Acon Digital Media Releases Acoustica Premium Edition 4.1 and Acoustica 4.1

Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 15, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.

Acoustica, the audio editor widely praised by the trade press for its feature set and ease of use, was released in version 4.1 on April 30. The intermediate update includes a range of new high-quality features. The expanded set ranges from a new guitar-amplifier effect with fuzz and distortion, through the removal of unwanted noise in loops, to batch processing—for format conversion, changing sample formats, or applying effects and plug-ins to multiple files in one step. The function for mixing sound material from the clipboard into existing recordings has been extended with level control, and sampler-compatible loops can now be set for the first time. With Acoustica 4.1, users can convert file formats in one step, process multiple files with effects or plug-ins, and change sample formats. The Multiband Compressor included in the Premium version allows the dynamic behaviour of a recording to be adjusted precisely in four separate frequency ranges and checked directly with the preview function.

Acoustica 4.1 is available as a boxed version directly from the manufacturer or as an electronic software download from April 30 at http://www.acondigital.de. The base version is priced at €30, as were its predecessors; the Premium Edition costs €90. Registered users of Acoustica 4.0 and Acoustica 4 Premium Edition receive the intermediate update free of charge.

“We are pleased to give Acoustica users further creative freedom with the new version,” explained Stian Aagedal at the launch. “In doing so, we consistently pursue our philosophy of providing ambitious home users and beginners with a tool that lets them perform sound editing conveniently and at a very fair price.” Version 4.1 adds nine new effects and editing areas to the Acoustica audio editor. The Multiband Compressor, available only in the Premium Edition, provides a high-quality tool in an affordable price range, enabling the dynamic behaviour of audio in four frequency ranges with adjustable crossover frequencies to be precisely influenced and directly checked using its preview function.

New features at a glance

· Batch processing for converting file formats, changing sample formats, and processing multiple files with effects or plug-ins

· Multiband Compressor for precise loudness maximization of recordings (Premium version only)

· Improvements and extensions to the Decrackler algorithm of the click filter (Premium version only)

· Distortion with the new guitar-amplifier effect featuring fuzz and distortion

· Loop information in WAV files—creation of sampler-compatible WAV files with loop information

· Crossfaded loops without unwanted noise at transitions

· Grid lines in the selected area

· Improved mixing with clipboard contents

· FreeDB support—download of title and album information via the internet during CD ripping

· Keyboard shortcuts for adding named markers and range markers

Target users

· Musicians

· Sound experimenters

· Music enthusiasts

· Editors for radio productions

Supported file formats

WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AIFF, and AU, as well as audio import from WMV, AVI, and MPEG videos

Language

German, English

System requirements

Windows Vista, XP

Pentium III or higher

Minimum 256 MB RAM

Windows-compatible sound card

DirectX 8.0 or later