Introduction

About 3 months ago, I created a video for my gaming clan using various different programs for the video and sound. For the most part I was happy about how it turned out, but one area I would have really liked to have done better on was the sound. What we are about to look at today would have come in very handy back then, saving me time and increasing the possibilities that were available to me.

Stomp, Inc. was founded in 1996 and has been growing ever since, increasing it's line-up of products and market share with such products as RecordNow Max and the DiscSavers jewel cases. The guys over at Stomp, Inc. have been busy once again with there latest product, MySoundStudio, which they kindly sent us to put through its paces. So many thanks to Stomp Inc for providing it.

Features

Multi-track sound editing (with mute & solo functionality)
Read/Write/Edit/Convert WAV & MP3 files
Mixer Control Window (group sounds together)
Video AVI soundtrack editing
Silence Detection
Divide Files
Setting WAV details
Time display of Time, Second, Millisecond, Sample & Frame
Bit Depth: 8 bit, 16 bit
Sampling Frequency: 2,000kHz~192,000kHz
CD Ripping
Record while playing
Looping
Step Zooming
Cue Point and Loop list control

Support for :-
WAV
MP3
AIFF
AU
RAW/PCM
AVI 2.0 (up to 2GB)
Music CD

System Requirements

Pentium 300Mhz, equivalent processor or better
64MB RAM
20MB hard disk space
16 bit color, 1024x768 or better
Mouse or other pointing device
Microphone or other sound input device for recording
Sound card with speakers attached
Windows XP Home & Professional
Windows 2000 (including SR1)
Windows NT 4.0, SR4 or later
Windows ME
Windows 98 SE

First Looks

Of course the first thing you have to do is install the program, which went without a hitch. Once this was done I then proceeded to install the 2 sets of tutorial files, the first being the HTML files and the second being the samples for the tutorial help files. When you run the program for the first time you are presented with a very sleek and easy on the eyes GUI. Usual suspects are here as with any kind of editing program, consisting of the menu's, toolbar and floating windows.

I used MySoundStudio on 2 different systems, just to see how it handled the different resources on offer from both. For the majority of it I was testing and exploring the program on my 1.4 Athlon with 512meg DDR running WinXP. It worked just as well on my pIII 800 with 256meg of PC133 running Win98SE, although naturally it did react slower when loading or dealing with large files. It is still faster than any program I have tried but does slow down a lot whilst loading files initially on both systems, but once the file is loaded its full steam ahead. It is a system hog, using up quite a lot of memory which is in turn tied to the speed of the program, but this is perfectly normal for a program such as this.

Loading in a stereo MP3 displays the waveforms of both the left and right channels allowing you to edit them separately. You can add a multitude of effects to the entire track or just a selected part of the track via the pull down effects menu. All of these effects pop up a window to allow you to tweak the individual effect to your liking.

You can rip straight from a CD into the program, and as MySoundStudio can save out as MP3's you can use the program to store a local copy of your favourite songs with ease. The program is a bit expensive to use this just for ripping the latest Britney album though and would be a waste of all the other more advanced features the program has. But perhaps you have a party arranged and don't want to spend all night playing D.J. Rip your songs from CD to MP3, equalize the sound levels and create a playlist in your favourite MP3 player. You wouldn't even have to adjust the volume; just hit play and party all night long. You could even if you were so inclined cross fade all of the tracks you want into one big song, save it as a .WAV file, burn it to CD, instant party mix! Or how about this, want to cross fade 2 songs, using the beat of one to carry the other, but the tempo is at different speeds. Easily fixed; you can adjust the timing of one song to match the other.

The reverb settings are great, with a little bit of patience you can create a passable 3D effect. A lot of these settings by the way not only have more advanced controls (obtained by switching to the appropriate tab within each effects window) but also presets. So in the case of the reverb, you can set the sound for perhaps a stadium or a church, or simply a small room via a pull down menu.

You don't have to apply the effect to hear it either. All of the effect windows have a preview button, which allows you to hear in realtime how the effect would alter the sound before you apply it. There are also a couple of unique effects, for instance the LoFi effect, which basically adds in to the sound some hiss and crackle as well as a little bit of background noise to create a sound similar to tuning in to a poorly received radio station. A bit useless for most but it is there. You can also clean up sound, so perhaps you have some old records or tapes you would like to convert to MP3 or CD but want to remove any clicks, scratches or hissing.

There is a 10 band Graphic Equalizer which will allow you to tune the individual frequencies of your sound. The editing window will allow you to tweak up to 6 tracks at once which can be a great time saver. Editing and applying effects on more than one track at once is possible again saving time. Once you have the sounds as you want, you can then mix them down to a standard stereo WAV or MP3.

For those of you who have not used a sound editing program before, Stomp, Inc. also have a very comprehensive HTML help file covering everything that the program can do and how to do it (and in most cases why). There are also some great tutorials from how to load/import a file to editing the soundtrack of an .AVI using the preview window for the video. This is an important thing to note as whilst the GUI is nicely laid out and very intuitive using familiar symbols for control, the more advanced features may not be grasped as quickly and easily by all. I did find myself hovering the mouse pointer over certain buttons waiting for a popup to explain its function but alas none was forthcoming. This would be a useful addition and allow user's to learn more quickly all of the program's GUI functions, instead of having to continually go back and read the help files all the time if you get stuck.

Where this program really shows its usefulness however is in its soundtrack editing capabilities. I imported an MPEG1 movie that I had created about 3 months ago (basically a 13min mpeg for my Quake III Arena gaming clan) into MySoundStudio. It displayed the video as a snapshot timeframe above the soundtrack entries below. I was then able to edit the soundtrack in the video how I wanted, in this case, add fade in and out at the appropriate places, some reverb here and there, pan the sound from left to right etc, etc. Having a resizable preview window of the actual video is a great help, in that there was little need to keep previewing it all to make sure that I had edited the sound in the correct place. Once I was happy with the sound, just export the finished article back out as .AVI and it's ready to go. From there I can use any basic video program to convert the finished .AVI to any format I like such as DivX or VCD. Certainly a lot quicker than using a more basic program, and having to make a lot of notes about what the exact time is to adjust it, test it, reload it, adjust it again …………. you get the idea :) (Loading in a DivX film is possible but the higher the quality of the film the more resources it will need to be played, which if your trying to edit it is going to slow down your system quite a bit). Having the extra effects there such as the reverb and pan also lets you use your imagination more and isn't as limiting as just simple fades. MySoundStudio is a very easy and powerful tool to use, giving you some very nice effects that can be individually tweaked to your liking and preferences to create a unique sound or atmosphere of your own.

Conclusions

MySoundStudio is a very useful program for those with a need to edit sound. You can load in an assortment of different formats, including video, to be edited and saved/exported back out. Loading does take a bit longer than most but once it's loaded everything happens pretty much in real-time, even with the big files. You can apply various different effects on up to 6 tracks at once, with each of those effects having there own settings and presets to adjust the sound how you want. The effects can be previewed before applying saving you time in that you don't have to apply the effect, decide you don't like it and then remove it.

The program is a bit of a system hog, but I expected this anyway, most sound/video editing programs are. It was however very quick and responsive throughout which is something that always irritates me in other programs. Whilst the help files are very comprehensive, and there are also some excellent tutorials with sample files, I did feel that some popup help now and then would have been useful. The GUI is for the most part self explanatory on the basic functions but it would have been nice for those not familiar with sound editing programs to have had some on the fly assistance without having to stop what there doing and go take a look at the help files for an explanation. A very useful and easy to use tool, MySoundStudio is not the cheapest sound editing program but it is certainly the most feature rich editor of its class I have used. Many thanks to Stomp, Inc. for supplying the review product.

Pro's
Nice GUI
Rich on features
Each effect has its own settings
Very useful help and tutorial files
Quick and responsive

Con's
No "on the fly" assistance
Loading can be slow

Bottom Line
If you are looking for a sound editing program, you would be well advised to place MySoundStudio at the top of your short list.

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