key review info. application features. Supports a number of file formats including wav (multiple codecs), mp3, vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and many more. (10 more, see all. Sound editing functions include cut, copy, caste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim and 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 #039;ultrafast #039;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. Easy to use interface will get you started running. All day long we encounter audio, whether on TV, radio, the music we re listening to, cellphones ringing and so many more. Almost everybody knows that audio we constantly hear all day is "produced": recorded, edited, mixed, mastered, almost everything ended in "-ed" (as some friend of mine used to laugh at me as I was once explaining publicly the overall process of audio production). But rather few people actually know anything specific in this large and complex chain of events. meaning the flow of actions and operations, the proper use of tools and other resources and the rest of what comes around when producing audio. While not so long time ago, starting from scrap and producing audio was a real endeavor and truly a challenge, nowadays, with the help of PCs and dedicated, specialized software, almost anyone can sit at home and have his/her musical or - generally speaking, audio - ideas materialize and take shape as no one could have thought of in times before. There are so many audio editors, from the freeware ones up to those which will make your pockets considerably lighter and from those which barely offer some lousy options to those that come bundled together with lots of DSP, DirectX, VST FX and additional operational modules which instantly transform your "peaceful" home PC into a studio "mean machine". WavePad is neither lousy nor will it plague your funds while at the same time offering professional-grade editing possibilities, being both complex yet easy to "decipher" and good-looking without being painfully happy-colored. First of all, I have to say that WavePad definitely has an XP style-oriented GUI: very neat-looking icons, drawn in calm yet warm and highly-visible colors, without being too intrusive for the user s eyes, each graphic sign being backed by text and thus becoming even easier to use. I have not detected any option relating to changing the colors present in WavePad, nor skins or other graphic enhancement possibilities and I can t say I missed such a thing. The XP-thing I mentioned just before is easily noticeable as the WavePad displays most common commands exactly the way Windows Movie Maker does: on the left side of the screen, categorized (as all decent softwares do as well) but looking almost exactly the same as the video program. Without judging in terms of good and bad, it is a very convenient manner to access the most common features, especially for the not-yet-pro user who might not be that well acquainted to the looks and works of such a software. I liked a lot the fact that WavePad allows up to 3 simultaneous types of displaying info related to the same track or region: the normal sine wave-format, the frequency analysis and the TFFT (time frequency, looking more like a spectral analysis). In what the sine view is concerned I was amazed to see that this display mode has some extremely handy sub-modes which allow you to see either the stereo sine or the L/R channel-separated version of the track. All these 3 windows are scalable so you can really work the way you want with the space available in WavePad. Sometimes, the zoom tools are not as handy as some situations may request but features like zoom to selection, vertical and horizontal zoom cover almost everything the users might think of. The FX windows are clean, with XP-native looks and very clear and easy-to-use buttons and slidebars. All menus deploy a vast array of options which are also easy to understand and use; even more, most common tools such as fade-tools, echo/verb, split/mix, normalize, noise-reduction and so on are directly-accessible by means of very intuitively-designed shortcut icons placed in a very handy toolbar. Even the CD burning module looks also very neat and its icons prevent any misuse of available commands as they are both large and intuitive and also feature text accordingly. Overall, the GUI for WavePad has obviously been designed very carefully and with both looks and functionality in mind. Even though not looking exactly as the highly professional software does, WavePad is way above a lot of similar programs, hence the good mark it gets from me in what the GUI is concerned. I ll begin by saying that WavePad will let you work on a huge number of file extensions and this says much about what it can do and what it has been designed to do. While being able to work with so many file types, the WavePad features also a batch conversion unit which allows you to quickly switch large amounts of files between various formats and set different qualities for the resulting tracks. While being primarily developed as a wave editor, the WavePad can also act as a very reliable recording center, trim and mix tool for almost any audio format available. Extended audio editing capabilities include a full array of FX in the most varied fields of audio production: from dynamics/compression tools to noise/hiss reduction and from spatial effects (such as echoes and reverbs) to complex morphing by means of pitch-changers, speed-controllers, crossfading and so on. Unlike some other editor-wannabe softwares, the WavePad s special FX are really customizable and allow a very wide range of processing variations despite their apparent simplicity: whether choosing from the present presets or altering them in order to produce new sounds suiting your needs, you ll quickly learn the great deal of help they provide in your audio production. As another proof for WavePad s close-to-professional status, the software can instantly be enriched by the easy use of both DX and VST plugins. Some really handy DirectX additional FX are already bundled with WavePad, but there is really no limit to what you can add. The more experienced users know that DX and especially VST are ruling today s audio industry as the leading standards and at the same time the most effective tools. And what s really cool in WavePad: you can access them with a single click of the mouse thus being able to work with highly increased productivity. As for the rest of the things, the WavePad also works very well with markers/cues or "bookmarks" (as they are called here) and can also do recordings from any source available on the computer it s running on. Too bad the hotkeys operating the transport are the F-type and not the classic ones! Instead of play/pause with the spacebar, you play with F9 and stop with Esc; the rest of both transport controls and generic operation are available with various shortcuts but one who has worked a long time with spacebar-based triggering will need calm and patience to get used to quickly and efficiently operate the WavePad. WavePad will definitely get your job done in a short time if you not need awesome professional audio production, and that s a fact no one can deny. The best things in WavePad are the very large extent of supported files, the batch-processing unit and the three-mode display (sine, frequency and TFFT), along with an intuitive and very handy design. I really can t be that drastic as to call "bad" the fact that WavePad does not sport spacebar-triggered playback: it s fairly possible that this space-key issue was a matter of personal preference. Anyway, my personal opinion is that WavePad could try and use for the next versions two commonly-met things: spacebar-type action and mouse scroll-zooming. One true thing is that WavePad is a WYSIWYG-type software which really does what it says it could do. The perfect choice for those who are into producing more than home-grade audio or aren t yet prepared to invest some hundreds of dollars in pro software; and this doesn t mean that WavePad is not fit even for the inexperienced users: they ll learn, they ll learn. Stick an eye on the screenshots I have prepared for you.
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