Sound mixing software?

[SandmanNinja]

Closest topic I could find.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for sound mixing software?

 

I'm thinking something that will have multiple channels or tracks, let you see the video and hear the sounds as you add them and play it back.

 

I'm thinking (as an example):

Video Track - the animation

Audio Track 01 - background music

Audio Track 02 - rain drops falling

Audio Track 03 - distant conversations

Audio Track 04 - the roar of an open fire or explosion

 

Then mix them all together and output it as a single file, while retaining the ability to keep the layers (in some propritary format).

 

Also - any preference for output format? .AVI, .MOV?

 

Thanking you...

[Horhe]

Well Ive played around with sound programs a while back.

2 software packages come to mind. Soundforge - get the demo!

And Music EJay - free package (I think) or at least very cheap - I got it with a magazine a couple of years back. I know it still is develped further. Its easy, very easy - you can incorporate videos. There youve got a lot of samples in 'blocks' and can record or/and import your own. Its like sketchup for the music industry I reckon

 

Ps. Theres also Fruityloops - although Im not sure - I think thats only for producing beats...

[Matt Clementson]

Not sure if it's what you're looking for but Adobe Premiere allows you to have multiple tracks of audio and to do rudimentary mixing (volume levels and some audio processing) and obviously you get multiple tracks of Video as well.

[bjornkn]

I suppose most video editors allow mixing multiple audio channels too?

I'm using Vegas, which was originally developed by the same company that developed SoundForge, Sonic Foundry, so it is particuarly strong on audio. I like it a lot better than Premiere. They have now been bought by Sony, BTW.

[SandmanNinja]

Thanks for the suggestions guys... While I don't intend to mix an albulm, I would like to bring in some sound effects and easily copy them (i.e. fireworks exploding, for instance). I tried some God-aweful program that wouldn't let you overlap one audio track with sound on another audio track. (i.e. if I had a sound at 00m05s on track 1, nothing else could be at 00m05s on any other track. What if I have multiple sound effects that last 0.2 seconds??)

 

I'll check these out.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

What app are you using for video editing? ..if you use the Adobe pipeline, you may want to give SoundBooth a try because it is designed to work tightly with Premiere. ...but as mentioned above, you can do basic stuff directly in Premiere.

[SandmanNinja]

My (planned) flow is:

3DS -> Photoshop -> Premiere

 

The Premiere isn't in motion yet because I haven't completed a lot of animations. But am working on a 60-second video and have some music and sound effects organised.

 

Do you have experience with SoundBooth? While I'm not looking for an app with a 'Make Sound Track' button, I don't want to spend weeks learning a sound app either. I'm old - I'd have to push something out of my memory to learn something new.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Nope.

 

You may want ot look into Production Suite if you think you are going to do a lot of video work. It includes AfterEffects, Premiere, SoundBooth, Encore (DVD and BlueRay). I think it includes Photoshop also, but if you already own that, then you might get a discount on the entire package. I reccomened SoundBooth because you can probably launch it directly from within Premiere, and use its files directly within Premiere. There is a 30 day demo on Adobe's website.

 

SoundBooth is a pared down version of the Adobe Audition. I think its target user is someone who does video editing, but wants to jazz things up with audio. I am guessing you can find a cheaper and maybe easier to use solution, but integration into your pipeline is one of the consideration to think about.