Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Digital Sound Editing Under Unix?

Posted by Cliff on from the wav-when-you-say-hifi dept.

Jed1Mnd asks: "I have recently set out to find some decent audio manipulation software for Linux, with out that much luck. I have a friend who is currently using CoolEdit on Windows 98SE is running into issue with performance. We are looking at Linux because of the better IO, memory management and support for file systems like xfs. However like I said I am having trouble find a decent replacement for CoolEdit. I was hoping that the Slashdot crowd would know of a product (commercial or non-commercial) that would fit this situation."

19 comments

  1. Snd? by Ridge2001 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/10/05/s nd_partone.html
    http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/10/18/s nd_parttwo.html

  2. I'm in the same boat: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I need something like UltraEdit for Linux.

    1. Re:I'm in the same boat: by monkeyserver.com · · Score: 1

      I need something like UltraEdit for Linux. Isn't that just a text editor?
      Ever hear of Emacs?
      a sad sad world...

      --
      http://monkeyserver.com --- weeeeee
    2. Re:I'm in the same boat: by cuiousyellow · · Score: 1

      If you aren't being sarcastic , try Kate

  3. Doesn't anybody do /. article searches? by Quay42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think we get this question about once a month or so. I'd imagine searching through the Ask Slashdot history should turn up something.

    Cheers,
    jw

    --
    "Has anything you've done made your life better?" - American History X
    1. Re:Doesn't anybody do /. article searches? by Quay42 · · Score: 1

      I was too lazy to do the search while I already had the post window open...
      http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/15/1650 21 7&mode=thread

      Cheers,
      jw

      --
      "Has anything you've done made your life better?" - American History X
  4. linuxsound.at by Sam+Lowry · · Score: 3, Informative

    Try http://www.linuxsound.at/

    and... tell yoru friend that such a serious move requires not only the software to change but her habits, methods and skillset to change also...

  5. Audacity by ratatosk · · Score: 4, Informative

    As always, SourceForge is your friend ;-)

    You might want to try Audacity - it gives the win32-only packages a real run for their money:

    Audacity

    (and it's available for linux, freebsd, macos and windoze)

    /wulff

    1. Re:Audacity by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Informative

      I've done quite a bit with Audacity the 0.9.6 and 0.9.7 beta versions under Windows 2000. Aside of a few interface quirks, I am extremely pleased with the results. I can slice-n-dice several hundred megabyte WAV files with impunity and then save it all to a completed file. I've been digitizing old audio tapes and Audacity has made it really easy to edit out dead spots, remove clicks and pops, adjust sound levels, etc.

      And it's GPL! Much recommended.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  6. Well... by Spackler · · Score: 1

    This is probably not the answer most /.ers would give you. I use CoolEdit, and I found it performed MUCH better and was MUCH more stable under Win2K. That is assuming that you are using hardware that performs well. An app like CoolEdit is not going to do much on a Pentium Pro, no matter how good the OS is.

  7. Sound Forge by gruntvald · · Score: 1

    ... performs excellently under W2K, and also NTWS. I would respectfully suggest that the problems you are getting are simply a limitation of 9x's large file handling. In addition, I've found a lot of helpful performance boosts by running two SCSI drives - one for system and the other for data. SCSI will handle large file data transfer across disks much better than IDE too.

  8. Broadcast 2000 by ShawnD · · Score: 1

    I always liked using Broadcast2000. However it is getting hard to find since the developers no longer distribute it.

  9. The only thing keeping Win2k on my machine... by flamingweasel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...is CoolEdit. About a month ago, I tried every Linux sound editor I could find, and nothing that comes close to CoolEdit's functionality exists. The real killer is CoolEdit's really nice multitracking; Audacity comes close, but crashes far too often and lacks sound grouping. Broadcast 2000 looked promising, but is buggy and no longer being developed. Unfortunately, I think it might take another year or so of development before any Free replacement for CoolEdit (or SoundForge or whatever) is ready.

    --
    Cthulhu loves you.
    1. Re:The only thing keeping Win2k on my machine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just curious, but have you tried running it under WINE? I bet it'll work..

  10. Wavelab is the best program! by inburito · · Score: 2

    I haven't found anything that can touch wavelab, but it runs on windows, though.

    The real killer is the audio montage section where you can arrange clips(non destructively) in unlimited tracks and adjust things like volume and effects on track or clip basis. Crossfading, etc. is a snap. Ton of effects that can be run real-time or not.. the montage section is a lot like broadcast2000..

    Can do speed changes with constant pitch and vice versa, connects to your favourite sampler and does mp3 decoding/encoding too..

    Also an added plus is an integrated cd burning software. Which means that you can do a montage of clips, set cd-markers(track changes) and burn a cd without gaps between tracks..

    Check it out at steinberg.net

  11. Change to the CORRECT operating system. by Xenex · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can't see the logic in a move from Windows to Linux here. The application you require only runs on a win32 platform.

    Insted of moving from Windows 98 to Linux, why don't you look into moving to Windows 2000. The issues you list (IO, memory mangement, filesystem) are all far better in Windows 2000 compared to Win9x.

    Linux is great, and the freedom attached to it is also great. But if what you need to do needs Windows, then perhaps the best solution is to move to a better version of Windows...

  12. UNIX is a broad scope. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or do you mean linux?

    If you mean UNIX in general, SGI has many-a-nice-app for digital sound editing.

    If you mean linux, i'm sure that there are many crappy half-written junkforge.net programs out there... rather than use some halfassed linux program, you'd be better off with windows media player... from 3.1

    1. Re:UNIX is a broad scope. by nbvb · · Score: 2

      I concur. If you mean just a generic Unix, because you need that Unix-y goodness, then why not a Mac?

      You get the best of both worlds --- all the graphics & sound tools that the Macs are famous for, and a real, live, true-blue Unix!

      Whoa. Brain overload. :-)

      --NBVB