Admittedly, software history is littered with the wrecks of programs that have undergone some kind of complete revamp that turned out to be more of a step backwards than forwards - numerical advances in software version don't always herald improvement. But thankfully this isn't one of those occasions and, by the way, this release is hardly a revamp either. Still, it's been over two years since Sound Forge 9 was released, so maybe the bosses at Sony have been rattling the door of their SF department and suggesting it's time to get their feet off the desk.

Before we look closer at this release, it's worth examining the relevance of a product like this these days. Sound Forge is still, after all, a two-track audio editor and in an industry that offers LE multi-track recording facilities such as Pro Tools 8 LE included in the cost of entry-level hardware interfaces it's difficult, you'd think, to justify buying SF10 and hamstringing yourself to those two tracks and still requiring some sort of decent hardware, too. Why choose Sound Forge?

The answer is easy. Sound Forge 10 (and its early incarnations) is the big, sharp, real knife you take out of the drawer when you have some serious audio slicing and dicing to do. SF10 is the dedicated audio editor that will do the job precisely and offers more options, more tools and better results when things need to be fixed or enhanced. If it can't be done with SF10, it probably can't be done.

The Interface.

I must say that I've always found all Sony audio applications as having a slightly bland appearance and SF10 hasn't changed. Does it matter? I reckon it does, because professionals using this kind of software use it a lot and sometimes, strange as it may sound, long days in front of the monitor are helped when there is - for want of a better description- a more visually exciting interface to keep you interested. You can crank up the colour and intensity of the icons and customize the appearance of wave files, but it's still predominantly that Sony grey-on-grey look. Am I being too picky? Maybe.

Otherwise the interface is quite straightforward, since as a two-track editor nothing much can happen until you select some audio and start applying effects or edits. I find that a difficult interface is one with too many choices, filled with confusing icons and forcing you to squint to find what you want. No such problems with SF10. I did have some annoying moments trying to horizontally tile four open files down the screen - no matter what I did SF10 insisted on placing them in four quarters of the screen. Eventually I gave up.

While I'm complaining I'll get another small whinge off my chest. Because of my job as a musician, sound engineer and reviewer I have a lot of software on my computer. When I installed SF10 it automatically found all the non-Sony plug-ins and made them available as effects. In fact, it also compiled a list of "favourite" processes although how it made this decision for me is a mystery- I've got a perfectly good wife to do that sort of thing. The thing is that most of these third-party plug-ins won't work, which is fair enough. Except for the irritating procedure of trying them one by one to find the compatible plugs and then removing the dud ones in preferences... probably it was caused by the install procedure using the same plug-in folder as everything else (my choice), but it'd be better if SF10 ignored third-party plug-ins by default and forced you to try them.

Editing and Mastering

Enough complaining. Let's have a look at what SF10 does really well, and that's working with audio.

A new trick for SF10 is "Event Based Editing". It sounds more complicated than it really is, but it's still a good idea. Usually, when you're working with a larger file that requires separate sections to be manipulated, such as part of a voice-over needing a boost in volume, once you've completed that edit the altered section of audio is integrated back into the whole file. Short of hitting an Undo key it's hard to somehow revisit that exact selection of the file. Event Based editing allows you to select separate parts of the file and work with them and it maintains the boundaries of that edit in the Event Based view. It's like cutting your file into smaller clips, but it doesn't go so far as to actually make the cut.

Even better, it's a sneaky way of multi-selecting discontiguous parts of a file and applying the one edit to them all - something you can't do in the normal Edit Tool mode. By applying splits to the file to isolate all the various parts into separate Events you want to affect, then Ctrl-Select them all, you can apply an effects process or edit to all of them at once. Neat!

It's not a perfect science yet. For instance you can't name the events, which would have been handy if you needed some kind of reminder what the edit was, plus when you switch in and out of Events Based view the selection doesn't remember what event you were working on before. Also, all the events boundaries are wiped and the entire file again becomes one single event (probably why you can't name them) whenever you save the file. That might seem reasonable, but if (as you should be) you're a little paranoid about losing work and constantly hit the Save button every few minutes, then the workflow advantages of Events Based edits - being able to recall the edits - are lost, too.

Another new feature is the elastique Timestretch which provides time and pitch manipulation. Note I don't say "correction", because this isn't an intelligent pitch correction plug-in like Autotune. It's a purely manual effect that can be used to fix pitch and timing problems, but you have to do all the hard work yourself. I found that pitch changes were prone to a munchkin effect despite that there is a formant parameter - mind you, how bad those munchkins can be will depend largely on the source file. However the time stretch feature worked really well.

I'm happy to announce that a large chunk of CD Architect has been brought into SF10 allowing you to create and burn Red Book standard audio CDs. It's not such a big deal since CD Architect was normally bundled with Sound Forge anyway, but it makes more sense to be able to start and finish a project inside the one application and considering that SF is strongly focused towards polishing and mastering audio, then being able to finish off the job with a CD burn from inside SF is more satisfying.

Talking of mastering, this brings me to the best bit about SF10 and the definitive reason Sound Forge should be on your DAW. Aside from the fact that all the usual editing tools that SF10 offers are excellent on their own, the bundled inclusion of Izotope mastering plug-ins has been increased to six. The Izotope Mastering Bundle now includes its (Mastering) EQ, Exciter, Imager, Limiter, Reverb and Multiband Compressor.

Yes master

Mastering is a black art and requires specialized equipment and skills. No one should argue that given the choice and budget all your audio should be mastered at a dedicated mastering studio. However, if you don't have the opportunity or the cash, then SF10 with these Izotope plug-ins is the next best thing. What I like about them most is that while there's a bunch of presets to choose from, tempting you to be lazy, in fact their own interfaces are simple and encourage you to try settings for yourself.

Sony has applied other tweaks here and there such as a save function for screen layouts and some extra tabs. Nothing that will set your desk on fire. You might say that being the first release for two years, Sound Forge 10 is a little light-on for new features. But perhaps the old adage of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here? The bottom line is that if you never need to record or edit beyond two tracks of audio, then Sound Forge (now SF10) should be at the top of your software list.

It will do everything you need and more- and do it very well.

Vendor: New Magic www.newmagic.com.au  03 9722 9700
Price:      $589RRP Australian or $239 Australian upgrade.

AusCam Ratings

Performance: 10
Documentation:     10
Features:    10
Installation:      10
Help:  10

We liked: Still a great, solid audio editor.
We didn't like: Can we add a dash more colour please?

By Graeme Hague