Soundprobe 2.64 review:
Although today an audio editor is not necessary, as today's sequencers offer
lots of editing capabilities, I do suggest for you to get one, it is just good
fun messing around with your loops, adding sonic textures with effects, making your loops tighter, making
a good loop from many mis-takes, this essentially what an audio editor does.
Soundprobe differs from other audio editors by price mainly : only at The first time you fire up Soundprobe it looks quite plain, but behind the plain interface is a fully blown audio editor which can edit files over 3 gigabytes at a maximum rate of 32 bits and 96 kHz. Most of the features are hidden from first looks, and only later with exploring will you find that there are lot's of things you can do : Change views, Create Tones, Mix left and right channels and do a numerous other processes that will help you master your song/loops. The possibilities with the many effects provided with the software are numerous and mostly produce excellent sonic textures to the edited material. New with Soundprobe 2.5 is the ability to load more plugins such as freeverb from the internet. I have loaded all of the plugins available at Soundprobe's site and I can say that they are not the best plugins in the program, but are rather an add to Soundprobe's already strong arsenal of effects. Unfortunately, the piece of software is not totally flawless. Although the program has good effects, it doesn't have enough presets. Some of the effects don't have any and most have just a few. This is a real disappointment. Of course you can make your own, but many users, like me want to have presets from professionals who have the 'ultimate' knowledge of the software. When there are very little presets, it's hard to say are the effects good or not. I would say that they are a mix. Some are very good while others aren't so good. I can think of a better Direct X effect for most of the effects in Soundprobe, but not at the same price and not in such a good environment. After all I would say that Soundprobe can be used as a professional editing tool, although I would use something else, that costs much more and doesn't offer a lot more. If you don't have much money to spare and you're looking for a sound editor that can achieve almost professional results, here it is! Hisoft have given out some information on future updates; At least there is going to be Direct X support, but the release dates of these updates have gone out of hand (just like on this website). Lot has been promised and I would say that when this baby hits version 3.0 it's going to be good... The price of Soundprobe is perfect against it's features. There is little to complain about. This software is superb except it's missing that kind of finished touch, that is partly because of the low amount of presets and on the other hand it feels like it is under construction. With all of the add-ons on the web, Soundprobe has a feel of "Half-way there". Why can't all the things like MP3 support be put inside the program. Having to download and look for all the .dlls is a pain. Verdict: The overall impression is good, but Soundprobe misses that little touch. At ver. 2.69 it is a very good piece of software which I can recommend to any beginner or a little more advanced person with a tight budget. 
Update ver.2.51->2.64 : Some little updates on graphics, supported audio plugins and some small fixes, nothing big, yet. Mark affect of update is 0. Update ver.2.69 : VST support and lots of good fixes and tweaks. Mark affect of update is 0.25. 7.75 Reviewed by Aleksi Haapajoki |
