This is where Sound Forge’s straight-forward design thrives as it brings everything together as a cohesive view of your session. These can be opened in the same manner as any other audio file and the waveform viewer will preview it similar to what can be seen below.
You can also reach several features, such as starting, saving, opening, or closing projects, as well as arranging your windows and accessing your preferences with a handy right-click drop down on your main window screen.Īlthough Pro 12 is not a multi track editor, it does work with multi-channel audio files. You can adjust the playback rate of an audio file if necessary with the slider underneath your waveform. Your meters are always visible on the right-hand side. As aforementioned, you can drag an audio file in and it loads instantly with a clear view of your waveform. Monitoring is one of Sound Forge’s many strengths as it’s so easy to do. Sound Forge has always strived to keep your project setup as clear and transparent as possible and I find it one of the more intuitive programs to work with as a result. Although you can have multiple windows and multiple tracks open in your project, your editing is focused on individual tracks in turn which is a workflow I really enjoy when I want a clean and reliable editing process. The layout that Sound Forge utilises means that your focus is always on one window at a time. Your main workspace is where any audio files or tool windows you have loaded are held. Above your transport is the main tool bar with your save, open, undo, redo, and so on, as well as your meters on the right-hand side which are always visible. This is ideal for checking and monitoring edits at regular intervals. Your transport bar is available both at the top and at the bottom of your window, allowing you to quickly stop, start, and navigate through your audio as necessary. Sound Forge Pro 12 comes with five main windows: your standard toolbar, transport bar, your main workspace window, your channel meters, and your data window, which is another term for your audio file window. It would benefit from a modern makeover, similar to what MAGIX’s smaller rendition of the software, Audio Studio 12, looks like, just to make it feel a bit more fitting in the current day. The icons are easy to read, and all your frequently accessed features are within quick reaching distance. As you drag in or import additional audio files, Sound Forge will open them in additional windows that you can easily move between and organise to suit.Īdmittedly, Sound Forge has never been one of the most aesthetically pleasing programs, but its layout is clean and wonderfully efficient which is what makes it such a pleasure to use. It automatically splits your file in to left and right channels with the ability to lock, minimise, and solo these channels with the click of the buttons next to them.
As soon as you drag an audio file in, Pro 12 will open your waveform viewer in a wide and easy-to-read window, so you get an overview of your audio in an instant.
It’s quick to boot up and even quicker to load or create a session. Sound Forge is probably one of my quickest audio editor, both when it comes to getting started with a project, and in my overall workflow. It also offers the ability to integrate VST3 effect plugins, and several more features that I’ll talk about in this review. One of Sound Forge Pro 12’s biggest advantages is that it officially comes in 64-bit, bringing it up to the common standard and giving more power to your workflow. As suggested by the name, Sound Forge is on its 12th version, and continues to go from strength to strength thanks to MAGIX’s push to keep up with the curve.
Since its acquisition, MAGIX have now released the biggest update to Sound Forge Pro in over 25 years ago.
Sound Forge Pro 12 is an audio waveform editor originally developed by Sony, but was acquired by MAGIX in 2016.