Adobe Soundbooth CS4 is an audio editing application for the video editor, it integrates well with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and the other applications that go with the Production Premium Suite. Soundbooth CS4 is still targeting a specific audience as opposed to the fully trained professional audio editor.
As a previous user of CS3 I was very happy to learn and experiment with the new features of this application.
New Features
Multi-Track Editing
In my opinion the most important new feature, creating a multi track environment is a simple process, just drag your movie and audio files into the editor panel, each track has its controls for “Mute, Solo, Volume, Pan” along the right hand side is the wave, and at the top is the master volume control.
Audio tracks include the ability to add fade in’s and out’s, as well perform keyframe volume adjustments by clicking chosen points along the volume timeline, you are then able to drag up to increase volume and drag down to decrease volume. To perform additional edits such as adding markers, cutting and pasting, audio to text transcriptions you must open the selected track in a separate edit panel, which would have been nice to do without performing this necessary step.
Speech Transcription
Sometimes new features can always do with some improving, this is no exception. Adobe have provided a built-in audio to text engine, yes thats right the spoken word into text which does a half decent job, which no doubt in time will be improved. Once you have transcribed a track you can then highlight words in the transcript and then carry on from that point. A search field is provided so you can navigate to unique words. However navigation is limited to when the finished track is in the edit panel.
Non Destructive Editing
Non destructive editing is another welcome feature within this version, in order to make this possible Adobe have created the Adobe Sound Document format (.asnd) this allows easy undoing of changes without affecting the source file. What this format does is hold all the original assets and snapshots you made in your project, although if the project is a large one it can take some time to save. However you will find that this will integrate well with other CS4 applications when it comes round trip editing.
Volume Matching
Volume matching is another useful but simple feature, all you have to do is to drag in your selected audio files in the volume correction panel and Adobe Soundbooth CS4 does the rest, it balances the volumes giving satisfactory results.
MP3 Compression Preview
This is going to be a well used feature for me. at the point of saving I will be able to preview what the prospective file will sound like when it has been encoded at a particular bitrate.
Conclusion
Adobe Soundbooth CS4 continues to uphold features that can simply be operated by video editors and presenters, its best use is for those that purchase an Adobe suite as it integrates well with the other applications. There has been considerable changes within the application that makes this a great reason to upgrade. I am very happy overall with the new features and feel with a few more tweaks we can have more accurate transcriptions, quicker saving times on the Adobe Sound Document format.
If you do require a simple audio editor for your projects, Adobe have refined Soundbooth CS4 with enough features to keep any video editor or presenter happy.
Reviewed By Chris Watts