The 3 best Audio Editors at a glance

This comparison charts shows you the most important features of the most popular audio editors and tells you instantly what they can do for you.

  1. Sony's Sound Forge 7 and 8

  2. Steinberg's Wavelab 5

  3. Adobe's Audition 1.5 and 2.0
     

But this is not the only benefit of this page. It can help you in many ways if you use it the right way. I will give you some ideas of how else you could use it:

  • It saves time as a tutorial. You might be new to the subject of recording and editing audio on a PC. Here you can easily find out the basic essence of what an audio editor can do without having to wade through tons of information.

  • It saves time as a dictionary. There are lots of abbreviations and hard to find expressions in comparing such a kind of software. You can get their definitions just by clicking on them.

  • It delivers reliable buying decisions. You can be so impressed by one or two features of a software that you might forget about the rest and buy it. This chart brings you back to the floor and lets you decide on a more realistic basis.

  • It gives you a comparison basis you can start from. Even if you're flirting with another editor that is not listed on this chart you can easily compare them by printing this chart and making your own marks and remarks beside the listed features.

  • Additional information for software users. It might be interesting even for some longtime owners of the software to see all the features at a glance and compare them to similar software.

  • It even helps software developers. They can see at a glance what their products should be able to deliver and what the competition does.

How to navigate and get most out of this chart:

  • Look for the features that interest you most and find out which program can deliver it.

  • Click at the words and abbreviations you don't fully understand and a page will pop up instantly with the right definitions. You just close this page to continue.

  • You will see a few numbers (1) instead of a button (●) . If you click on this number you come to an explanation at the bottom of the page. To go back just click on back to 1.

When you are familiar with the chart and the audio editors I would be happy if  you'd come back here and answer me that question (Of course you don't have to. It just would be nice) :-)

You can also do that more often, whenever you find something's missing that you want to see implemented in the future.
 

"What are the most wanted and still missing features of audio editors?"
 

 

 

 

 

Audio Editors Feature Chart
by music-software-reviews.com		 Sound
Forge
7		 Sound
Forge
8		 Wave
-lab
5		 Adobe
Audition
1.5		 Adobe
Audition
2.0
Technical Specifications
Minimum System requirements
Computer platform PC PC PC PC PC
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows 2000 ● ● ● ●  
Windows XP Home or Professional ● ● ● ● ●
Mac OS 9x
Mac OS 10
Processor speed (MHz) 400 500 500 400 1000
Hard-disk space for program installation (Mbyte) 60 150 10000 75 700
Recommended RAM (Mbyte) 128 128 256 64 512
Recommended color depth of display (bit) 24 24 24 24 24
Microsoft DirectX® 8 or later ● ●
Microsoft DirectX® 9 or later ● ● 9
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 ●
Supported sound driver
Standard Windows Drivers (MME, WDM, etc...) ● ● ● ● ●
Asio  - Steinberg's low latency driver ● ● ●
GSIF  - Tascam's low latency driver for Gigasampler
ReWire - Steinberg's internal audio routing ● ●
General file handling
Maximum bit-depth/samplerate 64/192 64/192 32/192 32/192 32/192
Direct use of compressed formats without conversion ● ● ● ● ●
Recording into temporary file (choose format later) ● ● ● ● ●
Recording into final file (better for big files) ● ●
Audio Database for file preview and sorting media ● ● ● ● ●
CD audio extraction ● ● ● ● ●
XMP metadata support         ●
Nondestructive editing / Undo functions
Undo past saving the file ● ● ● ●
Real-time nondestructive audio editing ● ● ● ● ●
Crash recovery tools ● ● 1 ● ●
Unlimited undo/redo ● ● ● ● ●
Undo/redo history window ● ●
Saving paths in rendered media ●
Supported audio file formats/extensions (r=read, w=write)
64 bit doubles (RAW) / dbl r/w r/w
Amiga IFF-8SVX / iff svx r/w r/w
Creative Sound Blaster / voc r/w r/w
Diamond Ware Digitized / dwd r/w r/w
DVI/IMA ADPCM / wav r/w r/w
Microsoft ADPCM / wav r/w r/w
Audition Loop / cel r/w r/w
Sample Vision / smp r/w r/w
Sonic Foundry audio / sfa r r
Scott Studios Wave / wav r/w r/w r/w r r
Audi Interchange File Format (AIFF) / aif aiff snd r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
NeXT/Sun (Java), PCM, u-Law / au snd r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
Sound Designer 1 / dig sd r/w r/w
Sound Designer 2 / sd2 r/w
Ensoniq Paris / paf r/w
Intervoice (ADPCM) / ivc r/w r/w
8-bit signed / sam r/w
U-Law (US telephony format) / ivc r/w r/w r/w
A-Law (EU telephony format) / ivc r/w r/w r/w
A-Law, U-Law Wave / wav r/w r/w
MPEG-1 Layer 2 (Audio) / mp2 mpampg mus r/w
MPEG-1 Layer 3 (Audio) / mp3 r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
MPEG-1 Layer 3 PRO(Audio)  / mp3         r/w
Original Sound Quality / osq r/w
Ogg Vorbis / ogg r/w r/w r/w r/w
Sony Pictures Digital Perfect Clarity™ Audio / pca r/w r/w
Raw PCM files / raw pcm bin r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
RealNetworks RealAudio® 8 / rm w w
RealNetworks RealAudio® 9 / rm w w
ADPCM Microsoft / vox adpcm r/w
Dialogic VOX (ADPCM) / vox r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
Sony Pictures Digital Wave 64™ / w64 r/w r/w
ACM waveform / wav r/w r/w
Microsoft Wave / wav r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
Microsoft Wave 6-channel / wav         r/w
Microsoft Windows Media® V8 Audio / wma r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
Microsoft Windows Media® V9 Audio / wma r/w r/w r/w r/w r/w
Microsoft Windows Media® V9 Pro Audio / wmp         r/w
CD Audio / cda r r r r r
DVD Audio r
Macromedia Flash / swf r
Special audio file import ignoring header r
Text file with numbers representing sample values / txt r/w r/w
Supported video file formats/extensions (r=read, w=write)
24fps DV video files r r
MainConcept MPEG-1 / mpg mpeg mmv m1p m1a mp1 mp2 mpa r/w r/w r r r
MainConcept MPEG-2 / mpg mpeg mmv m2p m2a mp1 mp2 mpa m2t r/w r/w r r r/w10
RealNetworks RealVideo® 8 / rm r/w r/w
RealNetworks RealVideo® 9 / rm r/w r/w
Microsoft Video für Windows / avi r/w r/w r r/w r/w10
Quicktime 5 / mov qt dv gif tif r/w r/w r r r/w10
Microsoft Windows Media® V8 Video / wma asf r/w r/w r r r/w10
Microsoft Windows Media® V9 Video / wma asf r/w r/w r r r/w10
Additional file types besides audio and video/extensions
Sound Forge project files / frg r/w r/w
Sonic Foundry impulse files / sfi r r
Sonic Foundry Playlist files / sfl r/w r/w
Session 8 file / prm r/w r/w
Windows Media Script file / txt r/w r/w
Wavelab Audio Montage / mon r/w
Wavelab Basic Audio CD / cd r/w
Wavelab DVD Audio Project / dvda r/w
Wavelab Data CD/DVD / cdp r/w
Wavelab CD/DVD Label Set / lab r/w
Wavelab Audio Cd Report / rtf r/w
Wavelab Audio Database / dba r/w
Wavelab Workspace / prj r/w
Wavelab Backup Plan / bkp r/w
Wavelab Backup Archive / zip r/w
CD Cue sheets / cue txt r/w
Import AES 31 project / adl r/w
Adobe multitrack session / ses r/w r/w
Adobe FFT files / fft r/w r/w
CD List (Playlist of audio CD) / cdl   r/w
MIDI file / rmi mid   r/w
User interface
Look and feel, Orientation
Styles for Audio Windows ● ● ●
Support of Windows Themes ●
Tabbed docking windows ● ● ● ● ●
Drag-and-drop operations ● ● ● ● ●
Effects previewing ● ● ● ● ●
Snapshots of scenes with exact zoom factor and position ● ● ● ●
Separate graphical waveform overview ●
Customization
Customizable toolbars ● ● ● ● ●
Customizable keyboard shortcuts ● ● ● ●
Midi remote control ● ● ● ●
Application scripts ● ● ● ●
Preset colors ● ● ● ● ●
Preset workspaces (window layout) ● ● ● ●
Preset zoom factors ● ● 2
Effect presets ● ● ● ● ●
Metering, Sound Analysis
VU-meters ● ● ●
PPM-meters ● ● ● ● ●
User selectable characteristics ● ● ● ● ●
Phase Meter ● ● ●
Bit Meter ●
Spectrum analyzer ● ● ● ● ●
Analyze input in real-time ● ● ● ● ●
Clipped peak detection and marking ● ●
Click/Pop detection and marking ● ●
Glitch detection and marking ● ●
Audio file comparer ●
Amplitude statistics   ●
Spectral Pan display   ●
Spectral Phase display   ●
External controller hardware supported
Hardware controller, fader-box ● ●
Midi controller ● ● ● ●
General functions and tools
Transport functions
Record ● ● ● ● ●
Play from cursor ● ● ● ● ●
Play from user selectable point ● ● ●
Play entire file (from beginning to end) ● ● ● ● ●
Stop at end of file ● ● ● ● ●
Stop at user selectable point ● ● ●
Loop selection ● ● ● ● ●
Loop between user selectable points ●  
Pause ● ● ● ● ●
Go to start ● ● ● ● ●
Go to end ● ● ● ● ●
Forward ● ● ● ● ●
Rewind ● ● ● ● ●
Remote control per definable key commands ● ● ● ●
Remote control per MIDI commands ● ● ● ●
Setting pre- and post-roll ● ● ● ●
Audio Scrubbing (Jog/Shuttle functions) ● ● ●
Synchronization
Midi time code master ● ● 3 3
Midi time code slave ● ● ● 3 3
Sample accurate synchronization 4 4
SMPTE start offset possible ● ● ● ● ●
Per MIDI-clock and song position pointer
Defining Regions
Define regions (cues) by cursor selection tool ● ● ● ● ●
Setting start and end markers with labels ● ● ● ● ●
Defining regions (cues) by clicking between markers ● ● ●
Automatic creation of regions (cues) by user definable parameters ● ● ● ● ●
Setting markers
Drop markers while recording ● ● ● ● ●
Automatic creation of markers (defined by user) ● ● ● ● ●
Manual labeling ● ● ● ● ●
Automatic labeling ● ● ● ● ●
CD track start/end markers ● ● ●
CD index markers ● ● ●
Sample-loop start/end markers ● ● ●
Beat markers within Loops       ● ●
Mute start/end markers ●
Region (cue) start/end markers ● ● ● ● ●
Start play markers ●
Supports broadcast wave format (BWF)   ●
Basic edit functions
Trimming/cropping ● ● ● ● ●
Auto trimming/cropping by user selectable parameters ● ● ● ●
Silence, mute ● ● ● ● ●
Bit Depth converter ● ● ● ● ●
Channel converter (stereo to mono, swapping, etc…) ● ● ● 5 5
DC offset remover ● ● ● ● ●
Insert silence ● ● ● ●
Delete silence by user selectable parameters ● ●
Phase reverse ● ● ● ● ●
Adjust sample rate ● ● ● ● ●
Convert sample rate (resample) ● ● ● ● ●
Reverse ● ● ● ● ●
Playlisting
Nondestructive Playlist ● ● ● ●
Nondestructive multiple tracks montage ● ● ●
Trigger Playlist with MIDI events ● ● ● ●
Trigger Playlist with time code ● ● ● ● ●
Setting crossfades ● ● ●
Multiple tracks mixing ● ● ●
Timing basis
Measures and Beats ● ● ● ● ●
Samples ● ● ● ● ●
Timecode / frames ● ● ● ● ●
Timecode / drop-frames ● ● ● ● ●
Time ● ● ● ● ●
File-size ●
Compact Disc (75 fps)   ●
Recording
Auto start if sound is present ● ● ●
Recording with timer ● ● ● ● ●
Auto stop at silence ● ● ●
Auto stop after given duration ● ● ● ● ●
Auto pause at silence ●
Prerecord buffer (records audio before hitting record) ● ● ●
Auto calibration for DC Offset ● ● 6 6
Punch-In/Out (record a specific length) ● ● ● ● ●
Quick Punch-In/Out (on the fly)         ●
Real-time record meters ● ● ● ● ●
Remote record function ● ● ● ● ●
Multitrack recording         ●
Sound Generation
White, pink, and brown noise generators ● ● ● ● ●
Customizable frequency sweeps ● ● ● ● ●
FM synthesis ● ● ● ●
Dial Tone (DTMF / MF) Generation ● ● ● ● ●
Automation
Batch conversion ● ● ● ●
Application scripting ● ● ●
Dynamic effect and plug-in automation by envelopes ● ● 7 ● ●
Tempo envelopes ● ●
Recording with timer ● ● ● ● ●
Automated threshold based recording ● ● ●
Midi timecode triggered recording ● ● ● ● ●
Automated file format encoding ● ● ● ●
Full track automation (read, write, off, latch, touch)       ●
Midi
MIDI timecode synchronization ● ● ● ● ●
MIDI timecode trigger of recording ● ● ● ● ●
MIDI timecode trigger of playback ● ● ● ● ●
MIDI timecode generator ● ● ● ●
MIDI SDS (Sample Dump Standard) ● ● ●
MIDI file playback ● ●
Click or glitch prevention
Auto zero-cross when pasting sound files ● ● ● ● ●
Auto crossfade when pasting sound files ● ● ● ● ●
Auto crossfade start and end of processed selection ● ● ● ●
CD burning
Track at once CD burning ● ● ●
Disc at once CD burning ● ● ●
Red Book compatible master CDs ● ● ●
Track ID setting ● ● ● ● ●
Index points setting ● ●
Pause ● ● ●
Pre-emphasis ● ● ●
Copy protection (SCMS) ● ● ●
ISRC support ● ● ●
UPC/EAN Code support ● ● ●
Audio in Pauses ●
"Hidden tracks" before track 1 ●
CD-Extra support ●
CD-Text support ● ● ●
Test writing of CD ● ● ● ● ●
Comparing Audio CD images ●
Professional Playlist printing ●
Label printing ●
Embed metadata commands within audio and video stream ● ●
Sound Processing
Basic computing
Max. audio processing quality (bit/kHz) f=floating point 64f/192 64f/193 32f/192 32f/193 32f/193
Multitask Background Rendering ● ● ● ● ●
Multiple Computer Network processing
Sound restoration
Click removal ● ● ● ● ●
Pop removal ● ● ● ● ●
Hum removal ● ●
Vinyl restoration ● ● ● ●
Noise reduction ● ● ● ● ●
Restoration of clipped audio ● ● ● ●
DC offset removal ● ● ● ● ●
Amplitude functions
Volume ● ● ● ● ●
Pan ● ● ● ● ●
Fade in/out ● ● ● ● ●
Normalize ● ● ● ● ●
Mute ● ● ● ● ●
Tremolo ● ●
Amplitude envelope modulation by rubber band curves ● ● ● ● ●
Gater, Hacker, Snipper ● ●
Dynamics
Compressor ● ● ● ● ●
Limiter ● ● ● ● ●
Loudness maximizer ● ● ●
Leveler ● ● ●
Multiband compressor ● ● ● ●
Noise Gate ● ● ● ● ●
De-esser ●
Pitch modulation
Pitch bender ● ● ● ● ●
Pitch shifter ● ● ● ● ●
Pitch correction ● ● ●
Vibrato ● ●
Doppler Shifter     ●
Filter functions
Graphic EQ ● ● ● ●
Semi-parametric EQ ● ● ● ● ●
Parametric EQ ● ● ● ●
FFT filter ● ●
Dynamic EQ ● ● ●
Notch filter ● ●
Vocoder ● ●
Wah-Wah effect ● ● ● ●
Center Channel Extractor (vocal removal)       ●
Graphics Phase Shifter       ●
Scientific Filter (Bessel, Butterworth, Chebychev)       ●
Time stretching
Time stretch by percentage of original time ● ● ● ● ●
Time stretch by tempo ● ● ● ● ●
Time stretch by input of end time ● ● ● ● ●
Time stretch by dragging ● ●
Reverb
Conventional digital reverb ● ● ● ● ●
Convolution Reverb ● ● ● ●
Delay
Simple Delay ● ● ● ● ●
Multi-tap delay ● ● ● ●
Dynamic Delay ● ●
Time modulation effects
Flanger ● ● ● ● ●
Phaser ● ● ● ● ●
Chorus ● ● ● ● ●
Distortion
Amp modeling
Tape saturation emulation
Tube emulation ●
Simple distortion ● ● ● ● ●
Spatial and surround effects
Q-sound ●
Auto panning ● ● ● ● ●
Exciter
Overtone generator ● ● ●
Loop editing
Loop properties with root notes, number of beats, and tempo ● ● ● ●
Beat markers to define beats manually ● ●
Sample editing
Pop-up MIDI keyboard to test samples ● ●
Sustaining Loop editing ● ● ●
Release loop editing ● ●
Real-time loop tuning window ● ● ●
SCSI / SMDI sample transfer ● ● ●
MIDI/SDS sample transfer ● ● ●
Video
Video preview window ● ● ● ● ●
External monitor support ● ●
Display exact video frame animation above waveform ● ● ● ● ●
Frame-accurate audio/video synchronization ● ● ● ● ●
Importing audio together with video clip ● ● ● ●
Importing AVI sequence markers       ●
Plug Ins
Plug-In standards
DirectX® ● ● ● ● ●
DirectX® plug-in effects automation ● ● 8 ● ●
VST ● ● ● ●
VST plug-in effects automation 8
ReWire support ● ● ● ●
Plug In Handling
User definable Plug-In chains ● ● ● ● ●
Customizable hierarchic plug-in menus ● ● ● ● ●
Plug In automation by envelope lines in audio data window ● ● 8 ● ●
Plug In delay compensation         ●
Supported external devices
Sampler
Akai S-1000 ● ● ●
Akai S-2000 ● ● ●
Ensoniq ●
EMU Esi-32 ● ● ●
EMU E-64 ● ● ●
EMU E-IV ● ● ●
Kurzweil K2000 ● ● ●
Kurzweil K2500 ● ● ●
Peavey SP ● ●
Roland S 760 ●
Yamaha A 3000 ● ●
SMDI capable sampler ● ● ●
SDS capable sampler ● ● ●
Recorder
Minidisk ● ●
CD Recorder ● ● ● ● ●
PDA, Handheld computer ● ●
DVD Recorder (Audio DVD) ●

1…By manually searching for temporary files - back to 1
 2…By using snapshots - back to 2
 3…In multitrack mode only - back to 3
 4…Only if supported by the Midi-interface - back to 4
 5…No channel swapping - back to 5
 6…Meters only - back to 6
 7…Only volume, (surround) pan and effect send is automated - back to 7
 8…Only effect send levels are automated - back to 8
 9…Direct Sound or ASIO Drivers are supported - back to 9
10...No format conversion, Export must be same format as Import - back to 10