Monday, March 7, 2011

Comparing Song Surgeon vs Audacity


Audacity is a free, open source software for recording, mixing and editing sound. Although it is not nearly as sophisticated (or expensive) as something like PRO Tools, Audacity is a decent editing and mixing piece of software.  It is also reasonably easy to use.  Contained within the list of feature and functions in Audacity is the ability to change tempo and pitch. Although Audacity does perform these functions the quality of the resulting product is particularly good.  It allows you to change tempo without changes pitch… but the pitch change does change the tempo. In addition the sound quality of the changed song or segment leaves a lot to be desired.

A comparison between Song Surgeon and Audacity is perhaps inappropriate because there is not a lot of overlap in their functionalities.  However, since the focus of this article is on Pitch and Tempo change software, we will provide a comparison of the two applications on this basis. 

The new release of Song Surgeon, Version 3.0, contains dramatic changes and improvements from earlier versions.   Version 3 is available in both a Standard and a PRO model.   Because Song Surgeon is NOT a recording and mixing software it is more singularly focused upon pitch and tempo change, looping and exporting of edited files. Here are just a few examples of some the things found in the PRO version of Song Surgeon (SS) that are not found, or cannot be done in Audacity.
ü Two Algorithms – SS contains 2 time stretching algorithms to accomplish pitch and tempo change.  This maximizes sound quality and provides distortion-free audio even at extreme changes.
ü Pitch and tempo change independent of each other
ü Multiple Loop Areas – SS enables you to set an unlimited number of loop areas, not one.
ü Each loop area can have its own unique settings these including the loop count and delay.
ü In addition to exporting the entire song or file, SS enables you to export one loop areas and/or all loop areas with the individual settings for each loop applied.
ü Sniffer Technology – SS contains our proprietary sniffer technology which finds the links of audio and video files you play in your browser and helps you download this for use in the program. 

While the slow down technology remains the most commonly used feature found in these types of programs, and musicians remain the most common users, the new version of Song Surgeon with its many new functionalities will certainly open the door to use in many other fields such as dance, exercise classes, transcription, Karaoke, translation, and worship music to name a few.

While there has been some discussion and suggestion of augmenting and modifying Song Surgeon’s capabilities to include recording and mixing, like Audacity, this is not currently being contemplated for the next version.



The bottom line is that if you are looking for software for recording and mixing, then Song Surgeon is not for you.  But, if you are looking for a top notch slow downer software that is best-in-class, then Song Surgeon is that product.  The limited and poor quality of these functions in Audacity don’t even merit comparison, unless your budget is $0.  In that case we still wouldn’t suggest Audacity, rather download and use the Song Surgeon demo- and use it judiciously.

Song Surgeon provides a 4-hour fully functional working demo.  Four hours may seem like a lot of time, but we caution you to close the program when not using it to preserve this time.  We also suggest that you watch the training videos found on the website before using the program, as these will help you get up to speed quickly with the operations of this very useful software.  You can download the DEMO version from here.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

All In One Audio Tool: Slow Down Music Software, Mp3 Tone And Slow

After performing a Google search on the phrase "slow down music" more than 4 million pages of results displayed. The first three pages are filled with products of the company and has the ability to slow music and good height. As I said earlier, that could slow the pace of a song can be very useful at times. This is because "Eruption" when I'm sitting on my stereo and try to decipher what the exact note is that Eddie Van Halen because I played slow. Just trying to find what he plays in all of its shredding and fingertapping that's not an easy task. And the technology has the potential slow down the tempo to half speed is invaluable.

When I was in for many years I made a few plays in many problems of musical instruments, you can not hear certain things I learned to play the song by ear. If you've ever sat down and tried to learn an instrument is part of the bill note (or chord to chord), you've learned how difficult it is. But thanks to the technical capacity to slow down music, songs, audio, CD, etc., is much easier sometimes.

Although there are many music file formats such as WAV, MP3, MP4, WMA and others. MP3 files are probably the most popular and therefore very interested in how to slow down mp3, and sing. But you know, is not really important, because most slow in all these programs work in different file formats.

My favorite program to slow the music or songs Surgeon Song. It has many interesting features. At the most fundamental is that when you change the pitch or tempo, even to the extreme there is no sound distortion, it is very clear. But beyond the basics, this program is truly multi-faceted:

 You can create loop points, each with different parameters.

 You can export your changes and make them fixed and portable

 You can edit wave files so you can easily create custom lessons.

 contains two algorithms to optimize sound quality

 You can download audio and video over the Internet

Song Surgeon also offers a fully functional, trial of 4-hour free so that you can try before you buy.

When all the advances in music technology, many more people who do not usually able to play music, can now find a way to play the songs they always wanted. The neighbors are still unhappy now my guitar loud obnoxious, but at least I can play the songs that really a good way, I think.