SoundEdit
Encyclopedia
SoundEdit was one of three audio applications created during a sabbatical by Steve Capps
Steve Capps
Steve Capps is a computer programmer and engineer who is best known for his work on the Apple Inc. Macintosh computer and Newton OS during the 1980s and 1990s. He started working at the Xerox Corporation while still a computer science student at the Rochester Institute of Technology...
during 1986. The Macintosh had no built-in sound input, so the MacRecorder audio digitizer was invented for this purpose in 1985 by Michael Lamoureux, a mathematics student at the University of California, Berkeley. The MacRecorder hardware and software was publicly released through the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group
Berkeley Macintosh Users Group
Berkeley Macintosh Users Group is a users' group, founded in September 1984 by U.C. Berkeley students including Reese Jones, Raines Cohen and Bernt Wahl to share knowledge on graphical computing, primarily the Apple Macintosh....
as a kit in late 1985. SoundEdit first shipped in January 1988, as part of a hardware product called MacRecorder Sound System, by a company called Farallon Computing (which eventually became Netopia).
One of the major drivers for SoundEdit was Apple's HyperCard
HyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
. With MacRecorder Sound System, stack makers could finally create alternatives to HyperCard's two built-in sounds. The other multimedia programs of the time, (Director
Adobe Director
Adobe Director is a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia—now part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie...
and Authorware) also adopted it right away.
SoundEdit was later bought by Macromind-Paracomp, which became Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
(now Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
).
Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
rebranded the program as 'SoundEdit 16' and expanded its capabilities to support CD-quality audio (16-bit) and added Quicktime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
soundtrack editing and an audio plug-in architecture. A free plug-in was included to convert sound files into '.SWA' format, an early form of mp3 file. These SWA files could be streamed to web viewers using by the free web audio player (downloadable from Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
) or by creating a custom interactive Shockwave experience embedded into a web page. Shockwave content is created by using the Director
Adobe Director
Adobe Director is a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia—now part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie...
multimedia authoring program.
Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
discontinued sales of SoundEdit as of 1 December 2004, continuing its official support through 1 June 2005 and still offering some downloads for this application to this date.
This final version only runs on Powermacs running Mac OS Classic. It does not run under Mac OS-X.
SoundEdit was always known for its remarkable ease of use. It made audio manipulation especially accessible to those who were not musicians or audio professionals.