Hello people, and welcome to this video! Let’s get a quick and general
overview on the newest MAGIX Sound Forge Pro 3 for Mac.
Leave us comments and suggestions in the video description below to
improve our next video guides!
Sound Forge Pro is a professional software package used to edit, adjust and
customize your audio files as you like. We will see in this video
everything you need to know to start using this software for the first
time!
We are also running an outstanding giveaway for this software! Write a
comment as explained in the video description to get the chance to win a
free copy of Sound Forge Pro Mac 3!
When you open this software, a simple workspace opens, divided in several
parts. On the center you have the Editor, where you can preview and edit
your audio tracks; and, on the left, the right, and the bottom sides you
have other useful panels we will see.
This workspace can be completely customized by using the buttons in the
top right corner. Above Editor, choose whether to use a single Editor, or
two of them, placed horizontally or vertically. Above Panes, you can open
or hide several panels, on the left, the bottom and on the right.
To start editing, you have to import the audio files to work with. You
can drag and drop these files directly from the Finder to the Editor, or
you can drag and drop these from the Media Browser panel on the left. You
can also import video files inside, just consider that only the audio part
will be imported.
In case you import multiple audio files, all these are listed with their
name as tabs above. Each Editor can preview just one audio file at a time,
but you can preview two audio files by using two Editors. If you have one
free, just drag and drop an audio file to preview it.
The audio files are shown with their own audio waveform and stereo
channels, occupying an Audio Track inside the Editor. You can check it
better by zooming in and out by using your mouse wheel, and move fast in
time by using the Navigation bar on top.
Now let’s see how to preview your Audio Tracks. To playback all, you can
use the Player buttons on top or at the bottom of your workspace. The
player will start from the point in time where the black playhead is
placed. You can also use the Enter key to play and pause fast, and use
the Space bar key to play and stop, in order to get the playback on the
original point of time.
It is also useful to playback just parts of an Audio Track, especially
while you are editing it. To do so, you have to use the Loop Regions.
If you click and hold on the vacant space above the timeline, and then
move, you will create a Loop Region that selects just the highlighted
part of the current Track. When you put the Track in play, only the
selected part will playback.
Moreover, if you enable the Loop playback button at the bottom, the
highlighted part will play continuously. This is very useful to
catch differences when applying effects and corrections.
The time display on top indicates the instant of time the black playhead
is placed, indicated in bars and beats.
Let’s see how to edit your audio files with Sound Forge Pro!
When an audio file is imported, you get a unique audio event with its
waveform, inside an Audio Track. But when you edit and cut it, it can be
separated in several independent audio events. The way to manage events
and audio waveforms changes depending on the mode you choose at the
bottom.
The Time mode is used to apply modifications by working on the audio
waveform inside the Audio Track. By using the Loop Regions, you can
select a part of the Audio Track, and right-click on it to cut or copy
it. To paste it, fix the instant of time with the black playhead,
right-click and go to Paste.
You can also copy audio pieces and paste these on another tab, in order to
join different audio files on the same Audio Track.
Moreover, if you right-click on a piece, and use Trim, you will remove
all the other audio parts and save just the highlighted one. But, if
you choose Delete, you will remove just the selected part.
Remember to use CMD+Z to undo your latest actions if you make any
mistakes.
When selecting the Pencil mode, you edit the audio waveform by drawing it
sample by sample. Just zoom in enough, until the Pencil mode button
enables, then just click on it, and click and drag to draw the waveform
as you like. A yellow dialog box will indicate the amplitude level in
deciBels (or dB) with respect to the blue reference line, representing no
volume.
The third button is the Event mode, used to work with the cut pieces of
audio files inside the Audio Track. When enabled, each event is
represented as a rectangular clip, which can be selected by clicking on
it directly. The selected event will be highlighted in blue, and then can
be moved in time by clicking and dragging it.
You can also apply fast corrections on each selected event. You can click
and drag its edges to either stretch or shorten it in time, in order to
fix its proper audio content.
To regulate its volume, you can click and drag the white envelope line
you see on the event. The Channel Meters panel on the right shows the
volume level you have in output, measured in dB. Just make sure not to
get any red color, in order to avoid any audio distortion.
The Event mode is also very useful to apply volume transitions, to unmute
and mute the event in a cool way.
If you approach the event corners which are yellow in color, and click and
drag these, you will add a volume transition fade, where the volume changes
in time according to the white envelope curve you see. This can also be
personalized by right-clicking on it, and choosing from the graph list.
A volume transition is automatically created when two audio events get
overlapped in time. In this case, you can regulate its duration by moving
the audio events in time, and regulate the envelope curve by
right-clicking on it.
As seen for the Time mode, also with the Event mode enabled you can cut,
copy, paste, trim and delete with the difference that you'll work with
entire events, instead of pieces of audio waveform. In addition, you can
use the S key to split an event in two independent events.
With Sound Forge you can also apply cool audio effects and adjustments,
all listed inside the Plug-In Chooser panel on the right. Some of these
enhance sound, such as Volume or Filter, some others are audio effects
that change the audio sound, such as Reverb, Distortion and Pitch. Select
the one you're interested in, and drag and drop it on the Plug-In Chain
panel, more on top. This will apply the effect on the whole Audio Track
content inside the Editor.
All the effects applied are listed from top to bottom in order, with their
own name, and several options available. Click on Enable plug-in to
enable and disable the current effect, or use the gear icon to adjust the
effect settings as you like. Use the cross button to remove the effect
from the list. You can also apply ready effect templates by choosing the
proper one from the Preset list.
Each of the effect properties can be adjusted in time by using the
envelope line. As seen for the volume, these change the effect property
chosen time by time through the whole Audio Track.
Inside the Plug-In Chain panel, click on the grey arrow to show the list
of all the main effect properties. Each of these has two buttons on the
right. Use the first one to show its related envelope line on the Editor,
to start editing it. Click and drag it up or down to regulate the effect
property uniformly. Then, personalize the envelope by double-clicking on
it, in order to add points. If you click and drag these in time and
height, you will create the envelope curve as you like. You can
right-click on one point to fine tune the envelope line between two points,
or use Delete to remove it.
The envelope curve won’t have any effect until you enable it by using the
Enable envelope button from the Plug-In Chain. At this point, the
envelope line will get the same color of the rectangle next to the name
of the effect property.
Now, let’s now see how to save and export your work from Sound Forge Pro
Mac!
To export the audio file, just go to File, and then to Save As…. Decide
name, Destination folder, the audio file format under Format, and audio
templates on Preset. To set your own customized audio settings, just
click on Custom… more on the right.
If you want to save the status of your work, to reopen and finish it
later, just choose Sound Forge Pro project under Format. Project files
are always saved as .forgeproj files.
Thanks for watching this video! Make sure to leave us a comment for a
chance to win an amazing free copy of this professional software!