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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: airbladder on August 22, 2017, 12:12:51 PM
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My office is looking to get a basic pc audio editing program to install on a few computers. I assume that it will only be used for very simple stuff. I use audacity for most of my recordings at home. But I don't know about installing freeware on our network. Any suggestions on what we could buy, or get for free that would be super simple, user friendly, and allowd on a government network?
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You don't say what level of manipulation your users will need. Sounds like you're just looking for inexpensive.
Possibly look into NERO which includes a WAV editor.
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I'd probably go with something like Cubase Elements
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For which operating system? If it's for a Windows PC, how about Wavosaur (free) or Acoustica?
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You don't say what level of manipulation your users will need. Sounds like you're just looking for inexpensive.
Possibly look into NERO which includes a WAV editor.
my boss wanted to do some very basic audio editing on some project she worked on. We got her Nero, which I always thought of as mostly for burning, but there is a wav editor. it is free though so not sure how that fits the government entity aspect.
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Thanks for the info. It is for PC and we run windows 10 I think.
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Some people here are probably groaning because I don't shut up about it, but I'm sorry folks - I just have to do it. ;)
Reaper (http://reaper.fm/). $60 license for an unrestricted, full-featured DAW allowing extensive customization. Probably way more than you need, but why not pay less and get more? You can evaluate it for free, with full functionality, with no time restriction. I happily paid for my license.
More info and tips here (http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=174517.msg2199750#msg2199750).
What's the concern with installing Audacity on government systems? It's open source, so if any of your overlords have security concerns, it should be easy to evaluate. Licensing shouldn't be a factor here. I work for a very large public school district, and our IT director had no problem approving it after I requested it to be installed on all of our PCs.
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I think you need to study the license for whatever software you're considering. The $60 Reaper license depends on the licensee's revenues unless educational or nonprofit. http://reaperblog.net/2013/07/reaper-faq-licenses-and-authorization/ I don't know how the license works if the government is using it in a noneducational setting. Not sure if the government is really considered nonprofit for licensing purposes.
Reaper also has a much steeper learning curve than Audacity.
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Reaper also has a much steeper learning curve than Audacity.
I am not familiar with either, but that statement is likely to be only relevant to the user. I have no problem navigating Wavelab, but am lost as soon as I open Audacity, for example, which is just one reason I am not familiar with Audacity. While I have never installed Reaper, I am sure that I would have much less trouble working with it than Audacity, if for no other reason than I have had trouble simply opening a file in Audacity.
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Reaper also has a much steeper learning curve than Audacity.
I am not familiar with either, but that statement is likely to be only relevant to the user. I have no problem navigating Wavelab, but am lost as soon as I open Audacity, for example, which is just one reason I am not familiar with Audacity. While I have never installed Reaper, I am sure that I would have much less trouble working with it than Audacity, if for no other reason than I have had trouble simply opening a file in Audacity.
Maybe, I'm wrong as my last attempts to work with Reaper were a long time ago. But as far as I remember Reaper used to be a full-fledged DAW and not an audio editor. You could integrate some external audio editors like Wavosaur or Goldwave though.
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For basic stuff, Audacity is a terrific program.
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Reaper also has a much steeper learning curve than Audacity.
I am not familiar with either, but that statement is likely to be only relevant to the user. I have no problem navigating Wavelab, but am lost as soon as I open Audacity, for example, which is just one reason I am not familiar with Audacity. While I have never installed Reaper, I am sure that I would have much less trouble working with it than Audacity, if for no other reason than I have had trouble simply opening a file in Audacity.
Maybe, I'm wrong as my last attempts to work with Reaper were a long time ago. But as far as I remember Reaper used to be a full-fledged DAW and not an audio editor. You could integrate some external audio editors like Wavosaur or Goldwave though.
Reaper is definitely a full sized DAW. Add me to the camp that thinks Audacity is annoying to use
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I'm pretty handy with Reaper, Audacity, and Adobe Audition. Reaper is a powerful DAW and a deal at $60. Audacity is, to me, a decent program (opening a file is File > Open) with a lot of enthusiastic online support.
But since producing spoken-word radio segments is about 90% of my work, I use Audition most of the time because Audition's waveform display is better than Audacity's and Reaper's, and having a detailed waveform display is necessary for performing micro-surgery on spoken-word files to edit out false starts ("wait -- let me try that again"), "uhs" and "mouth noises" (pops and clicks from tongue and lips) and other vocal tics that can be distracting to the radio listener. By comparison, Reaper's and Audacity's waveform displays are both cartoonish but certainly fine for music recording and processing.
I use Reaper for multitrack recording of music events in conjunction with a couple of audio adapters (Focusrite 18i8, 6i6), and for post-production of those recordings. I could use Audition for that but Reaper uses fewer resources on my ancient Atom-powered netbook so I feel it's less likely to max out the processor.
Audacity doesn't get launched here very much because it doesn't offer anything that I don't get with Audition or Reaper.
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But since producing spoken-word radio segments is about 90% of my work
For podcast type stuff, have you looked into Hindenburg? They put it on sale and I bought it for $1.99 one day, and it looks cool. I almost never purchase software but figured I'd check it. It's usually $100 I think.
They have a 30-day free trial:
https://hindenburg.com
What is Hindenburg?
The Hindenburg Journalist series is the only audio editing system built exclusively for radio journalists and audio raconteurs.
Record, edit & share stories for radio or on-demand.
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For podcast type stuff, have you looked into Hindenburg?
It does look cool. I like the EBU128r loudness feature. But $100 -- not now. Maybe it will go on sale again.
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You don't say what level of manipulation your users will need. Sounds like you're just looking for inexpensive.
Possibly look into NERO which includes a WAV editor.
I'm using Nero as well and I think it's very simple and user friendly program