WavePad is a full featured professional sound editor for Windows. It lets you make and edit voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio files you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification and noise reduction. WavePad works as a wav editor or mp3 editor but it also supports a number of other file formats including vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and more.

The program is designed to be a very easy and intuitive to use for audio editing. Within minutes you will be able to open or record a file and edit it. But if you take time to explore the other features you will find many powerful tools for editing audio designed with the professional sound engineer in mind.

Key features:

• Supports a number of file formats including wav (multiple codecs), mp3, vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and many more
• Sound editing functions include cut, copy, caste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim and much more
• Audio effects include, amplify, normalize, equaliser, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse, sample rate conversion and more
• Tools include spectral analysis (FFT) and speech synthesis
• Audio restoration features including noise reduction and click pop removal
• Supports sample rates from 6000 to 96000Hz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits
• Ability to work with multiple files at the same time in seperate screens
• Includes its own CD ripper with 'ultrafast 'rip mode and cddb music database lookup
• Links directly to the Express Burn CD Recorder to burn your sound files to CD.
• Recorder supports autotrim and voice activated recording

Download WavePad 3.12 in Softonic

As far as DJing programs go, they don’t come much more user friendly than HipHop eJay. The problem with most of these programs is that they seem to offer you all realm of mixing possibilities but you need to be Fatboy Slim to have any clue how to operate them. Whilst lacking advanced controls, HipHop eJay 6 makes it so easy that even the slowest learners will feel like Grandmaster Flash.

The improvements over its predecessor are mainly an increased number of samples and a few instrument variations, including new snare drum beats and piano loop combinations. HipHop eJay 6 also sports a sleeker interface that’s less cluttered, although requires more rifling through menus as a result. Samples have increased from 3000 to 4000 and there’s a few new wizards to guide you through your first scratches. There’s also a new 'Mophonix Supabass' amplifier to make your bass lines sound 'phatter' than ever.

The layout is conventional enough - a pair of decks separated by a mixing console jammed with samples. However, the key element is the layered timeline that runs along the bottom – in much the same way as in a video editing package – where you can drag and drop the various blocks. This simple timeline makes constructing tunes a breeze. For instance, you can drag a drum beat into the first audio track and then complement it with a guitar in the second, a scratch on the third etc. You simply hit play and in an instant, you’ve got something that sounds like T-Rex meets Run DMC.

The turntables can be used to scratch and mix your masterpiece as it plays. It takes a bit of time learning how to scratch with a mouse although if you’ve got a laptop touch-pad mouse, it’s a bit easier. The new 'Scratch Wizard' shows you step-by-step how to make your scratching sound like scratching, and not like someone is smashing up the turntables. Alternatively, they can be used to play a separate backing track from your CD player or audio files saved on your PC over your beats. In the middle, you’ve got a crossfader to switch from one turntable to the other although trying to mix two records at once whilst cross fading with a mouse is pretty difficult.

There are also a few other nice little extras with HipHop eJay. One is a Grafitti Tagging function which enables you to spray paint your own album cover. Another is the ability to connect a mic and record your own vocal track in real-time to give your recordings a truly personal feel.

To those who are more serious about their music, HipHop eJay could come across as something of a kid’s tool however. It offers little control over the minutiae of the music although it does offer a few advanced features. There is a 48-track arranger which gives you control over where you want to emphasize certain sounds; and there are basic controls over tone and pitch but not much more. The program is clearly aimed at beginners since it also features thousands of unlicensed samples that won’t be of much interest to serious Hip Hop musicians either. However, you can simply disregard these and upload your own in MP3 or WAV format.

For anyone looking for a simple hip-hop DJing program that makes you sound like you know what you’re doing in minutes, this should be your first choice. Those seeking something a bit more professional will be disappointed but might find it useful to experiment with a few ideas on. Whatever your level, HipHop eJay will have you getting ‘deep and dirty’ (in the program's developers' words) in no time.

Download HipHop eJay 6 in Softonic

Adobe Audition started life as a simple audio editor until Adobe saw that the big money was in music creation software. The program is now part of the Creative Suite line as a multi-track recording studio that offers all the refinement you expect in Adobe products but leaves beginners floundering in technical jargon.

First of all, be warned that this is a big download – 470MB to be exact - and the installation is also a long, drawn-out process so don’t be in a hurry to go anywhere when trying this. 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.

The main 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 colours. ‘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 synched.

The actual editing itself is performed using the time-honoured 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 program 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.

Most recently, the program 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. 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 at the same time. 3343

As you can see, 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 3 in Softonic

WaveLab 5 is the only all-in-one solution for high resolution stereo and multi-channel audio editing, mastering, CD/DVD burning and for complete CD or DVD Audio production in outstanding audio quality. WaveLab is not just a top level mastering tool, it also offers capabilities for multimedia, sound design with samplers, radio broadcasts, and computer telephony applications. This is why WaveLab is the leading application for digital audio editing.

These are only some of the fantastic new features in WaveLab 5:

• Multi-channel surround audio support from input to output with up to eight audio channels for recording, editing, processing and mastering
• Complete DVD Audio authoring toolset, including Playlist editing, on-screen video menu design, picture slide shows, and DVD text
• User definable surround-to-stereo down-mixing
• DVD Audio burning, including video data
• DVD Audio extraction, conversion, and archiving
• New "Smart" Video Thumbnail Track for editing audio for video
• Track effects in Audio Montage
• Multi-channel metering and analysis with up to eight channels
• ASIO instant remapping for instant audio compare at the touch of a button
• New file formats: WMA Pro 5.1 and 7.1 export, AVI audio import

Download Wavelab 5.00a in Softonic

Ever wanted to try making your own beats? Then you should know there are loads of excellent and accessible music editors out there. Samplisizer is one of them, and while it’s mainly aimed at newcomers to the music-making trade, it has enough qualities to keep you excited.

Samplisizer’s biggest asset is its samples library which features more than 3,500 loops and samples (drum, bass, chords, effects), divided in two drag-down menus. A third drag-down list acts as sub-category to refine your search. If you’ve chosen drum loops for example, you can select house, drum’n’bass or downbeat only.

Making a track is easy. Start off by selecting a drum beat and drag it onto the working field. Next select a bass line or chord loop. Add extra sounds at particular points of your track. Make sure you place each different sample on a different channel. This will make it easy to tell them all apart and will give you a good overview of the structure of the track. It helps to see where a sample is missing or if you’re offbeat. The key is to measure the beat and know when is the right time to introduce or end a sample.

When you’re happy with the construction of your track, you can play around with the sound volume and BPM settings of each sample to tweak your piece. Setting channel volume in Samplisizer is easy, just drag the small button on the left of each channel. To set BPM you need to click a button at the bottom right of the sample library. General volume is controlled by the big rotating disk at the bottom right of the interface. Maybe if all the sound settings were united in one part of the application it would make it easier for the user.

That’s when we come to the problems with Samplisizer. As you might have guessed from our previous observation, the application suffers from a cluttered and confusing interface. Buttons are scattered all around the program window and the interface is of the same gray metal-like appearance, making it hard to make out what buttons correspond to what function.

Editing tracks is fairly easy, thanks to the drag and drop, cut and paste feel, but there’s no way you can extend or reduce elements and you can’t even zoom in on them to get more precision. Samplisizer limits you to 12 channels, giving you much less scope than most music editors, which often offer up to 36 channels. Exporting is another issue. While the operation is very easy to do, click on the main menu button at the bottom left and choose export, you’ll soon realize you’re limited to the wav format. Mp3 would have been a much appreciated option.

Let’s not bash Samplisizer too hard though. Behind blatant shortcomings, which should put off seasoned beat makers, Samplisizer is an enjoyable and hands-on music editor that novice music makers should quickly take to their liking.

Download Samplisizer 1.2 in Softonic

Fasttracker 2 is one of the most widely used trackers out there. It has been around since 1995 when a demo group called Triton set about releasing their own tracker after breaking into the scene in 1992 and winning several demo competitions. Sadly they have not kept the dream alive as they are working on other projects.

There were attempts by independent programmers to revive Fasttracker into a fully Windows compatible version. This was known as Fasttracker 3. Sadly this has also disappeared - it never even got out of BETA despite the interest that surrounded it.

Now with both Fasttracker 2 & 3 no longer being developed, a group of programmers set about picking up where Fasttracker 3 left off. The task of creating the next generation of tracker grew in the form of Skale Tracker! Skale is based upon the old Fasttracker interface and breathes new life into old software.

Download FastTracker 6.2 in Softonic

MixPad is multi-track mixing software designed for professional audio production. It lets you load or record audio clips and mix them together. You can place them at different times, adjust volume, pan the audio or fade in or out. It is the digital replacement of using a multitrack recorder and mixing desk.

Designed to be very easy and intuitive to use, MixPad will have you blending unlimited audio tracks within minutes.

MixPad works perfectly with our WavePad Sound Editing Software for Windows. WavePad can run on the same computer running MixPad to do any cutting or editing on a single track.

The developers have made this version of MixPad free in the hope that you will download some of their other Audio Software.

Download MixPad Audio Mixer 1.0.1 in Softonic

Power Sound Editor is one in a long line of similar audio editing programs that gives you everything you need to edit, cut and splice your music but nothing particularly original.

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 5.96 in Softonic

I must admit I'm not very fond of audio editing tools. Mixing music has never been my cup of tea, so when it comes to testing an audio editor, chances are I end up more confused than satisfied. However, this isn't the case with Audacity. To begin with, this editor is free source and supports MP3, two features which usually don't meet in this kind of application. Secondly, it's easy to master, even for newcomers. And finally, there's a wide range of filters and special effects you can apply to your music so that you easily achieve the desired effect.

Audacity doesn't stand out for its interface. At first sight one wonders if this program is really going to be that easy to use. In fact, the interface sometimes makes it really hard to work with your tracks, especially when you zoom in on them for a more comfortable editing session. Besides this, I found myself constantly right-clicking on the working area and the tracks too, waiting for some handy context menu to appear but nothing came out.

After these few first minutes struggling with the interface, it's time to begin having fun. You can open as many tracks as you want by just dragging and dropping audio files onto the program's interface. Use your mouse to select the fragment you're interested in and begin working with it. You can perform the basic editing actions (cut, copy, paste) or apply effects to it. The zoom tool helps a lot when selecting small areas, as well as the chronometers found at the bottom of the program's window. Obviously, you can use the integrated player to check how your work sounds before saving the project.

Audacity features quite a large selection of filters and effects. Each one has its own setting options to adjust it to your liking. But what I loved is the possibility to preview how the filter will look on the audio track. This preview function allows novice users to test each filter before actually using it and also configure it with great accuracy.

On the downside, Audacity doesn't have much more to offer. After a few days playing with the program, you soon grow tired of selecting audio fragments and adding effects, and you feel like you need something else. In other words, the simplicity of the program makes it easy to learn, but at the same it makes it too basic and requires a lot of creativity on the user's side to obtain ear-catching results. Anyhow, Audacity is still a perfect choice to take your first steps in the music mixing world and then perhaps move on to another more professional tool.

Download Audacity 1.3.5 Beta in Softonic

orDrumbox is a software drum machine desktop application. It features an audio sequencer to create drum patterns You can compose music and beats with this new generation of sound tracker.

Features:

• Pattern oriented
• Automatic composer
• Automatic sound assignations
• Drum kits/ loops
• Importing/ exporting

Download orDrumbox 0.6.5 in Softonic

AV Video Karaoke Maker synchronizes music with the words to create your very own genuine karaoke sessions. The program is very simple and doesn't require too much setup. Just add the song you prefer and the words in a simple text file. Then you must synchronize the soundtrack with the words. Thus, the program will change the color of the words as they play.

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 1.0.16 in Softonic

Sony's flagship sonic app is designed to everything an aspiring music maker needs to produce professional-quality audio on your home computer. Sound Forge allows you to record just about anything, edit and restore audio, burn CDs, create streaming media, and convert files with lightning speed — all using drag-and-drop actions and simple commands.

Core benefits of the suite:

Learn as you go

Capture from any source

Powerful editing tools

Effects processing

Download Sound Forge Audio Studio 9.0 d in Softonic

mp3DirectCut is a non-destructive audio editor and recorder for MP3. You can directly cut, copy, paste or change the volume with no need to decompress your files into a pcm format. This saves encoding time and preserves the original audio quality, because absolutely nothing must be re-encoded. The built in recorder lets you create MP3s "on the fly" from every source. Using the Cue sheet support or the pause detection and the split function you can easily divide longer files, e.g. CD images.

Download mp3DirectCut 2.08 in Softonic

SONAR 6 Producer Edition is music creation and audio production software, designed to take you from inspiration to masterpieceas fast as possible.

At every step of your production—from composing with virtual instruments, to recording, mixing, and beyond—SONAR gives you the professional tools and inspiring canvas that adapt to your unique style of music creation.

Change the way you work with instruments forever through SONAR 6’s Active Controller Technology (ACT). Tighten up your entire band with the new AudioSnap feature set. And get the best sound quality with the VC-64 Vintage Channel and it's 64-bit double precision mix engine.

Fast-forward your music producing skills today with CakeWalk Sonar.

Download CakeWalk SONAR 6.0.1 Producer Edition in Softonic

Ableton is known for making excellent audio software, with Ableton Live one of their star apps. This program will allow you to manage all the processes of audio production, from beat creation to adjustments, recording and live sets.

The application, which could compare to a powerful combination of sequencer and sampler, comes with a library full of instruments, MIDI and audio effects to start working with. Ableton offers two sorts of views, arrangement and session, the first being like a traditional timeline, while session lets you add and play around with effects. One thing that impressed me is that you can associate any key on your keyboard with any effect, which makes for a really intuitive track creation process.

Ableton Live includes real-time stretching and warping of audio and even video import to sync audio to video.

Although you'll definitely need some technical knowledge to use Ableton I found the application very well detailed, with the info view box on the bottom left giving clear explanations of everything. Ableton Live also comes with loads on tutorials to master the program.

Ableton is a highly flexible and powerful audio solution for music production. Fitted with a great interface, a wide library of effects and loads of help, you won't find many programs as good as this.

Download Ableton Live 7.0.7 in Softonic

GuitarFX guitar software enable you to turn your computer into a guitar effects processor. Simply plug your guitar into the microphone or line input of your sound card, run this software, then press "Start" button.

To stop playing pre-recorded guitar sounds click once on a picture of a small red lamp placed left to fx-slot with "Playback wav" title. Enjoy real-time crazy distortion smoothed by power filters and shaped by multi-band equalizers! Author of GuitarFX offers several presets, including "hard rock", "high gain lead" and "solo" effects. However, you can click through several menus to easily create custom tones. They can be saved as pre-sets for future use.

Pre-sets can be assigned to "hot keys" F1..F12. Among the effects, you can apply 4 types of distortion, noise gate, wah-wah, compressor, EQ, flanger, reverb, chorus, delay and a number of other filters and effects. You can save your recordings to your hard drive. GuitarFX has the "software effects chain builder" with 16 fx slots. Clean guitar signals go to the top fx slot, then they are passed through all fx slots from the top to the bottom and go to the sound card output from the bottom fx slot. You can move any fx slot up or down.

Download Guitar Effects Processor Pro (GuitarFX) 3.04 in Softonic

This free voice add-on gives MorphVOX, seven new voice transformations. From the makers of MorphVOX, this add-on will let you translate your voice into computer beeps, touch-tone phones or let out random farts without eating beans. Be the first to annoy your IM buddies.

The add-on contains the following translations: Body Noises, Burpalator, Computer Talk, Phone Talk, Random Body Noises, Random Censor, Xylophone.

Download Translator Fun Voices - MorphVOX Add-on 1.2.4 in Softonic

CUE Splitter is a freeware tool that can split a single big audio track, mostly an album or a compilation, into the relative individual audio tracks, using informations contained in the associated "CUE" file. Sometimes you can find a big compressed audio file (for example MP3, APE, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMA, etc...) equipped with a small "CUE" text file that contain informations about tracks title, artist and length. Usually these couple of files are generated by programs like EAC, CDRWin, BPM Studio, GoldWave or similar.

With CUE Splitter you can obtain splitted audio track files without burning any CDR or decoding/re-encoding any audio data! Moreover audio files are automatically named using a user-defined "file mask" string, it's tags are filled with informations extracted from "CUE" file and, optionally, an M3U playlist file can be generated (option enabled by default).

Download CUE Splitter 1.2 in Softonic

Magix Audio Cleaning is a full featured sound app with which you can digitize your old vinyl and CD collection.

The program features a nicely designed interface with three top tabs referring to the three main steps you must follow: importing your music from any of the sources supported by the program, cleaning it from noises and cracks and finally exporting it to a digital format of your choice.

The first impression you get when launching Magix Audio Cleaning is one of confusion, especially in the Cleaning section. There are just so many sliders to adjust, buttons to press and options to be taken into account that you feel completely lost. Luckily there's a one-click cleaning wizard that does almost all the hard work for itself, as well as some cleaning presets that you can use to fix typical noise and cracking issues in old vinyl records and cassette tapes.

The program works very fast during the whole process and also includes an embedded burning tool with which you can create an audio CD or DVD once your music has been properly cleaned.

Rescue your old vinyl records and cassette tapes and give them a new digital life with Magi Audio Cleaning. It takes time to learn how to use all of its features but it's definitely worth it.

Download MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab 12 (US) in Softonic

What's better than learning to play a musical instrument to unwind from a busy day? Although my advice would be to take an instrument and start playing it learning bit by bit, more methodical and expert users may advise you to follow a guide and practice theoretical exercises.

aGuitar Pro lets you manage your guitar or bass progress with exercises on the notes and on the accords. There are many advanced lessons you can follow and surely it can be helpful for advanced students as a reference point. The program features testing tools to sample your knowledge of the harmonic world.
Unfortunately, I don't see it as an easy tool for beginners. This is because of the way information is displayed which seems to be too technical. It would have been good to have a simple mode display for beginners so to ease things when learning and testing basic notes.

The tab reader and tab editor are also interesting as they can modify or create music sheets with text and notes of your favourite songs. It would have been good to have a function to search for songs online in free databases, but you will have to do it manually.

aGuitar Pro can be useful to study and test your knowledge of guitar theory if you are already a medium experienced player. It also includes a tab reader and editor, which ease the transcription of songs for professionals.

Download aGuitar Pro in Softonic