Interface

Let's first take a look at the FL Studio interface. Users familiar with FL Studio will instantly recognize the dark green tone and rounded windows of past versions. However, the structure of the program can be difficult for a first-time user to grasp.

The browser window on the left is your resource for any file you will need, from presets to projects and scores. Clicking on an item will open up a drop down selection of specific elements.

This library can be filled with more of your own loops and samples and carries an impressive amount of plug-ins like DirectWave, EQUO or Fruity Squeeze. FLStudio has a smart search function to quickly find any track, tool or effect.

Usability

To edit your tracks with FL Studio you can use the original pattern window, which contains all the instruments you have selected. You will have to create the pattern desired for each instrument.

You can also use the playlist window, divided into patterns at the top and audio tracks at the bottom. The playlist view features a handy paintbrush tool to color in your pattern. You can also decide to edit your tracks with the piano roll view, quite handy if you have a midi keyboard plugged in.

Anyone interested in connecting real instruments will appreciate that FL Studio also handles multiple midi-ins and features foot pedal sustain support. The FL Studio mixer features a good number of presets and you can fine tune your track with a high degree of precision.

Quality

FL Studio can be tricky at first; however those familiar with sequencers should have no trouble with it. All instruments and samplers are stereo, so to have multiple outputs you will have to create the desired number of instances.

Conclusion

FL Studio is a very good sequencer for anyone looking to create beats. The handy browser view and multiple editing windows like playlist, piano roll or pattern let you work how you feel best. A finely-tuned mixer and a large library of plug-ins also make this a very exciting audio editing application.

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Despite the name, Free MP3 Cutter and Editor also allows you to edit WAV files, and you can save your finished product to either format. You'll be able to drag and drop your files into the Free MP3 Cutter and Editor interface, but we had problems using the alternative Open File method. The app also struggled with larger files.

So, what can Free MP3 Cutter and Editor do for your files? Well you'll be able to trim songs, by cutting them, and also to fade in and out to make them smoother. You do this like you do in any audio editor - dragging the markers to the area you want to influence and then pressing the relevant button. You can also modulate the track's volume, and change mono to stereo, and vice versa.

In all Free MP3 Cutter and Editor is a simple, free app that does a basic job pretty well. It only supports a limited number of formats though, and its editing features aren't the most advanced, so if you are looking to do anything more than the basics, you might want to look at some more complex audio editing tools.

Free MP3 Cutter and Editor does exactly what it says on the tin, and well. Just don't expect miracles.

Download Free MP3 Cutter and Editor 2.6.0.1118 in Softonic

The range of options in WavePad basic - there is also a commercial "Masters" version - is impressive. You can add effects, fades, split tracks, merge tracks, and much more. Performing all of these tasks is easy, and easy to undo if you make a mistake. It's certainly user-friendly, and the fact you can import more or less any sound file format makes it incredibly accessible for anyone (there's no need to mess around with file conversion).

As well as importing from your hard drive, you can also import directly from CD, and there's a tool to burn whatever you want. There is a tone generator, and even a text to speech generator, so you can express yourself with a robotic voice. There are tabs at the bottom of the edit window for you to move easily between open files, a zoom tool so it's easy to highlight exactly the part you want when editing, and the highlighting itself is really intuitive, allowing you to apply effects with precision.

The one function I think WavePad is missing is a BPM analyzer - although this is sometimes unreliable in other programs, it's a nice feature to have.

For anyone that wants to mess around with their sound files - WavePad is a great and lightweight program to use.

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Adobe Audition is a multi-track recording studio that offers all the refinement you expect in Adobe products but may leave beginners floundering in technical jargon.

After the initial installation, Adobe Audition searches for compatible audio formats on your hard drive but asks you which file types you want to associate with it. Otherwise the program would detect every single sound file on your hard drive meaning your Adobe Audition library would be a jumbled mess.

Adobe Audition's interface is clean, with the active window highlighted by a red border. Each window is separated by tabs to keep the File, Effects, Main and Mixer sections separate and easy to revert to. If you don’t like the layout then Adobe has provided an Unlock Panel option which allows you to detach and move these windows to a position of your choosing. You can save your own rearrangements as workplace templates according to the type of project you are working on.

To really get the most out of Adobe Audition, you’ll need a pretty good sound card. For those concerned with MIDI support, Adobe Audition doesn’t offer a great deal in this area and many users report this as one of the most confusing aspects of the program to configure.

To describe all the editing possibilities of Adobe Audition would involve going into the minute technicalities of audio composition and compression but there are four main modes to get to grips with. The first is Waveform Display which displays the wave in graphical form. Second is Spectral Frequency Display which graphically displays the frequency range with colors. Logarithmic Display does exactly the same but obviously displays the wave as a Logarithm. For producing stereo-sound, there’s also Spectral Pan Display and Spectral Phase Display which enable you to get stereo sound perfectly synced.

Editing is performed using the time-honored cut and paste functions common to most audio and video editing programs. You simply mark an in and out point and cut and paste the audio until it’s as you want it. However, the Adobe Audition is much more advanced than this as it's able to detect beat patterns and rhythms and set in and out points accordingly. To use this function though, you’ll have to spend a long time studying the Help guide (which fortunately is very clear and detailed). You can also use a relatively new function in the audio editing field called Frequency Space Editing which means you can edit certain frequencies of the sound rather than the wave as a whole. There are also of course a heap of effects that you can apply to sounds ranging from complex distortions to pitch bending specific frequencies.

Adobe Audition has been updated with a host of new features. Pick of the bunch is probably the way Adobe have improved multitrack editing, added new effects and enhanced noise reduction. They've also added phase correction tools plus VSTi virtual instrument support and native 5.1 surround support. The multi-track editing suite has been improved to save time and maintain consistency by grouping clips into a Multitrack View. From here you can trim and fade much more easily. You can also batch save all audio files applying specific file formats, locations, filename templates, and more.

Adobe Audition is a very advanced program designed only for those who are serious about multi-track audio production. If you are looking for a simple sound editor, then this is way too advanced and will only leave you frustrated. If however you want to take your first few steps into professional editing, the extensive Adobe help guide will ensure that you get the most out of this rich and complex program.

Download Adobe Audition 5.0 in Softonic

Can join seval audio or video files into one mp3
Can both cut audio or video files to mp3
Time precision of millisecond.
It is very user-friendly and easy to use

use eahoosoft free mp3 cutter joiner to cut mp3 for mobile ringtone
Create ringtones for your mobile phone

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Interface

Whether you choose the stable or beta series, Audacity is not very attractive, and can at first look complex. However, with a little experimentation it soon becomes a very usable application.

For live sound and digitizing old media, you need to feed audio into your computer via a cable. Your audio-in, or mic should be set up by default, but otherwise can be found in Preferences. Recording is then as easy as hitting the red button on the Audacity interface.

Easy to use

What makes Audacity great in this regard is that editing recordings is really simple, not tricky like some professional apps! Using the Highlight tool you can quickly cut, copy, or add effects to parts of tracks. Make a mistake and you can undo as many steps backward as you like, meaning you can experiment knowing nothing can be broken! As you can use up to 16 channels at once, Audacity gives users lots of flexibility.

Editing MP3 and other digital files is just as easy. Drag them into Audacity to open, and then do what you like with them. Adding fade ins or outs is easy, and you can save in whatever format you like. Audacity supports ID3 tags, so you can add all the meta data you like to saved tracks. There is lots more to Audacity, and luckily it has extensive documentation available online or to download.

Conclusion

Audacity is the best free audio editing tool around. It's an incredibly useful application, whether you're recording live or just editing audio files. Despite it's unattractive interface, Audacity is an essential download.

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The program is mainly useful for those that need to add sound effects or special effects to music and sounds. It's also useful for equalising sounds although not a great deal more than that. The good aspect is that it's a very GUI based program - i.e. it presents everything in graphical form usually via icons. These graphics represent the various actions you might wish to carry out such as ripping tracks, equalising sounds and cutting tracks. For novices, the cutting and editing is particularly easy as it allows you to do everything in visual form. In terms of editing, this means Delete, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste From File, Mix, Mix From File and apply different effects i.e. Amplify, Delay, Equalizer, Fade, Flanger, Invert, Normalize, Reverse, MultiTapDelay, Silence, Stretch, Vibrato, Echo and Chorus.

This is hardly the most original music editor you'll ever use but it will have some limited appeal for beginners.

Download Power Sound Editor 6.8.5 in Softonic

Download mp3DirectCut 2.19 in Softonic

Reason's synthesizer comes with six oscillator types, four different filters, a step sequencer and a modular matrix. The monophonic arpeggiator can play in multiple modes and includes a pattern section. I was also very much impressed with Reason's sequencer, which features multiple lanes, vector automation and dedicated device types. The 32 channel mixer completes a set of powerful tools.

Reason is not for beginners, and this is obvious the moment you open up the application. However if you have some knowledge of music production, you'll welcome the wealth of tools available and the flexibility they give you when working with music and sounds.

Reason can easily be integrated with other software and hardware you already use, making it a versatile choice.

If you're seriously into music production, Reason is the tool you need.

Download Reason 6.0.1 in Softonic

You can also add video, complete with information on the song labels and convert files to karaoke videos in several formats As an extra bonus, you can also create subtitles for a movie DVD which can also be used to create your own DVD movie subtitles. The text editing function is a pleasure to use and in fact, I'd prefer to use this than some purpose made subtitling programs even if it doesn't offer as many options.

This is a great way to create not only karaoke videos but also subtitle DVD's aswell.

Download AV Video Karaoke Maker 1.0.48 in Softonic

With Anvil Studio you can record and compose music as well as edit MIDI files in a standard, multi-track interface. The program also includes a wide library with samples, loops and audio effects, and even a piano roll to practice notes.

Anvil Studio may not seem easy to use at first sight, especially if you’re a newcomer to audio editors. Fortunately, the program is very well documented and the extensive, built-in help section will surely have the answer to all your questions.

On the downside, Anvil Studio’s interface looks quite outdated and would benefit a lot from a complete redesign.

With Anvil Studio you easily can compose, record and edit multi-track MIDI music.

Download Anvil Studio 2013.03.01 in Softonic

Power Audio Cutter converts audio files from one format to another and can cut a part of file into a new audio file. It supports a huge range of formats namely WAV, MP3, M4A, AMR, WMA, AAC, MP4, AC3, AU, MP2 and AIFF audio formats.

It works via a very simple interface. Simply browse to the source file and then provide a location to save the file in the Output field. You can then play and preview the file in Power Audio Cutter, marking the in and out points that you'd like to cut from it.

The most useful thing about Power Audio Cutter is that you can select the output format you'd like to save the new file in along with the audio codec, the audio bitrate and the sample rate. Last of all, you can choose whether the sound should be in mono or stereo.

There isn't much more to it than that. Power Audio Cutter perhaps lacks a few added extras such as iTunes integration and advanced tweaking tools but for simple cutting of audio files, its very effective.

Download Power Audio Cutter 3.5 in Softonic