any particular plugins that you would like to complement it (e.g. perhaps some of the Voxengo mastering effects...)

By the way, the Audition manual also contains a good detailed section on using the application as a mastering environment.

D-Fusion · Post by **D-Fusion** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:01 am

I use my Sonar for everything

Sequencing, Audio & Mastering (Just get some good mastering plugs, and use them).
If you have Sonar 4 or 5, you might have all the plugins you will need for the job..

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:07 am

living sounds wrote:Audition is great for sample editing, but when it comes to mixing and mastering, Samplitude is the clear winner.

Mixing and mastering are clearly different tasks/processes. Samplitude may well be fantastic for mixing down tracks (the screenshots of the console certainly look awesome!). But mastering is basically about working with a (usually stereo) waveform and editing/effecting it AFTER mixdown.

It therefore seems odd and contradictory to state that Audition is great for sample editing but not for mastering

.

In the case of mastering a stereo waveform (mixed in a sequencer such as Samplitude, Sonar, etc) Audition has unbeatable audio analysis tools, scientific filters, frequency spectrum analysis and editing, spectral phase and pan, etc. To the best of my knowledge applications such as Pro Tools and Samplitude don't offer comparable tools for doing these jobs...

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:11 pm

Sorry my mistake, I have Sonar 4 SE.
I downloaded the Samplitude demo and I like it, but I think the learning curve is high. I'm still downloading Audition demo (hell! why it is so big!!).
But as I see from your info is maybe all I need is Audition, as I read it can be integrated within Sonar so it can be used as wave editor without leaving Sonar.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:22 pm

EnGee wrote:Sorry my mistake, I have Sonar 4 SE.

Okay. So in Audition you will be able to access the Sonitus effects (but not the Lexicon).

I downloaded the Samplitude demo and I like it, but I think the learning curve is high. I'm still downloading Audition demo (hell! why it is so big!!).

I'm not sure but I think it comes with some audio files/loops? The file size grew massively in the transition from version 1.5 to 2.0, but I got a boxed upgrade, so I'm not sure about the download of the demo.

What you will get though is the fully functioning programme, including the ability to save, export and everything... time-limited for 30 days.

But as I see from your info is maybe all I need is Audition, as I read it can be integrated within Sonar so it can be used as wave editor without leaving Sonar.

Yes. You can use them two ways:

1) You can put Audition onto your Sonar Tools menu (either by tweaking your registry or, easier, using Bruce Ennis' "Sonar Utilities" free download. A quick search on the Sonar forum will lead you to this download, including instructions. Once you have Audition on your Tools menu, all you need to do is select an audio clip in Sonar and then go Tools > Audition. At that point Audition will open with the file loaded into edit view, where you can, for example, use Audition's outstanding noise reduction to analyse and remove annoying fan noise from an audio recording. Once you save the file and close Audition, Sonar imports the edited file and correctly inserts it back into your project. This is a fangastic way to use Audition as a tool within Sonar.

2) Secondly, and relating back to your original post, Audition can be used for mastering your Sonar project. In this case, what you will want to do is rended/export your finished Sonar mixdown as a (32-bit) audio file. Then close Sonar and open up the mixdown audio file in Audition, where you can apply any effects, etc, to the stereo waveform in Edit view. You can also use Audition to burn a CD of your finished, mastered project. Or convert it to mp3 (etc) ready to upload to the web...

manstok · Post by **manstok** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:32 pm

I am fairly new to mastering, I wonder; when I am mixing a track, would I need to use compressors, limiters and maximizers and a final reverb in the mixing process? what would the use of mastering be if I already used all those in the mixing process?

Host for mixing and mastering