VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Darren Altman]

Just a quick question: Do any of you guys use it? I've been watching tutorials on youtube and it looks fantastic, although I don't think I've ever heard of a V/O artist mentioning it.

Cheers. x
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[Don G.]

I considered it and played with it a bit at an Apple Store one day a few years go. But by the time I really noticed it, it was no longer available as a standalone product. It was available only as part of Final Cut, which was way beyond my budget.But I was impressed with it the short time I tried it out. Depending on your needs, there are other options that are more affordable.

[Bish]

Soundtrack Pro (v2.0.2) is my tool of choice if I want anything other than just a raw audio file. My usual workflow is to record into SoundStudio3, cut out the coughs, wheezes, clicks, bangs and flubs and save as an aif file. If that's all I want, then I convert to mp3 at that point. For anything more, I'll then drag the aif into Soundtrack Pro.

Although initially designed for video work (you can kill the video track) it's a very intuitive audio editor with multiple tracks and submixes. You get to access all the standard effects as well as third-party plug-ins. There's immediate access to waveform editing... which is non-destructive, saving the modified audio in a project file. Most of the functionality is standard in the "good" audio production software, but I find it far easier to use than most music-based production tools like Logic etc that make life grand if you want to piece something together with music loops and midi devices.

The only thing that I'm having a little trouble with is the external file management (loops, effects, music beds). I've managed to make it pretty cumbersome by bringing in a whole bunch of files and not being diligent with my tagging... my fault really as the system worked really well before I dumped all the other cruft in there (I'm pruning this weekend... I mean, how many sets of footstep effects does a man really need?)

I got my Soundtrack Pro V2 a few years ago with a copy of Final Cut that I bought cheap. I know that V3 is the latest iteration, but didn't realize that it was available other than as part of the Final Cut Studio bundle. If it is, I may consider upgrading.

Cheers
Peter
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
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[Darren Altman]

Thanks for the replies. I'm on the Apple website now... I take it then, that it's not available as a stand-alone product and only comes bundled in with Final Cut Pro? what a shame, it looks fantastic!

I use iMove for all my movie editing needs and don't really have the need to upgrade and spend money on Final Cut Pro. I would however have considered Soundctrack if it came on it's own. What a shame.

At the moment I use Soundbooth CS3 for my single track audio recordings and am very very happy with it. The waveform is so beautifully clear and the detail I can get into is incredible. The multi-track version, CS4 has one fundamental floor that loads of people have pointed out on forums and that's THE INABILITY TO SPLIT A WAVEFORM IN TWO!! A basic necessity for any edits we need to make.

I wonder if Apple will release SoundtrackPro on it's own in the future?
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[Don G.]

I gave up hope a while ago on Soundtrack Pro ever becoming available as a standalone again.

Not unlike Bish, I record into Sound Studio 3 and do my editing and cleaning up there. On the rare occasion I need to do a mix or anything else multitrack, I do it in Cubase LE. I hadn't ever really given Cubase any thought until I started watching folks use it who have become familiar with it. It's quite powerful and I've since become adept at it enough to go to it when I need to mix multiple elements. And for $99 (actually free when I bought a $99 Lexicon Alpha interface), it's hard to beat the price for what you get.