Good sound editing software for Mac (Tiger)

[Crossdive]

I'm sure this sort of thing has been asked before, but can someone please tell me what a really effective and user-friendly sound editing software for Mac that will run on the Tiger operating system? I am looking for a software that can effectively remove unwanted voices or sounds but leave the music intact and in good quality. Thanks.

[guns1inger]

Doesn't exist. Even high-end professional tools struggle to do what you are asking for.

At the cheaper end of the spectrum you have have audacity (free), and at the higher end, ProTools.

There are basically three ways to remove unwanted voices and sounds from audio.

The first is to cut it out. Crude if you want the music.

The second is phase inversion. You invert the phase of one channel to cancel out the same waves in the other channel. This works for noises that are equal in both channels only, but it does not discriminate - it removes everything that is equal in both channels. This can be useful to remove lead vocals from a track, but often doesn't remove backing vocals, which may chorus differently in each channel, and also may remove bass lines and drums if they are ercorded straight down the centre.

The third option is EQ'ing. If you can get a granular enough EQ you might be able to minimise the frequencies that contain the noises without taking too much away from the rest of the track. Time consuming and usually not very satisfactory.

Noise removal tools usually use a variation on phase inversion, whereby the sample the noise only, and use that sample to locate and remove other instances of that noise. Good for hum, clicks and regular noises.

Phase inversion is by far the best method, but is very dependent on other factors and the outcome is often out of your hands.

Download and play with Audacity. It has noise and vocal removal tools. It may do what you need, depending on the source material.

One final tip - never use compressed audio as the source. Compression, especially MP3 compression, ruins the stereo field. Phase inversion requires the stereo field be intact and clean to get decent results. MP3 tends to leave you with a lot of residual noise and mud.

[porfitron]

I agree with guns1inger... Audacity is pretty awesome and I use it on almost a daily basis.