Replacement for Sound Forge Mac

I’ve been a Sound Forge (and for the last few years Sound Forge Mac) user for many years, but I’ve finally given up with its instability. In an edit session session yeterday it just closed itself down for no reason 4 times and I’ve lost patience. Pro Tools and Izotope RX5 both run perfectly well on the iMac, so I’m pointing the finger at SF. Anyway, noticed Wavelab Elements 9 whilst looking for an alternative.

I’m looking for a waveform editor to do the grunt work on audio files before I polish them with Izotope and arrange/package with Pro Tools, so, whilst it’s great if Wavelab does all the bells and whistles, but I need it to do the basics.

Before I buy I usually try it, but since there isn’t a trial version, I’m looking for user experience. I need a simple workflow and user interface, to work on no more than 3 files at a time, format ranges between mp3 to 48K 24 bit WAV, cut/paste/delete, save as in various formats, fades in/out (nothing fancy). Files are usually stereo - not fussed about multitrack. Rudimentary mastering and loudness would be handy.

I know it’s early days but stability is important.

I’d welcome observations from the community on how well Wavelab 9 elements fits the bill.

One thing I’ll say is that if you’re trying to arrange and package master files with Pro Tools, you’ll probably really like the Audio Montage in WaveLab. I prefer Pro Tools for some aspects of mastering but to me, nothing is better than the WaveLab montage for sequencing projects, applying final fx plugins that run in real-time (non-destructive), and rendering master files of various formats (DDP, WAV, mp3, AAC etc.) that are already flush with metadata (or CD-Text) with minimal data input.

The Pro version of WaveLab has some big advantages in the montage over Elements so I would strongly consider that if you have the budget.

I’d highly recommend Wavelab Pro 9 if you have the budget.

Hi - thanks for the feedback. Wavelab Pro is a bit pricey, but that’s not my main consideration. I have Sound Forge for Windows and Mac so the combined cost is probably in the same ball park as WaveLab Pro anyway. I just want something to work consistently and not fall over if its Wednesday. I know that there are many fine waveform editors out there and I’ve tried many of them, but as yet none have jumped out and said ‘yes its me’. Assuming that at a basic level many of them would do the job, it comes down to how intuitive the interface and workflow is for me. I noticed a post elsewhere that suggests that Trial versions will be available in a couple of months, so I’ll wait until then and see what happens. Thanks again for the feedback.

Hopefully the trial versions are available soon. If you use WaveLab everyday I would say you probably would benefit greatly from the features of the WaveLab Pro 9 version.

I remember being interested in Sound Forge when it came to Mac but they unfortunately left out all the CD/album layout options that you see in CD Architect, even though you get them on the PC version. I didn’t look to close but I’m guessing the options in the CD Architect area do not come close to how advanced WaveLab is.

Everybody has a different workflow but the features of the full version of WaveLab easily make up for the cost of the app by saving my so much time with tasks I may have to do in another apps to finalize projects and do other things.