Waveform Editors

The waveform editors listed here handle all the basic tasks similarly, and the more expensive commercial ones often provide better quality for more complex operations such as sample rate reduction. Many provide limited demo versions you can first download and use to get a feel for whether it's worth paying for. There are decidedly fewer waveform editor downloads when compared, for instance, to players. This makes sense when you think just how much more complicated it is to create a waveform editor then a player. However, a search for "waveform editors" does bring up many interesting Web sites, and some of these sites also offer extra education and information relevant to the use (and abuse) of digital audio.

• Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Linux/FreeBSD, Windows, Macintosh.

• CoolEdit (Syntrillium Software) www.cooledit.com. Windows.

• Ecawave (Kai Vehmanen) www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv/ecawave. Linux.

• GoldWave (GoldWave Inc.) www.goldwave.com. Windows.

• Peak (Bias Inc.) www.bias-inc.com. Macintosh .

• Sound Forge (Sonic Foundry) www.sonicfoundry.com. Windows.

• SoundEdit (Macromedia) www.macromedia.com. Macintosh.

• WaveForm Editor http://linux.davecentral.com/projects/waveformeditor/. Linux.

• WaveLab (Steinberg) www.steinberg.net. Windows.

• DMOZ Audio Editors Directory www.dmoz.org/Computers/Multimedia/Music_and_Audio/Software/Editors.