One-trick ponies can provide sound fixes
Frankly, audio engineering used to be a thankless profession. When the engineers did their job correctly, no one was aware of their accomplishments. No one realised the engineers' efforts in creating perfect sound. Everyone's attention focused on the artist or the art.
Recently, millions of people have started creating movies, songs, and other audio-related projects on their Macs. Consequently, they are gaining an appreciation for the subtleties of the profession.
For instance, the sound of a car engine in the background can ruin any video scene or music cut. Or if a song's volume differs enough from one scene to the next, that could irritate both you and the audience.
Both iMovie and iTunes do an admirable job of automatically controlling the audio, but if you are serious in your creative endeavours you will not be content until your projects are perfect.
Knowing this and understanding that any solution must be as simple as the applications that got you this far (iMovie and iTunes), a number of software developers have come up with one-trick ponies that free you from becoming an audio engineer when you would rather focus on your project.
I shot a video of my son taking his flying lessons and when I got home most of the footage had the whine of a jet in the background. Sound Soap kept me from having to reshoot the whole thing.
Once a person has made a video, creating the perfect music sound track can be a tricky affair. People, generally, only want music without lyrics and it is nice to have something that is not only appropriate rhythm-wise, but that is also exactly the same length as the scene in question.
Movie Maestro is quite simple. Based upon the content of the video, you select the style you want, choose from a few samples, and then tell Movie Maestro how long you want the tune to be. It does the rest.
It not only has an excellent tutorial built into the interface, it also automatically walks you through each step necessary to create a perfect sound track.
Toast is the pre-eminent disk burning software tool - simple, controllable, and versatile; if you need to go beyond iTunes' burn capability then this is the solution. Jam is for arranging tracks and creating smooth endings for your songs.
It also makes sure that each song on your CD is the same volume as the next so you do not jump out of your seat when a particularly loud track starts.
Peak LE is a light version of Peak 4, which is probably the most popular sound-editing tool. Peak LE allows you to enhance, clean up, and/or apply special effects to your music. It accommodates VST type audio plug-ins, which can improve or add dimension to your sounds.
The thing that keeps most people from practicing guitar is not knowing how to tune it. This guitar-tuning tool is perfect and since it is shareware you can use it until you feel it is worth the US$5 asked for it. With your guitar in tune, your music will sound better, making you more likely to practice.
If you try any of these apps, you will quickly learn to appreciate how these one-trick ponies can make your musical life easier and more harmonious.
