What audio editor do you prefer?

[Sean L]

Hello all, another long time reader first time poster!Every day I learn somethin new on here, yis are all great in my opinion! I am a newbie to post pro audio so you will have to forgive me if I ask the odd silly question
Puttin togethor a small home studio and wanted to get some advice on a good editor, something that has most of the tools one would need for workin with D,M and E.
cheers

Sean.

[danijel]

there are many good programs, but if you plan on working with other people later on, or transferring your projects to bigger mixing rooms, you should go with industry standard Pro Tools by Digidesign. it is available in many forms and sizes - look at LE and M-Powered versions.
i personally use Nuendo, but i work in a relatively closed environment.

[Jazzpunk]

Pro Tools

Pro Tools is a superb audio editor, but since I'm self employed I rarely come use it at all.

For classic audio editing I use Apple's SoundTrack Pro for crazy stuff I tend to use Ableton Live.

[Henchman]

I prefer Nuendo, but use PT's daily.

[Eric L]

Originally Posted by Sean L

Hello all, another long time reader first time poster!Every day I learn somethin new on here, yis are all great in my opinion! I am a newbie to post pro audio so you will have to forgive me if I ask the odd silly question
Puttin togethor a small home studio and wanted to get some advice on a good editor, something that has most of the tools one would need for workin with D,M and E.
cheers

Sean.

Charles Maynes.

[georgia]

Protools for real work
Logic for composition
Garageband for mucking about
final cut for most video projects
Avid for Feature films

Pyramix is way cool, but not enough people are using it in NYC....



cheers
geo

[santacore]

Pro Tools for editing and mixing.thumbsup

[charles maynes]

Originally Posted by Eric L

Charles Maynes.

troublemaker....tutt

[Sean L]

Cheers guys! Have used protools before a little, but I was allways told, now this was by music engineers, that Protools was great for recording but not as complete as say logic for generating,editing and processing of sound, for example if your designing sound for an atmospheric scene and you are trying to create something thats not music but not stricly relating to any sound you might hear in the scene, would protools be the right program?

[TWoZ]

I prefer Pro Tools for all of the above.

[Lipflap]

I think this Holy Grail quest has no real solution. In most circumstances, any professional editor will do the trick. Each will offer better - and worse - features, but it's largely a matter of getting used to it. Of equal importance to features and specs are local norms and workforce skills. It doesn't matter how cool the machine is if no one in your labor pool knows how to run it or if your studio is incompatible with the rest of your market. Whether it's Pro Tools, Nuendo, Fairlight, Soundscape, AudioFile or Pyramix, you can probably get the job done. And in any case, you'll end up bad-mouthing the DAW, wishing it behaved like the old unit you had "back when."

[Sean L]

Originally Posted by Lipflap

I think this Holy Grail quest has no real solution. In most circumstances, any professional editor will do the trick. Each will offer better - and worse - features, but it's largely a matter of getting to it. Of equal importance to features and specs are local norms and workforce skills. It doesn't matter how cool the machine is if no one in your labor pool knows how to run it or if your studio is incompatible with the rest of your market. Whether it's Pro Tools, Nuendo, Fairlight, Soundscape, AudioFile or Pyramix, you can probably get the job done. And in any case, you'll end up bad-mouthing the DAW, wishing it behaved like the old unit you had "back when."

Yeah gotcha, was gonna go with Protools anyway and probably Logic aswell to broaden the pool I will be swimmin in

[kailpot]

SaDIE!

[intolerance]

Cubase 4 / Nuendo. Can't beat it! The handles on the waveform alone does it for me. LOVE it.

[CottageLunch]

A shameless plug for my old Fairlight MFX3 48s
All Madi all the time.
Though I am giving Nuendo 4 a run with one of those Euphonix things shortly to see if I can edit as fast as I can with the QDC.

[philper]

Sadie, PT, Sound Forge, Audacity, depending....

Philip Perkins

[soundslikejoe]

Nuendo/Cubase for composing music and mixing post.
ProTools for tracking bands.....

I've seen a guy working in Samplitude/Saquoia and was impressed.... never used it myself though...
Samplitude, Sequoia, Sam for Rent

[KingDaddyO]

Samplitude, Sound Forge & Vegas.

[BTP]

for basic editing of individual audio files , I like soundforge, wavelab or peak.

[nathand]

Fairlight QDC with Binnacle editor

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by nathand

Fairlight QDC with Binnacle editor

failrights rock.
Hands down the fastest editing system out there.

[bassie12]

Pro Tools

[Frank S.]

Originally Posted by Henchman

failrights rock.
Hands down the fastest editing system out there.

I work on Fairlight and I agree. I have yet to find an editor that is faster.

[robcap]

Depends on what you do in post. Fairlight QDC and CC-1 (which I have seen but not used yet) is simply the fastest for dialogue cutting and placing sound effects. Audio recorded onto our QDC sounds better than the same audio recorded onto our PT HD rig, but difference is not huge.

PT is good as well and LE with DVToolkit makes the entry to market economical. Serious post mixing has to be done on an HD system and that brings PT inline with the Fairlight prices. PT is the standard and most commonly. If you are sourcing dialogue, foley, score for other sources and hey happen to deliver on PT projects, that may influence the way you go. Files can be converted of course using OMF, AAF, etc so this is something that should be considered when looking at one's workflow.

I have heard good things about Nuendo as well - worth checking out.

Most composers I know use a combination of tools, but Logic seems to come up the most.

All boxes I have seen, and old ones I have used, seem to have a few features tat you wished your system have. (I can think of a few features I still miss on our old STuder Dyaxis and AVid Audiovision...)

[introvert]

I work in games and use Nuendo. I previously worked on a Fairlight (and agree that the Binnacle is the fastest editor on earth, no question), and so I've configured Nuendo to behave as much like the QDC as possible. I've got a ridiculous custom key set that gets things done, in combination with a small control surface. It's not as pretty, and still not quite as efficient, but it's close and I'm far faster than any PT engineer I know personally.

I also know Pro Tools. I don't like it, but I have two LE systems (one in the work studio, one in the home studio) so I can handle those session files when they come to me. Sometimes outsource resources send me PT sessions of their work. For cutscenes especially, I don't want to rely upon an outsource shop to handle the final mix, so I get the session files in and either mix in PT or export things for Nuendo (I've set up a few macros to speed up the process).

PT is a necessary evil. Even if you don't use it for your work, you should know it like the back of your hand. And if you're in an environment where you're frequently interfacing with PT studios, you should consider using it to minimize the headaches and wasted time. It is, sadly, the industry standard. Until that changes, you need to be able to work with it in some capacity.

[the dice]

come on guys,



i love logic and nuendo.


but the standard is ProTools, all the way.

[Jazzpunk]

Originally Posted by nathand

Fairlight QDC with Binnacle editor

Just curious, how much will it cost for our friend here to set up a Fairlight system in his home studio so he can edit audio?

[Sean L]

Originally Posted by Jazzpunk

Just curious, how much will it cost for our friend here to set up a Fairlight system in his home studio so he can edit audio?

Yes I'd be interested

[saltysea]

Originally Posted by robcap

PT is good as well and LE with DVToolkit makes the entry to market economical. Serious post mixing has to be done on an HD system and that brings PT inline with the Fairlight prices.

What features does LE+DVToolkit still leave you wanting?
I'm a Logic user resigned (but also excited) to look at acquiring a PT capability.

Up till now I've been doing fairly small audio gigs for Post but have some hour long documentaries to get my teeth into later this year.
Would LE+DV give me enough of a better toolset and compatibility upgrade or should I be looking at HD system from the off?

thanks!
dennis