Simple to use with a nice interface and many options for detailed control. The presets offered are very well predefined. I need no tutorial to complete all the operations I want.

It's a more polished equivalent to Audacity (which I've been using for years), but has less features (ie. there's no vocal remover feature). Makes you wonder why they bother charging for it... Unless they forgot to do the research on popular free alternatives, such as Audacity :-D

Very good software besides it doesnt support .midi files

Very nice works really well better then most products out there.
Would be good if it supported .midi files tho.

i'm a professional audio engineer and producer... obviously, i've purchased pro-level software for my business, but i've tried out several quality freeware/shareware programs... i'm not a big fan of "audacity", as some others have mentioned, but i think it has a better feature set. Another great option is "Reaper" found at http://www.reaper.fm/
Both of these titles offer a more rich feature set than today's giveaway, with great audio quality (yes, i can hear the software)... and with a more established software company. There are a couple little features that this giveaway has that i think are a little better implemented than "audacity" does, but as others have mentioned, all the updates for the free/shareware options are going to be freely available, unlike this giveaway, and, overall, they also do a better job. If you have a few bucks to spend, i think Mackie is selling "Tracktion 2" for about $30, now that they've got version 3 out... it's a fantastic program.
As for #15's comment about built-in burning capabilities... are you serious? Who doesn't know how to burn an audio CD? Newer Windows versions ship with the necessary software (Windows Media Player) which anyone can download; not to mention the myriad of free burning software out there. The truth is, having that built into the software actually bloats the software, making it use more RAM than just what is needed to record the audio... and having more RAM available is vital to recording quality audio. There's no real professional audio software out there that includes burning from within the program... it's often an additional program that is called from within the recording software, but they are wise enough not to combine the two. It's far better to have use a quality purpose built program to perform each of those separate tasks.
Just my 2 cents... well... i normally charge a lot more than that!

Check this out:
Tools>Audio Recorder>Settings>Automatic Gain Control>What is this?>The Audio Recorder>Audio recording, step by step>Connecting the source>
under TIPS:
"More information (including pictures) on connecting sound sources like an LP or cassette player to your computer, can be found on our Internet site at this address:
http://www.color7tech.com/HowToConnect.htm"
(this particular page seems to have been removed)

Have SEDSystems stolen Audio Recorder bit from color7tech "our Internet site"?

For those who might need information regarding connecting source to PC could visit http://www.polderbits.com/HowToConnect.htm

Sorry for the lateness as I discovered it in the last hour.

Installed on XP SP2 just fine. Activated using tip from #30 (Thanks) regarding company name. About window shows it is licensed to me. Did PC search for "Registry Clean Fix 2008" & found nothing. No pop-ups from spyware programs. I also have Audacity, but it's always fun to try new things, especially for free. Thanks GOTD.

I'm using Vista Ultimate x64 and had no problem at all.

I fully agree with others here, this program isn't half as good as Audacity. And come on, who doesn't have a way to burn cd's already? SED only has stereo recording? No multi tracks? Wow, I feel like I'm taking a step back with this program. I mean really, with the completely free Audacity around you've got to have something better to offer for $29.95! Plain and simple, Audacity blows this app out of the water. I won't be wasting my time with SED unless they add A LOT more to this app. I would consider paying, but only if it's better than the FREEWARE that's already out there.

I have to disagree about the comment made about the "free" issue. Simply put, this is proprietary software, which under normal conditions; one must pay a fee to use. As such, the usefulness of the product should reflect what would need to be paid for. With that said Sound Editor Deluxe should be of higher quality then Audacity in order to justify the price. Be it features or rather higher levels of achievement possible. One of the biggest drawbacks I see with this product is the lack of add-ons, plug-ins, and extensions. Audacity has many extras, and so does pay products like fruity loop. But Audacity is open source. Another free alternative is Kristal Audio Engine and check out dontcrack.com for some great add-ons.

I would NOT advise anyone to install this program! It has numerous issues, not just the the ones stated in posts, #2, #4, #10, #14, #17 and #18. This is not a false positive, I do not use any free software for security! I am an expert Malware removal tech and computers are my business! I have always made it a habit to save to my desktop before opening or installing ANYTHING! I right click and select scsn for virus as well. Live One Care reported both a trojan as well as unwanted "bundled" software when scanned. Post #24 It is all too true, I agree! Post #31, I believe that goat belongs to you under that bridge! Post #35 I agree! Post #38, you are way off base. Post #40, Do you have a clue? Post #41, Shame on YOU! I have downloaded and used many of the free give away of the day products, this company, in my opinion has an agenda, and I have never, nor will I ever use anything from them! Just my two cents, my ten cents are always free!

#10 and anyone else thinking there maybe spyware in these programs.

I'm afraid the answer is not so simple - There have been a couple of programs from GAOTD that have "questionable" programs in there, but nothing else - The problems are:

1) Not all anti-malware companies can agree on whether some types of software are malware or not. The bad guys are getting very good at treading the line between acceptable and unacceptable.

2) Most anti-malware programs work by matching a bit of a programs code with a known bad section of code (say opening a port silently to connect with a server serruptiously). Sometimes though a perfectly innocent bit of code to check for updates or to play games over the internet can be similar enough to a sample of a bad code to set off your security programs. This is called a "false positive" and seems to be what is happening here.

You should be perfectly safe to download and run this program, it appreas to just be a false positive. For all the faith we put in our security programs, they are not an exact science. Sadly even the best do not get all the bad guys by any means and even worse, they do occasionally flag good ones as bad.

>Ryan

"To all those saying that Audacity does this for free: this program is FREE for today too. So that is not a valid argument. It’s nice to let others know of alternatives, but the “this program costs too much” or whatever argument doesn’t work because THE PROGRAM IS FREE FOR TODAY.” Sorry, had to get that out."

Actually, it is valid. Think about it - if the developers released this program as freeware, it wouldn't be on the site. If it wasn't on the site, then something else that would actually be worth money would be offered. If somebody wanted a sound editor, then they'd just get Audacity - it's probably the best-known sound editor ever.

People feel ripped-off when they have to go to a GIVEAWAY site to get something that should be free in the first place.

How many tracks will this software allow you to mix?

Which is better, this or audacity?

#5 and #9! How can you say that Audacity is the same as Sound Editor Delux? I tried Audacity and uninstalled it. It is slower, and doesnt have a burner built in! I wasted my time trying Audacity. Todays freebie is a keeper! I like it very much! Thanks GAOTD!!

i install and say unrigeter. i fill in key and name fleds. then i click register agians and soys that i run trail version. what do wrong? how i fix? i install and install. no work??? i reaily wants to tie this. can peoples helped mes.? plas!

#18

Had same issue with Vista. However, I kept clicking ignore (I know, playing w/Fire) but after about 10 clicks or so, it installed. I pasted the reg key and it's working fine.

#10: After installing, I scanned my Temp files with Avast and there is no sign of any malware. I'm thinking either false positive or the temp file is from something else.

To #45 and #48 re my #39 post about anonymizing voices. Thank you
l-o-a-d-s for the advice of using their words in someone else's voices. I thought I was being paranoid for thinking that changes of pitch and such could be undone, but apparently I was not. I will purchase a good text-to-speech voice instead, and repitch it for variety; looks like I'd best junk the originals afterward, too, d@mmit. It will feel weird not having anything of the original source files, should I need to verify that I indeed, had source files ... but I don't see any other way. In any case, thanks for the blunt and timely advice and sorry for the delay ... Easter brunch and all that :) TWNG

Yes we all know about Audacity, but this does have a more intuitive feel about it than Audacity.

I always found Audacity to be excellent, but kinda clunky. I am always on the lookout for simple, specialized programs that do their certain task faster than Audacity.

The biggest con I found was that adding filters decreased the gain significantly. You can alter Gain easily with programs such as MP3 Gain, but we all know what happens when you tweak gain to high, BUUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZ.

#39, #45 is spot on,you MUST use actors' voices for your project and state as such, to use real voices, even disguised ones, is unimaginably potentially dangerous and is not worth the risk of the consequences. Please use a voice actor (the same one) throughout and clearly state that this is what you are doing. Better still get a Text to Speech program that uses Natural Voices.

The best such sound editor we have personally used is the open-source Audacity, published under the GNU license so is constantly updated with more and more features by developers worldwide as opposed to the limitationsof just one developer.

Full list of features, screenshots and downloads can be gotten here http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Their website says that this program comes with a pop/click filter but I cannot find it. What the heck....?

I have a lot of audio interviews in which the interviewee needs to be anonymous for reasons of personal safety (for a research project I’m working on). I have been searching for a cost-effective way to disguise audio voices in these interviews

Hey, BE CAREFUL! You need to get professional advice. You have no idea how easy it is for some half-baked amateur scheme to be undone - almost any transformation you can apply can be reversed, and even if you down-sample horrendously to a very low quality signal before transforming (the only transformation that can't be easily undone) the human ear/brain is still pretty good at making sense of minimal information like accent and inflection.

In fact probably the only safe thing to do is transcribe the speech and have someone else re-read it.

i'm serious. If this is a University project you need to take this to your ethics committee *and* your info security people. If there really are consequences of an identity-leak you could put people inb danger very easily without realising.

#43. My computer took a bad surge last week. I am waiting for a new machine to arrive from Dell this week. So, that means I've lost all of my GOTD programs unless I want to purchase them.

I'm one of the people waiting to hear about #10's concern. I had posted this (I would have been post #21), but it appears to not have been approved, perhaps because it was a me, too, post. I can't recall having done anything to get banned from the site. It is unfortunate that posts like that get deleted. I'm here checking out programs because people come to me for advice. If devs are prevented from getting a sense of how many people now view their software as compromised, GOTD is doing them a disservice.

People have made many statements about Audacity. I've never been comfortable with Audacity. It is slow and I don't like the way it handles many tasks--cue marks, in particular. I stick with CoolEdit 2000 even though it will never again be updated in that form because I find it much more convenient than Audacity and I am not about to recommend that people spend hundreds of dollars for CoolEdit's successor, Adobe Audition. It would have been very useful for me and SED Systems for me to load the program on my laptop to get some basic experience.

Virtual Machines are nice, but not everything runs properly under them.

To all those saying that Audacity does this for free: this program is FREE for today too. So that is not a valid argument. It's nice to let others know of alternatives, but the "this program costs too much" or whatever argument doesn't work because THE PROGRAM IS FREE FOR TODAY." Sorry, had to get that out.

Sorry to deviate from the product a bit but I was interested in comment 33 - 'Microsoft Virtual PC'. This sounds like a great idea for those who download a lot of stuff but the only fall back is memory. I checked it out and an example is: Windows XP Home Edition, minimum memory 128MB, Minimum hard-disk space 2GB. More here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/sysreq.mspx

Shame, but. . .

We keep getting posts on here about GOTD "suspect" software -- posts that could put people off even downloading. Yet today as before, the fears that are raised have nothing to do with the software and everything to do with the state of the poster's own PC.

To be honest, it ought to be routine now for everyone to have at least two decent freeware apps on their systems so as to preclude them raising false alarms on here: Revo Uninstaller, for being completely rid of unwanted software, and Steve Gould's Cleanup!, as fast as it is free (and in my experience, less aggressive, yet equally as effective as CrapCleaner).

I use Revo to rid this system of unwanted installs, whilst at the end of every browsing session I hit the Cleanup! icon in my toolbar for high-speed system cleansing. As Cleanup! blasts through (on average) in 15 seconds, daily housekeeping of this nature is hardly a chore. . .

If only people would do the same, or similar, with their own computers, there'd surely be less "criticism" of GOTD offerings that are, in fact, entirely blameless.

As to today's offering: downloaded OK and runs fine on XP SP2. I'm getting to grips with it right now so this post isn't meant to serve as an exhaustive summary of my experience but hopefully something of use to anyone unfamiliar with the usefulness of combinations such as Revo and Cleanup!. . .

. . . and who may have thought today's offering was in some way compromised because of earlier false alarms on this comment board.

In answer to some comments.
1) It does activate.
2) There is no nasty in this program, none!
3) “eTrust Pest Patrol”? Give us a break please!
4) Virtual System, Hell yes! Great idea!
5) If you don't need it, don't download it!
6) If you vote, please comment.
7) Thanks for the download. I like it fine.
8) Lastly, enough said!

I have a lot of audio interviews in which the interviewee needs to be anonymous for reasons of personal safety (for a research project I'm working on). I have been searching for a cost-effective way to disguise audio voices in these interviews. #06 said that you can add effects such as robotic with this software. Obviously, that effect would be inappropriate for my needs -- but does anybody know if SED provides a way of doing that nonrobotically? Or can recommend a software that can? Yes, I know this is a slight veer from topic, but, as #15 said, no single software does everything! I know I can alter pitch, etc. with Audacity, but I'm looking for something more. Thanks for any answers ... you're my favorite go-to community :)

OK, if you don't like, want or need it, don't download it. As to testing, I am a beta tester for a few software companies like Netgate and Kaspersky so I don't mind at all.
#33, very useful comment for those unfamiliar with virtual system. I use "Returnil Virtual System 2008" (free version), thus I have no need for concern when installing any give away program. Install of this one and subsequent search for “Registry Cleaner Fix 2008″ brought no results. Turning off system protection in Returnil and restart, the program was gone. Easier then installing and uninstalling when you don't like or have no need for the program offered here.
Just unpacking and installing many programs will leave temp files. Example: I use the last release of "Nero 7". Unpacking, install, restart, clean with a good history cleaner and theres 622+ MB temp files deleted. I suggest a getting a good history cleaner to take care of your concerns about left over temp files. Any decent, free virtual system program and a history cleaner, your all set to try anything you like without damaging, infecting or leaving temp files in your system.

Thanks to Phil from Comment #15 about the comparison between this software and Audacity. When I first saw the interface I did immediately think of Audacity, but it seems this software does have that extra function of burning (CDs?) that Audacity doesn't have (at the moment I guess)

I'm running Vista Home Premium...I tried installing, and it tells me "Microsoft Register has stopped working..." and then this: http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1672/picft1.jpg The program registered fine, but when I launch the program, it tells me "Library not registered". I press ok, then it tells me "Unspecified error". I press ok yet again, and it goes back to "Library not registered", and it never goes away. I can't use the program either because of that dialogue box. Any help or suggestions?

I don't usually post but I have to say any software you plan install from NCH software should be done after careful investigation because their software (and they have quite a few - 72 on download.com) looks great but you may just be getting more than you think you are getting when you install their software. You will most likely get something extra.

For me NCH means No Customer Here.

P.S. After all this time You have got to be freaking kidding me that GOTD give NCH play here. Just my opinion. Use your own judgment.

Does anybody know how this compares to the "Cool Edit Record Pro" program offered a few weeks ago? I've been quite impressed with C.E.R.P. in the time I've been using it, but would gladly make a switch. Thanks to GAOTD, and have a blessed Easter.

#28 (and others) - Download and install Microsoft VirtualPC. It is a free download and lets you run a virtual PC (hmmm...well THAT'S how they came up with the name!) on your computer. The nice thing is that it lets you roll back your changes every time you power it down. I use this every day to install the GOTD offering *before* installing it onto my workstation. This gives me the opportunity to test it and see if I will actually use it, but more importantly if it messes anything up. If I like it, it goes on my workstation for good. If I don't like it, I just power down the VM and it's like nothing ever happened.

Interestingly enough, you'll find that by doing this that MOST of the problems people experience are NOT a result of the GOTD offereings since every single application I have installed this way works fine. It most likely is something else on your workstation causing the problem!

Thanks GOTD. You are my Easter Egg every morning!

Same as #4. After registering the program, it shows "unregistered"

[24] To the aptly named "Dark TROLL",
If you don't have a need for this software, that's fine. Everybody is different. That's what is great about this site - random software is offered, then people in the comments offer alternatives and opinions to those who are interested. And guess what - those who aren't interested are not forced to download anything. Sounds like a pretty good place to me. And the fact that you have downloaded 2 programs that are sometimes useful to you, for FREE, sounds like you got a pretty good deal. As your "worst of the worst" scenario, please read comments from the past giveaways and look for ones where people report damage to their systems from GAOTD programs. Not many/any there, if my memory serves me well. And personally, I am not averse to trying a program out for FREE and possibly giving feedback to improve it. Or just deleting it if it doesn't suit my needs. Again, that is (I assumed, anyway) implicit in the purpose of this site: download it, try it, then keep/delete it. Too bad this site didn't work out for you. Perhaps you can go to the alternative of downloading trial versions of any software you want to try and then paying for it after 10 days.
In the meantime, your goat misses you under your bridge.

D

For #4 and #14: Did you put something in the Company box? I always put "personal" when a program asks for the name of one's company since it does not apply to me. After installing this program, I checked and it shows those two lines: Jahala West and, below that, the word Personal. My guess is that you left the company box empty, so perhaps the program automatically added the word Unregistered. But that's just a guess. Did you get a message saying Thank you for supporting the software when you registered it? If not, then obviously something went wrong and you might try reinstalling it or re-registering it and, this time, fill out all three boxes.

For #10, #17, #20 and #24, I do not have Registry Clean Fix 2008 on my computer nor have I ever had it. I did a search for the TMP file reportedly containing this, but it is not on my computer. Therefore, I seriously doubt that Sound Editor Deluxe had anything to do with that.

Hope this helps.

I think my brother is going to love this :)

Happy Easter to the GAOTD Team. This is a fine program. Works like a charm.

well, being that I'm not much of a multimedia buff, the program looks good, but after comparing the features with the free Audacity, it looks like a toy.

Audacity has what looks like 2 or 3 times as many features, and most importantly, is free.

still I'll check it out and see if it will do what little I want it to do for me, and that is to equalize my Mp3 volumes, tired of haveing to change the volume when I change tunes, if it does that then I'll be happy.

Happy Easter All

How are there 144 votes (111 up, 33 down) with 20 comments? Are comments here primarily from those who have not downloaded and installed (and therefore granted the ability to vote on usefulness)?

It just always seems weird that the ratio of comments to votes is disproportionate. Perhaps a download, and better yet an install counter would be of assistance?

Also, what impact does voting for a comment being useful or not have on the vote for this particular product? I would like to sample some good audio editors, but the concept of voting on comments leaves me a little confused as to which comments are more valuable/valid.

I mean, are those persons writing poorly voted on comments banned? Are their posts removed after a certain negative threshold is reached?

Thanks to SED Systems and GAOTD!

The Z

Play the goofy if you like but I have no need of a one track at a time editor. Think! If something as lousy as "eTrust Pest Patrol" pegs it as containing a hidden, rogue, security app "Registry Cleaner Fix 2008" then I'll stay clear and say thanks for the heads up. Even though I would never use "eTrust Pest Patrol".
Heres a another for you. "Sound Editor Deluxe" & "Cyber Power Audio Editing Lab", the other featured title today both have one, one line, stupid reviews at download.com. Both meaningless, both by killbill444, both written on 3/18/1008. Go figure! Who's the promoter here? Either way, this makes the thing suspect to me.
Heres the next and last two big beefs! 100MB of disk space required, questionable registration of the app. Well, Is it or is it not registered?
Now the worst of the worst, We, as human beings, myself included at times have for some unknown reason an unquenchable need for free! Be it good or not. Open your eyes people. In three months of daily visits to give away, I've kept two apps only yet seldom use either. Imagine that! These vendors love us all. Why? Because of the humans quest for free, most are willing to play guinea pig for them. Myself no longer included .

A couple of things:
1. If anyone saw my previous message (#18), I think I found an explanation. The DLL's involved are found in numerous packages. The setup likely does not check if they are already present and registered. This results in the Register Server problem. THe solution is to pick Ignore each time the error shows.
2. I checked on "RegistryCleanFix2008". If present, there is supposed to be an registry entry to run it + some files in "C:\Program Files\RegistryCleanFix2008". I found no such entries. The poster mentioned that it was found in a TMP file. If this is the case, it is not executable by itself and likely an IE temporary file from some visited site. I would look to see the location of the TMP file. If browser related, I would open the browser and clear all temporary files. If not, it will show up again in Pest Patrol until this is done.

Its a good software.. got no problems at all. tanx GOTD.

I tried to install this editor onto my Windows Vista Home Edition, but i keep getting this error about halfway into the installation :

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8020/20080323125119ud6.jpg

Does anybody know how to fix it, pls ?

Thx

I, too, would like a response from the devs on #10 and 17 please. Thanks. Just repeating #10 :

> When I started to install, eTrust Pest Patrol alarmed and found “RegistryCleanFix2008″ which is reports as “rogue security software” loaded in a TMP file. The last time this happened, I cleaned the system multiple times and the software was definitely causing it because it appeared every time I ran setup. I will hold off for now to see if others have similar findings. Thanks GOTD for all that you do!

How does this compare in purpose/functionality to Cool Record Edit Pro from a few weeks ago?

I have to admit that the comment about "RegistryCleanFix2008" has scared me off from installing this until I hear from a few more posters. I was going to say 'until I hear from the author' but if the poster is correct about the inclusion of that code then you wouldn't be able to trust the author. I found these references online: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20105092- and http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsid=11604&email

Hoping very much that this is a false positive...