Soundtrack Pro

[Paul South]

This program comes in Final Cut Studio. Is it a useful one to know, or are there other things out there that blow it away?

[Melvin Torrens]

Very useful, I never use Final Cut to edit sound since Soundtrack is a lot better for that purpose. There are other options like http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/ (more focused on music) but for me Soundtrack does everything I need.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Originally Posted by Melvin Torrens

Very useful, I never use Final Cut to edit sound since Soundtrack is a lot better for that purpose. There are other options like http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/ (more focused on music) but for me Soundtrack does everything I need.

Funny enough, Soundtrack Pro is ALSO included in the Logic package...

if it's for video: go for Soundtrack Pro.
As Melvin said, Logic is a good package, but for musicians.

[Martin Pauly]

Originally Posted by Paul South

Is it a useful one to know, or are there other things out there that blow it away?

It's very useful. A lot more functionality and much better control over your audio than what's built into Final Cut, such as
- noise removal
- surround panning
- tons of effects
- easy access to the provided sound effects, jingles, etc.
- ability to keyframe effect parameters (Soundtrack calls them "envelope points")

In my workflow, I usually start in Soundtrack Pro with cleaning up the recorded audio and sometime use a little compression or normalization, then go to Final Cut to edit the sequence, and then return to Soundtrack Pro for the finishing audio touches (i.e., finalizing music and sound effects, mixing, reverb, surround panning, etc.).

Are there better things out there? I am sure there are - many professionals won't work with anything but ProTools - but I happen to own Soundtrack Pro, and it does what I need. Well worth spending time with!

- Martin