Adobe Announces Beta Release of Soundbooth

Adobe Systems has announced the beta release of a new audio editing program called Soundbooth.

Adobe made the recent announcement at the MAX 2006 Adobe user conference in Las Vegas. The company is touting Soundbooth as an alternative to their current audio editing program, Audition.

Unlike Audition, which was designed for audio professionals, Soundbooth targets web designers and video editors who may not have extensive knowledge of audio editing by streamlining tasks into a simpler and more user-friendly form. (Source: news.com)

Hart Shafer, Senior Product Manager for audio products at Adobe, offers Soundbooth as an answer to evolving industry demands: "Video and flash professionals are being asked to do more and more with audio. The person cutting video is being asked to do more audio work before it goes to the audio expert."

Shafer also says that the idea with Soundbooth is that the user can learn the program mainly by using it, rather than having to spend time pouring over a manual. (Source: zdnet.com)

While Soundbooth retains many of Audition's aesthetics, its workings are quite different. Adobe has created Soundbooth to be strong in both functionality and ease of use. The result is a program which is more task-oriented rather than tool-oriented, as Audition is. (Source: pcworld.com)

Make no mistake -- Soundbooth is not just a mundane "audio editing for dummies" kind of program. Adobe has high hopes for their new product. The company plans to continue developing Soundbooth and eventually offer it as a standalone product for professionals in areas such as broadcast radio. (Source: nforcershq.com)

Soundbooth will work on Intel-based Macs and on some machines with Windows XP and Vista, and will be included in the next edition of Creative Suite. Adobe is expecting the program to be ready next year, and says that it will cost less than Audition, which currently runs for $349 US. (Source: news.com)

The free beta version of Adobe Soundbooth is available for download at:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/