11.04.08

Adobe getting good at audio? Who woulda thunk it.

It seems like everybody and their mother is writing some kind of article about CS4. Being that I’m particularly susceptible to peer pressure, I’ve decided to chime in as well. Yes, I’m half lemming. No, I do not prize my individuality. Yes, I would jump off a bridge if my friends did too. Just like in Lost Boys. So sue me.

I come from a mostly video background, and so the big Adobe releases don’t usually get me as excited as, say, a new version of Final Cut Pro might. That said, at least half of my work day seems grasped tightly in an Adobe headlock. Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator… I can scarcely imagine a workflow without them now. But I have never really taken Premiere seriously, and I don’t think I’m the only one. This edition comes with the new ability to use blend modes for overlapping footage, which is nifty but not unique among editing suites, and you can have multiple video standards (SD and HD in the same project for instance) which is just par for the course nowadays. The further new addition of being able to scrub audio tracks is neat but not really that useful. I’ve always found the idea of editing in an Adobe environment interesting, though, especially when it comes to something like importing Photoshop lower thirds.

After Effects is a great program, and there were so many new additions in the last release, I was not at all surprised to see that the CS4 version has mostly functionality improvements rather than crazy new tools. Though I am totally going to use that new Cartoon effect as soon as I get the chance. Encore seems fine and all, but I know DVD Studio Pro a lot better at this point, and why change? Fireworks is useful for prototyping, surely, but I’m more of a dive-right-in-and-make-it kind of guy. And as a musician, Soundbooth always seemed like a mysterious Tron-like throwback, a sound editor from a previous era when home computers were brand-spankin’-new and teased hair was in. (Cue any Frankie Goes to Hollywood song here).

That said, this release has only truly changed my mind about one of the programs out there, and it’s Soundbooth. It still looks a little Tron-tastic to me. Something about that green sound wave doesn’t look quite right. But the functionality is superb, the controls are powerful and intuitive, and it’s one of the best mastering tools I’ve found to date.

Regarding the controls, let’s begin with the way you build fades. I’ve never seen such a seamless and simple way to do something that practically every other audio editor I’ve seen makes complicated mince-meat out of. There’s a little “fade” button in the interface. You tap that. Yep, it’s that easy. If you want to finesse the fade, you just drag it how you want it to go. Couldn’t be simpler, and it works like a charm. Instead of putting in a dozen anchor points and building a shape, it just bends the fade as you drag it, and it works just the way you hope it would.

Now, audio mastering is generally considered to be half technology, half voodoo. If you have any doubt about the voodoo part, ask any mastering engineer about the “pixie dust” and “sparkle” that they add to tracks. Both of these are common terms used in mastering, and they help illustrate the Fantasy Island-style wizardry involved. Essentially, you’re manipulating compression, limiting, EQ, reverb and gain (and occasionally gates and other effects) to make your finished tracks sound their best, but there is no single way of doing it. It’s a unique process every time, and when it’s done correctly, the difference is spectacular.

In the home studio, my experience is that it’s incredibly easy to overdo it and screw up a bunch of perfectly good tracks. I’ve done it many times. But with Soundbooth, the built in mastering suite of effects does a wonderful job of laying out the tools you need, and while it’s possible to overdo it, the way it is set up helps you to avoid going overboard. I found the tools to be very high quality, and the results to be fantastic.

The settings on the Exciter, for instance (Tube, Tape, Retro...) got me very… well...excited! And they sound great without being too over the top. The compression is flexible enough to squeeze your track into a bar of musical steel, or gently lift your quieter moments into the mix, and the visual EQ is easy and intuitive to work with. And having controls to simply make your track louder without clipping to start with is just great. 

So I’m happy to live with the green sound wave and the slightly retro layout, as long as the mastered tracks keep coming out so well. I’ve been hoping for a mastering tool this easy to use and effective for a while, and I have to say I’m a little stunned that it ended up coming from Adobe rather than one of the musical mainstays out there. Now I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping that the new Flash, which I haven’t had an opportunity to try out yet, is as cool as it looks like it is! 3D?! Hoo ha!

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