Multiple Audio Tracks? How to insert additional audio tracks?

gary-o wrote on 5/16/2021, 5:41 PM

I'm fairly new to SF, but I feel that I'm missing something vital. Is SF a single track editor, or can I view (and mix) several tracks, like with Audacity or Vegas Pro? How do I do that? I can't find this feature anywhere and there's no mention of it in the help or tutorials, nor does the product website say that it's a single track or multi-track audio editor.

And if it isn't multi-track then why isn't it? Surely, it's a fairly standard requirement? Today is the first time I wanted to add a musical soundtrack to a voiceover track. I can do it in Vegas of course, or revert to Audacity. But it seems odd and rather cumbersome not to be able to do this directly in SF.

😮

Comments

SP. wrote on 5/16/2021, 6:06 PM

@gary-o Sound Forge is not a multi-track editor. That's how it was designed. But you should be able to use Vegas and send the files to Sound Forge for editing. Both tools work well together.

Rednroll wrote on 5/16/2021, 7:19 PM

@gary-o Sound Forge is not a multi-track editor. That's how it was designed. But you should be able to use Vegas and send the files to Sound Forge for editing. Both tools work well together.


I've always have used Sound Forge as a Mono/Stereo audio editor, and it was a welcome addition when they expanded it to 8 channels so you could work with 7.1 surround files awhile back.

However, I have been somewhat confused when reading through the recent feature additions. Here is one of the highlighted features that confuses me.

"Multichannel sound recording Professional recording on up to 32 channels and resolutions up to 64-bit/768 kHz."

From that description, it certainly sounds like they expanded Sound Forge into a 32 channel multi-track. Any idea what they mean by that feature description, because I'm confused as well?
 

emmrecs wrote on 5/17/2021, 3:56 AM

@Rednroll

As @SP. wrote, SF is not a multitrack editor. "Multitrack" means that the user can start by recording one "track" and then add additional tracks by listening to the already-recorded tracks and "playing/singing along" ("overdubbing").

"Multichannel" means that the software can handle the outputs of multiple already-recorded tracks, e.g. if you are dealing with some level of Surround Sound you can direct the output of each channel to a different speaker.

For what it's worth, I rather agree that the statement Professional recording on up to 32 channels is potentially very confusing!

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gary-o wrote on 12/5/2023, 7:55 PM

@Rednroll

For what it's worth, I rather agree that the statement Professional recording on up to 32 channels is potentially very confusing!

Thanks. I switched from Vegas Suite to Edit because SF wasn't much use to me as a single-track editor. I recently looked at upgrading and was trying to decide whether to go for SF Pro because it supports 32 channels (which I thought meant tracks). You've saved me from wasting my time on this.

Jeesh, even Audacity supports unlimited audio tracks (all you need is RAM).

Vegas isn't really useful for audio editing, although I like the feature of being able to move and sync media clips around over multiple tracks. Neither SF nor Vegas supports seamless integration with apps like Izotope (except perhaps in a very limited way).

I worked backwards, looking at the audio editing software I use and finding a compatible DAW - and discovered Avid Pro Tools. The free version supports 6 tracks, which is adequate for most projects, the $100 p.a. version supports 32 tracks.

There are plenty of alternative DAWs other than SF that are multitrack and integrate nicely with Izotope and other plugins and around the same price too. Hopefully a future version of SF will support these features.

SP. wrote on 12/6/2023, 2:37 AM

@gary-o Sound Forge is better suited as as an audio file editor for already recorded files or as an mastering tool. For example if you use field recorders, like the ones from Zoom, which have multiple microphones and can record in Surround format. In that regard, editing recorded sound effects or interviews, Sound Forge might be a quicker solution than multitrack DAWs, especially thanks to its scripting capabilities.

rraud wrote on 12/6/2023, 4:48 PM

Neither Sound Forge nor Vegas supports seamless integration with apps like Izotope (except perhaps in a very limited way).

Hi @gary-o, I am not sure what you mean by 'seamless'. Sound Forge Pro (SFP) is modal, so plug-ins can be previewed and applied in a number of ways and most of a plug-in parameters can be automated and saved. Neither SF or Vegas can display multiple plug-in windows simultaneously though if that is what you mean.

Vegas isn't really useful for audio editing, although I like the feature of being able to move and sync media clips around over multiple tracks.

SF also has an 'Event' mode, so clips can be moved around the timeline like Vegas with auto or manual x-fades and ripple edits.

SF also has a 'mix' feature.. but not in the sense of overdubbing, it is more like sound-on-sound, a copied audio segment can be mixed into existing audio. The volumes of the clipboard file and destination can be adjusted as well.