Adobe Soundbooth CS3

The world doesn’t offer too many things that meet requirements in two different ways; thanks to Adobe for making the Adobe Soundbooth available either as a standalone software or as a part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3. The worst impression it gathers is it’s a decent blend of audio-video recording and editing options and features, turned a little sour due to its AutoScore feature that falls short if compared to its other equivalents. To an average professional in the industry, the lack of a multi-track interface may prove a big hurdle when it comes to super-fine mastering but nevertheless, when it comes to the video part, both Mac and Windows users shall consider themselves to be blessed beings. Users of Audition, it’s suggested that you continue within your own realm.

While Soundbooth enjoys the same facelift (improved user interface) as the rest of the CS3 applications allowing panels to be dragged and organized as desired freeing up more area as the workspace, being task-based, it also allows for an organized workflow to assist the beginners in the audio editing field to provide maximum output without getting lost in the labyrinth of the features. The History panel, on the other hand, was noticed to contain every edited form of an audio file. However, it was not found to be as versatile as the Soundtrack Pro 2 of the Final Cut Studio by Apple; one cannot undo any edit that’s done in a random manner. Soundbooth requires being managed sequentially; perhaps, it’s going to make a few haywire people learn the need for synchronized orders.

The three-way input definitely makes the Soundbooth more versatile; so do the separate recording window and the volume meter. The automatic noise removal function is just a feature that shall be used till one knows about the Auto Heal function – to remove random clicks, pops and other noises from an audio file, nothing can prove better. These disturbances can be made out from the two views and can then be cut out with the lasso or the rectangle marquee tool to replace them with ambient sounds that can be said completely natural, if not anything better. The editing features can thus be said to be the best things in the application.

One feature that can turn people curious is the automatic composition though accessing sample files are a tough task from the overloaded Adobe Lab server. But it looks to be well implemented; the sad part is it makes Adobe Soundbooth look like an excellent beginner-level audio editing software. Is there any need to copy CineScore? To compensate, Soundbooth’s editing tools must turn into something more robust; just changing people’s view on how an entry level audio software should look is not enough. And though it has a lot of potential with the cross-platform abilities, maybe Adobe would have though about it before releasing its predecessor – the Audition.

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