Hi all. I'm seeking a decent MacOS alternative to Gold Wave on Windows for single-track audio editing. I'm a logic user, but I find editing audio that isn't music in Logic to be slow and laborious. I was a Gold Wave user under windows many years ago, and there are 2 features I really miss:
1) The ability to set a selection using left and right brackets without needless dialogue boxes for setting boundaries.
2) The ability to scrub (rewind and fast forward) with the F5 and F6 keys, like spinning a record by hand or manually controlling an open reel tape.
I have not found any other editor on the Mac that offers these features, particularly scrubbing that actually works properly. What am I missing? What are people using for simple single-file audio editing on the Mac?
Comments
Audacity!
I always go back to Audacity. It is multitrack if you need it but shines as a single track editor. You can mark selections with brackets but not sure about the scrubbing. I've taught podcating courses with it and recently went to a radio station to teach a fellow audio production with adding music, using ducking and more. It's free and fully functional and will do what you are looking for.: I actually prefer it on mac.
Here's the link: https://www.audacityteam.org/
Re: Audacity
Thanks John. I have used audacity for many years for recording single-track audio but never figured out how to edit efficiently with it. Especially extremely small edits. For example, taking a "um" out of the middle of a phrase, removing an intake of breath, or removing a 'click' in the recording that lasts maybe a quarter of a second. Can you share any tips on efficient ways to make selections that small?
Amadeus
Amadeus is very good and accessible. I think that it's free if you use it as a single track editor, but I might be wrong.
Re: Amadeus
I've been playing with Amadeus. There seem to be quite a few keyboard shortcuts that aren't documented in the manual, in fact the section on editing in the documentation is very sparse. Do you have any tips for fine keyboard editing as above?
Editing with Audacity
Good morning, Ashley. You can set what they call the zoom level which governs the increment at which the arrows move weather it's large or small blocks of audio. I tend to use shift and right arrow when wanting to move in smaller increments. It's amazingly effective and I believe is more accurate on the mac. When doing this in windows there seems to be a little latency and when you mark a spot it's not exactly where you marked it, so you need to be quick and catch it a tad before where you want it. Also, if you are close to the spot pressing one of the brackets brings up the dialog where you can actually change the time so you can move that quarter second more reliably.
Reaper
That is strange that nobody mentioned reaper in the first place. But it works excelent!
Amadeus Pro is amazing!
I seriously miss Amadeus Pro! Fantastic program, and every time I think about it, it makes me wish I hadn't sold my mac.
Re: Amadeus Pro is amazing
That's quite the recommendation, Do you have any tips for extremely fine editing and selection in Amadeus?
Re: Editing with audacity
Thanks John. I've edited this way in audacity and it does work. It's definitely not as efficient or accurate as other editors though in my experience. Maybe it takes practice, but I've found it takes a lot of work to remove something as simple as a short breath that lasts only half a second, and time is money.
Still trying to find a…
Still trying to find a solution for this. I've been determinedly struggling with Audacity but I'm not getting very far. it's just not precise enough. I end up back in Logic, but it's just not very efficient for simple single-track editing. Does anyone have any other suggestions for alternatives, or tips for using audacity effectively?
Audacity is pure trash!
That's honestly my opinion. I do professional producing and audio editing on a day to day bassist and Audacity never ever cut it for me. Reaper will get ya what you want, and need. It's a bit of a learning curve but it's got what you need and so much more. You can even adjust the zoom so you'll scrub faster or slower depending on what you want and or working with. You can either select by the curser or use left and right prackets. It's all up to you on how you wanna work. I'm honestly astounded that people are recommending Audacity for fluent audio editing as that's not what audacity is, at all! It's vary basic! My current work flow is this. Logic for making beats, audio engineering, tracking in studio and composing and reaper for pure audio editing and mastering. I'll track and do audio engineering with reaper too just honestly what mood I'm in on feeling on what daw I wanna use. I would not recommend doing complete audio editing with logic at all. I use to back in the day but when I found reaper and more efficient,, I through all that out the window.
If ya want help with reaper,…
If ya want help with reaper, here's the website dedicated to using reaper accessibly. https://www.reaperaccessibility.com/wiki/Main_Page
Re: Audacity is pure trash
Thanks for your insight. I think audacity is great for mouse users, but it's just not designed for efficient keyboard use. I can get by with it, in the sense that I can take out big obvious chunks of audio. But if I wanted to remove a "um" or "uhhh" from a line of speech, or a loud intake of breath, it's just not going to happen. I do have reaper and the accessibility plugin so I'll put the time into learning it. Any resources you'd recommend for the point of view of keyboard editing (scrubbing in particular), or could you outline a few basic key commands that you find work most efficiently to scrub, select and edit? Thanks!
re: If ya want help with reaper
Thanks!
On the website I just linked…
On the website I just linked there should be some stuff on their that should get ya started. I think there is a complete keyboard shortcuts keymaps list with osara as well. If ya need any additional help, feel free to send me a mail or PM off here or what have ya. There is also a mailing list and a whatsapp group if ya have questions and someone more knowledgeable than I may be able to answer. I ain't gunna claim I know everything about reaper, I just learn the features I need for my everyday use hehehe.
Thanks for the resource
Reaper will be the next audio editor Ilearn after audacity and gold wave is on my wishlist too. Does audacity work well with NVDA?
Reaper thoughts
I've been playing with Reaper over hte last few days. I've got to grips with it, but it's still nowhere near as efficient. The way it changes the playback speed of audio based on zoom level is infuriating, the audibility of scrubbing is poor, and I've found it quite unresponsive too with larger files. I think the search for a solution continues.
I like reaper for my needs
I've been doing multi-track just for fun audio editing, it's a learning curve, but I like the fact that I can adjust the volume of each track, and it actually stays after you render it. In amadeus, I can adjust the volume of each track, but that just seems to be while playing it in amadeus, which kind of defeats the purpose, lol. In reaper, I like how I can nudge the track volumes individually up and down. Here's a tip, whenever you're mixing tracks, always turn the master track volume down by at least 3 first. To do that in reaper, you do shift-f11, there is no way to nudge volume in amadeus, not that I know of. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Wave pad
I use wave pad for my audio editing needs. It allows you to hold down the arrow keys to scrub, and press left and right bracket to move to beginning and end. You can press command plus one and command +2 to create Mark points, which is the same as starting and ending your selection. You can get it from the App Store.