Editing Programs

[bottomfeeder]

I'm new to experimental/noise/whatever and was wondering what people might recommend for editing programs for laptops/PC?

[Levas]

Audacity is pretty good and free, and open source etc.

[Half Aborted]

Reaper is by far the best free option.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I also vote for Reaper. Free, easy, potential to use from simple things to highest quality professional work.
Before this I was doing all with... ehm, some wintage cracked version of Cool Edit? After strong recommendations from several Finnish noise masters, I decided to give it a try.
Perhaps there is one flaw in Reaper. It is almost TOO easy to use, and all sorts of functions that would allow people to make "ok'ish noise" are so simple and fast, one needs to be cautious to not allow computer technology to take too big role in creation.

[tiny_tove]

For cut and paste I have been using Sound Forge since version 1 I think and still find myself pretty well with it. But might be for a matter of habit.
For assembling mixing I am used to work with Cubase. For a couple of years I moved to pro tools, but now I am using Logic most of the time.

Reaper sounds very good.

For Mac I use both Sound Forge and Audio Bias peak.

[linxtyx]

Sound Forge for cut/paste, work with single samples.
Sony ACID for mastering.
Willing to try Reaper though.

[tisbor]

Before this I was doing all with... ehm, some wintage cracked version of Cool Edit?

Those were the good times!

Reaper is very good and fairly simple.
Pro Tools and Cubase are great, but require lots of work. Logic is a bit simpler but I didn't like it much.

[pentd]

reaper to the grave for me

splitting hairs here: many listed here are not editing programs like in the original question. keep in mind you sometimes need an editor that will actually manipulate (= destructive editing) the source file. as in chopping a piece out of it or correcting dc offset. for these kinda works you will need wavosaur, audacity, sound forge, peak, etc...

old classic: check out what happens if you take some file and change the extension to wav... here you also might need to reopen it in an editor instead of foobar/itunes etc

edit: everyone should buy a reaper licence. its a stinky 50usd to support the most flexible ninja tool for digital audio ever. it does all +more of the stuff that programs with a tenfold pricetag do.. and its portable, you can run it floating, no need to install solidly!! i been to protools studios and popped in my usb stikk to work with them hd rigs, you should have seen the faces of the studio owners

also: theres a free older version of audition floating round the www which is a good editor and has xlent restoration tools (hiss + crackle filters... its the opposite of whats needed in noise haha, but still, sometimes you need to clean up vinyl rips or cassette transfers)

[Andrew McIntosh]

Has anyone had much luck using Audacity as a multi-track recorder?

[dietsociety]

I've used Audacity as a multitrack recorder - it's clunky but doable. Here's where I learned everything I needed to know: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Multichannel_Recording

[Andrew McIntosh]

Thank you. Clunky indeed, might undermine the programme's simplicity but I'd like to give it a go.

[C601]

Wavlab, best i've ever used

[dietsociety]

Thank you. Clunky indeed, might undermine the programme's simplicity but I'd like to give it a go.

It's fine if you want to just set multiple tracks at appropriate levels, but if you want to automate volume changes, or group channels, you will certainly curse your choice. I know I did!

[ligature impression]

Has anyone had much luck using Audacity as a multi-track recorder?

I did try to use Audacity to multitrack years ago, but so much editing is destructive and the controls sucked. I started to hate it.
I've used Reaper exclusively ever since. Smooth, intuitive, and there aren't really any tools to create or sculpt noise, at least none that I know of. I really like it.

[Xtematic]

Try GoldWawe :

http://www.goldwave.com