Created by Syntrillium Software Corporation, one of the best, if not the best, pieces of digital audio editing software available for Microsoft Windows/x86 computers. It supports many, many digital audio formats (wav, aiff, iff, etc.), many time domain and frequency domain transformations (Phase Vocoding, noise reduction, normalization, convolution, the list goes on..), data analysis, and .. well, it's very featureful.

It's sort of like Sox, SoundHack, and CSound, all rolled into one. (well, the "CSound" thing is pushing it, seeing as CSound basically does "everything".) And happily, it looks like Syntrillium provides free upgrades to the software - if you purchased Version 1.0 (in 1996 or so), you can download Version 1.2 today, for free!

All that, and it's only $399! ("only".. Well, I just bought a copy from www.bsiusa.com, for $350, but haven't recieved it yet - they billed me for, and subsequently sent me Cool Edit 2000 instead. However, now that I've been complained, they should be sending me the real thing, and they're letting me keep CE2000, too - what a deal!)

Version 2.0

In 2002, Cool Edit Pro 2.0 was released, with a lower price tag ($249 dollars if you buy it online, $79 dollar upgrade) and a few interesting new features (gathered from syntrillium.com, several reviews, and my own experience):

  • A much more polished, customizable UI, including dual monitor support
  • Built-in MP3 support (previously a plugin)
  • CD Ripping capability
  • Downloadable CD burning plugin
  • Real-time effects, which can be applied to a track in the multitrack window (rather than just a waveform individually
  • New effects like the Quickverb (reverb) or the Doppler Shift, Dynamic EQ and Delay, etc.
  • A "bus" system allowing you to group several tracks in the multitrack
  • An improved loop manager
  • Introduction of the Red Rover - a USB device that lets you control Cool Edit remotely
  • Video (AVI only, as far as I know) support, allowing you to place a video inside the multitrack view and edit your audio around it.
  • The old easter egg in Cool Edit Pro 1.x(dragging the flower in the About... window to the smallest circle and pressing "OK" would trigger a game of Pong) is gone, replaced by another About dialog Easter Egg: you can click on the two metal balls in the Syntrillium logo and bounce them around, and right click to add pinball-style stoppers. Not as fun as Pong, but then again not much is.

So?

Cool Edit Pro remains one of the most affordable and complete digital audio solutions for Windows and a nice, relatively low cost Pro Tools alternative.

Sources

  • Syntrillium Software: http://www.syntrillium.com/
  • http://www.etcetera.co.uk/products/SYN002.shtml
  • http://www.radioworld.com/reference-room/product_evaluation/06_rw_pe_CoolEditProRev_1.shtml

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