Is Sound Forge 9 needed if you have Vegas 7?

ken c wrote on 4/28/2007, 9:06 AM
Here's a quick question; since the new SF9 includes Sony's latest noise reduction plugin that's not available (?) for us Vegas users, is it worthwhile to get sound forge 9?

Are there any other uses for an audio-only editor that's not covered by Vegas tools (with audio plugins) that I'm missing...?

I'm currently using adobe audition, which is a good program (formerly cool edit pro), for my audio-only mp3 recording edits, though I'm tempted to just do all those in Vegas too from now on.

Unless you're producing audio-only format media, like mp3s or cds, is there any compelling reason to get an audio-only editor like Audition or Sound Forge, that I'm missing? (I probably am....)

Also, are there any upgrades/crossgrades I'm missing (I haven't found any) to let us buy Sound Forge 9 for us current Vegas 7 registered owners?

Appreciate any thoughts,

Ken

Comments

Bill Ravens wrote on 4/28/2007, 9:12 AM
There's so much you can do with a good audio editor/DAW that you can't do in Vegas. SF is invaluable for me. If you have an alternate audio editor, it's probably good enough.
solar_plexus wrote on 4/28/2007, 10:20 AM
"There's so much you can do with a good audio editor/DAW that you can't do in Vegas"

like........?
I am curious, too. I had been wondering the same thing.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/28/2007, 10:55 AM
download the demo of SF. It has a lot more audio manipulating tools then Vegas does.
Bill Ravens wrote on 4/28/2007, 12:09 PM
Just as an example, the "normalize" function in vegas is pretty limited. The same function in SF is a lot more practical when you need to raise the RMS volume without clipping the peaks. Vegas won't help you there.
teaktart wrote on 4/28/2007, 12:22 PM
I use my SF7 to "micro-manage" my audio and then bring it back into Vegas. You can isolate specific areas of your audio you may want to tweek and this isn't easily done in Vegas...
And you can easily save all your custom presets in SF for future use
JJKizak wrote on 4/28/2007, 1:42 PM
1----change to any bit rate
2----overite one portion of the track with another or left/right
3----3 equalizers adjust on the fly
4----set normalize to any db level
5----clipped peak restoration (selective peaks)
6----mono to stereo, stereo to mono
7----pitch changes
8----repair selected areas
9----several click and pop removal tools
10--all of the Vegas audio tools
11--numerous pluggins
12--bust audio cd's on the fly
13--noise reduction
14--waveform drawing tool
15--video inputs
16--very nice burn cd workflow
17--acoustic mirror effects (about a million)
18--It's kind of like if you want to do something in audio you can do it.
JJK
farss wrote on 4/28/2007, 1:45 PM
SF is an audio editor, Vegas is a multitracker. There's quite a big difference between those two roles. For example SF has a snap to zero crossing function that Vegas doesn't, this is vital when you're doing audio editing. With SF it's a snap to work at the sample level.

Bob.
FuTz wrote on 4/28/2007, 2:42 PM
... so Noise Reduction is implemented in SoundForge ?
farss wrote on 4/28/2007, 2:49 PM
Technically no.It comes as a plugin WITH SF.
SF is the logic platform to use it in, you can sort of maybe use it in Vegas but it's a bear.

Bob.
Coursedesign wrote on 4/28/2007, 3:36 PM
12--bust audio cd's on the fly

Be sure to wear protective glasses when doing this.

:O)

blink3times wrote on 4/28/2007, 4:13 PM
I use adobe audition2 because the previous version of soundforge was a bit limited. Does anybody know how the new version compares to AA2?
ken c wrote on 4/28/2007, 4:14 PM
wow, sounds like a solid feature difference set... super list jjkizak... looks compelling to me...

heck if SF9 can do so much more, it's tempting to think about doing audio sweetening/mixing for DVDs produced in Vegas, in Sound Forge, then re-importing the improved audio track back into the vegas timeline... to get optimal quality.

would be nice if the two apps integrated like Adobe CS3 platform apps do...

looks like Sound Forge 9 would be worth getting then... and the price point is certainly reasonable enough at $299, though a discount for Vegas users would be appreciated...

it would be nice if the NR plugin was usable as a VST plugin easily from within Vegas, too, as a plus

ken
farss wrote on 4/28/2007, 4:24 PM
Ken,
SF isn't really a mixing tool, that's what Vegas is for.
SF is more for audio microsurgery and is also a much better platform to run noise reduction under. Things like audio restoration, debreathing, sample creation etc are what SF excels at. Also keep in mind that SF is a destructive editor. However from Vegas you can one click open the audio track in SF and in SF do a Save As and the new audio appears as a Take in Vegas.
BTW, I know this isn't what it was designed for but the Vinyl Restoration tool in SF can work some magic on cruddy audio, things such as the clicks from sample rate errors are quite amenable to attack by this plug.

Bob.
ken c wrote on 4/28/2007, 6:19 PM
Good to hear it Bob, thanks. I'm thinking of using it, for example, to improve/clean up audio from live seminar events I do, eg get each hour's worth of 3-cam footage set up in Vegas, then render out the audio uncompressed/original format in one file, that I then clean up/microsurgery (great analogy), then save from SF, to put back in the Vegas timeline, cleaned up, eg as an uncompressed wav format file... Then export the whole thing as uncompressed avi, which is then mastered by DVDA into dvds..

ken
farss wrote on 4/28/2007, 6:49 PM
Well you don't even need to go to that much trouble, just an RClick on the audio track in Vegas will open it in SF, once finished in SF do a Save As. Don't get any simpler than that!

SF does take a bit of time to get the most out of, sadly time that I haven't had even though I use SF regularly. I'd also suggest a good book like "Audio Postproduction for Digital Video" by Jay Rose. Heaps of good stuff on editing speech along with examples of how to build new words from what you've got etc. Sound Forge and NR2 is covered but the book also covers a lot of what we all need to know, right upto mixing for cinema compared to mixing for TV.

Bob.
teaktart wrote on 4/28/2007, 7:21 PM
"keep in mind that SF is a destructive editor. However from Vegas you can one click open the audio track in SF and in SF do a Save As and the new audio appears as a Take in Vegas."

Actually, its even easier than that and NON-destructive:

If you right click on your audio file and chose "Open COPY in Sound Forge" (in which case you will leave your original untouched) and the copy which you have tweeked can be "saved" and then will automatically show up back on your V timeline as a "take"

Ahhh, the best of both options!
JJKizak wrote on 4/29/2007, 6:03 AM
What got me to purchase Sound Forge 4.5 initially was the cursor moving down the track as the music played and then reseting if the music or sound was large. The remote control menu was really kool too. I was real easy to satisfy.
JJK
ken c wrote on 4/29/2007, 3:16 PM
Hey that sounds like a great approach, thanks much, re right click/open Copy in Sound Forge... that truly is the best of both worlds; that way it'll make it easier to use more powerful features in SF than currently exist in Vegas alone.... it's a challenge to clean up live event seminar audio, looks like SF would be a great tool to add to the toolkit, especially since it sounds like I can launch from within Vegas... thanks much, all - you helped me w/my decision to go ahead and get it... the NR plugin alone sounds like a valuable addition..

ken