In plain
simple terms Adobe Soundbooth CS3 is
“Audio Editing Made Simple”.
Overall this shows that Adobe has taken into
consideration that professional video editors are
not necessarily experts in audio mixing and
enhancement. They need the right tools that will
help them accelerate the tasks that they are not so
familiar with and thus avoid unnecessary costs and
time employing an audio expert. Adobe Soundbooth
CS3 is a completely new tool that is reminiscent of
the other applications in the Production Premium
suite, it has resizable grey windows and moveable
tabs and icons. As a debut product it has many
outstanding features which include introductory
audio import and basic recording, as well as
various editing and enhancement tools.
Basic editing of imported audio tracks and recorded tracks include “Level Adjustment, Cutting And Pasting, Fade In’s And Out’s. When recording you simply click the little red button at the bottom of the interface, in the transport section, where it brings up a dialog box for you to specify the input settings, as well as the name of the file and the location of where the saved file will sit. Surprisingly when you begin to record, it automatically saves this to disk, and so if you make modifications it will auto-save these modifications alleviating any frustration should the unforeseen happen.
When using this application for my video construction project, I included narration, and being able to assign markers where the mistakes arose was very helpful, all of this could be done while the recording was in session.
Another nice feature I really liked was beside the transport buttons, where the fade and volume icons were situated, also along with those controls is a simple Loudness button for increasing the gain without it distorting, a very convenient and useful feature. To apply these simple edits all you have to do is select the region of the visual wave, and click the icon or button. Down the left hand side there is a tabbed window that is split into three sections, “Tasks, Effects, Markers”.
In the “Tasks” tab the AutoCompose Score was really easy to use, and this has a similar method to “SmartSound Audio Palettes”, you click the button “Browse Scores” and Adobe Bridge CS3 loads up if its not already loaded and takes you to the exact directory you need to be in, this lists all the scores according to genre whether this would be World, Rock And Pop, Jazz, plus many other categories available, to the right hand side is a built in audio player for you to sample the tracks and when you find the right audio track you can then double click on it for it to load into SoundBooth CS3. From there you will be able to control the preset lengths available for example 30, 60, 90 second sessions, also you can assign keyframes to volume and intensity as well as the lead instrument, so that you can fade it down appropriately for say a narration or voice over’s for your video presentation. What I particularly liked was the clear timeline for audio and music as well as the video imported in. Everything is laid out so simply and you can toggle between simple and advanced to enable a quick and yet professional job. Furthermore in the “Tasks” section you have the ability to change pitch and timing as well as loop creation, sound and noise.
In the “Effects” section which I particularly spent some time in, you have presets for certain enhancements of audio recordings, in my case I used it for voice over recordings for my video presentation. These presets are found under “Stereo Rack Preset” there you will see a drop down menu which will outline preset enhancements as well as a simple controller pop up box to customise intensity and other tweaks to the chosen effect as well as a more advanced dialog window for more precise rendering. I often found the presets were adequate for my needs, although at times I would tweak the preset sound templates for male narrators as well as female narrators.
The “Markers” section is easy to use simply select where you want the marker to go in the audio file and click the plus sign in that tab section and you can rename the marker, this is a useful feature if you want to make edits later, and know what those markers were there for.
All in all, a time saving application for any video editor with little or no knowledge of audio editing. SoundBooth CS3 provides all the necessary tools without confusing the user, and enables good quality audio to be a part of a professional video presentation. Adobe has cleverly manufactured a new tool that will help professional video editors / experienced enthusiasts to avoid unnecessary costs in employing an audio professional to complete the finishing touches to their project.
In an uncomplicated way I could not put it better than this “Audio Editing Made Simple !”
Basic editing of imported audio tracks and recorded tracks include “Level Adjustment, Cutting And Pasting, Fade In’s And Out’s. When recording you simply click the little red button at the bottom of the interface, in the transport section, where it brings up a dialog box for you to specify the input settings, as well as the name of the file and the location of where the saved file will sit. Surprisingly when you begin to record, it automatically saves this to disk, and so if you make modifications it will auto-save these modifications alleviating any frustration should the unforeseen happen.
When using this application for my video construction project, I included narration, and being able to assign markers where the mistakes arose was very helpful, all of this could be done while the recording was in session.
Another nice feature I really liked was beside the transport buttons, where the fade and volume icons were situated, also along with those controls is a simple Loudness button for increasing the gain without it distorting, a very convenient and useful feature. To apply these simple edits all you have to do is select the region of the visual wave, and click the icon or button. Down the left hand side there is a tabbed window that is split into three sections, “Tasks, Effects, Markers”.
In the “Tasks” tab the AutoCompose Score was really easy to use, and this has a similar method to “SmartSound Audio Palettes”, you click the button “Browse Scores” and Adobe Bridge CS3 loads up if its not already loaded and takes you to the exact directory you need to be in, this lists all the scores according to genre whether this would be World, Rock And Pop, Jazz, plus many other categories available, to the right hand side is a built in audio player for you to sample the tracks and when you find the right audio track you can then double click on it for it to load into SoundBooth CS3. From there you will be able to control the preset lengths available for example 30, 60, 90 second sessions, also you can assign keyframes to volume and intensity as well as the lead instrument, so that you can fade it down appropriately for say a narration or voice over’s for your video presentation. What I particularly liked was the clear timeline for audio and music as well as the video imported in. Everything is laid out so simply and you can toggle between simple and advanced to enable a quick and yet professional job. Furthermore in the “Tasks” section you have the ability to change pitch and timing as well as loop creation, sound and noise.
In the “Effects” section which I particularly spent some time in, you have presets for certain enhancements of audio recordings, in my case I used it for voice over recordings for my video presentation. These presets are found under “Stereo Rack Preset” there you will see a drop down menu which will outline preset enhancements as well as a simple controller pop up box to customise intensity and other tweaks to the chosen effect as well as a more advanced dialog window for more precise rendering. I often found the presets were adequate for my needs, although at times I would tweak the preset sound templates for male narrators as well as female narrators.
The “Markers” section is easy to use simply select where you want the marker to go in the audio file and click the plus sign in that tab section and you can rename the marker, this is a useful feature if you want to make edits later, and know what those markers were there for.
All in all, a time saving application for any video editor with little or no knowledge of audio editing. SoundBooth CS3 provides all the necessary tools without confusing the user, and enables good quality audio to be a part of a professional video presentation. Adobe has cleverly manufactured a new tool that will help professional video editors / experienced enthusiasts to avoid unnecessary costs in employing an audio professional to complete the finishing touches to their project.
In an uncomplicated way I could not put it better than this “Audio Editing Made Simple !”
