Adobe Soundbooth CS4

Editorial Reviews

Multitrack support lets you quickly assemble all your audio elements, and save them as an Adobe Sound Document (ASND) file that can be shared with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, and Adobe After Effects CS4 software. Click to enlarge.

Create and edit audio with ease

Recording and mixing audio clips
Record high-quality mono or stereo audio files, and work on more than one file at a time. Match the volume levels within a single clip or for multiple audio files.

Audio editing
Use sample-accurate tools to cut, copy, paste, fade, and stretch audio assets. Intuitive on-clip tools make common edits instant, and visual feedback keeps you informed at every step.

Adobe Creative Suite integration and workflow
Jump directly into Soundbooth from within Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, or Adobe After Effects. The ASND document can be easily shared with Flash Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

Soundbooth Scores and sound effects via Resource Central
Access product-related news and tutorials using the Resource Central panel. Jump-start projects with Soundbooth Scores and sound effects offered online.

Fast audio cleanup
Use powerful, sample-accurate tools to cut, copy, paste, fade, and stretch audio assets. Intuitive on-clip tools make common edits remarkably easy, and visual feedback keeps you informed at every step.

Improved Soundbooth Score workflow
Easily locate and preview Soundbooth Scores in Resource Central. Select a Soundbooth Score, and customize it to match your project. Combine, mix, or match multiple scores on a single track or on multiple tracks.

A wide variety of new features in Adobe Soundbooth CS4 complements an extensive array of on-clip, sample-accurate controls tailored to the needs of visual professionals. Click to enlarge.

You can take snapshots of your work at any point; if you make a change you don't like, you can revert to any previous snapshot at any time. Click to enlarge.

Drag and drop files into the Match Volume panel and have them automatically set to a specific volume level or reference file volume. Results are displayed in a separate pop-up dialog box (inset). Click to enlarge.

Send your audio files to Soundbooth from Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 or Adobe Flash CS4 Professional using the Edit In Adobe Soundbooth command. Click to enlarge.

Visual tools for healing sound
Use tools like those in Adobe Photoshop software to visually identify, select, and remove individual sounds from a revealing spectral display of your waveform.

High-quality audio effects
Enjoy a library of audio filters to help you achieve your own sound, including reverb, echo, EQ, time and pitch stretch, distortion, chorus, and more. Combine effects to individualize your sound using the Effects Rack.

Fast mastering and vocal improvement
Use streamlined mastering tools to polish your audio files, clarify vocals, and give them punch.

Looping tools
Create loops more easily with automatic beat detection. You can adjust the in and out points by individual beats and adjust the minimum and maximum frequency, as well as the beat detection sensitivity.

Top new features of Adobe Soundbooth CS4

Multitrack support
Sound for visuals usually comprises a variety of different elementsÑdialogue tracks give voice to actors, animated characters, and featured talent; voice-overs supply narrative context; sound effects and ambient sounds create atmosphere and aural depth cues; and music provides emotional cues. The ability to work with multiple audio tracksÑthe new feature most requested by Adobe Soundbooth CS3 usersÑgives you the power to assemble all the elements of a complex soundtrack into a final audio mixdown.

New Adobe Sound Document
The new Adobe Sound Document (ASND) file format enables nondestructive audio editing, so you can always return to the original source files. The ASND document can be easily shared with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, and Adobe After Effects CS4.

Automatic volume matching
Equalizing volume levels within a specific file can be a challenge. In interviews, for example, sometimes speakers' voices are captured at different volume levels. The equalize-volume feature in Adobe Soundbooth CS4 can correct this kind of problem with a single click. You can also use the new volume-matching functionality to quickly match the volume of multiple clips to each other or to a single reference volume level.

Volume keyframing
Volume keyframing lets you adjust the volume of your dialogue and sound-effects tracks or adjust the volume of your audio over time. The volume keyframing feature is especially useful when you create podcasts. Soundbooth lets you record directly into a track, duck vocals, improve the quality and sound of your voice, and add sound effects.

MP3 compression preview
When you want to output work in MP3 format, the MP3 compression preview allows you to preview the sound quality at whatever bit rate you select and see the consequent file size before saving. As a result, you can save time and increase efficiency by previewing sound quality before you commit to specific compression settings to achieve the results you want.

Improved integration with other Creative Suite 4 software
Convenient roundtrip editing saves you time. Now you can use the Edit In Adobe Soundbooth command from within Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, or Adobe After Effects CS4 to send assets directly to Soundbooth, where you can clean up or enhance your audio. After your edits are complete, the files automatically update in the timeline or project window of your Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 or Adobe After Effects CS4 project.

Adobe Dynamic Link workflows
When Soundbooth is installed as a component of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, you can save time when opening Adobe After Effects CS4 compositions or Adobe Premiere Pro sequences directly in Soundbooth by using the innovative Adobe Dynamic Link. Dynamic Link eliminates the need for intermediate rendering by creating a direct link between new or existing assets in select Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium components. Any changes made in one application are quickly reflected in the other.

Improved editing capabilities
Soundbooth provides instant cut, copy, and paste functions as well as on-clip editing tools such as trim, fade, and volume control. With just one click, you can fix, boost, or otherwise modify audio assets to better meet the needs of your production. You can even stretch audio assets to match the length of your scene. Improved spectral editing lets you edit your audio visually.

Looping tool enhancements
Looping enhancements in Adobe Soundbooth CS4 increase your creative options and save you time. Automatic beat detection makes it even easier to create seamless loops: Beats are displayed as orange lines, and you can adjust the in and out points by individual beats until you get a loop you like.

Looping enhancements in Adobe Soundbooth CS4 increase your creative options and save you time.

Use the Scores panel to browse and preview an extensive assortment of customizable music, sorted by genre. Click to enlarge.

With Speech Search, text extracted from dialogue tracks is searchable, editable, and exportable. The text maintains timecode accuracy, so selecting a word (above) causes the CTI to jump to that portion of the clip (right). Click to enlarge.

Additional Soundbooth Scores and improved workflow
You don't need a recording studio or a computer loaded with specialized music software to create soundtracks for your projects when you can jump-start your audio efforts with customizable, pre-existing content conveniently accessible in Soundbooth. Free Soundbooth Scores are available online through Resource Central, and you can also purchase additional Soundbooth Score bundles through Resource Central (Internet connection required).

In Adobe Soundbooth CS4, you can use multiple scores in a multitrack environment, which also allows you to layer scores. You can also change the length of a score, the intensity, and the levels of various instrumentsto match just the mood and pacing you want. Then place the music beneath a voice-over, add sound effects to bring impact to your visuals, and use Soundbooth to alter the tone and volume at various points based on what's going on visually.

Speech Search
Use New Speech Search technology in Adobe Soundbooth CS4 to turn spoken dialogue into text-based metadata that makes your video searchable. This new capability solves one of the biggest challenges in taking audio and video online by automatically turning any spoken word into a keyword that points precisely to the places in a clip where the word is spoken. This unleashesconsiderable power, for post-production and Web professionals, and all of us who watch video online. During the editing process, creative professionals can use Speech Search to quickly find the relevant points in a particular clip, or easily locate the right clip based on what gets said in it. Equally important, the time-accurate text that corresponds to spoken words is embedded in the output you render from Adobe Soundbooth CS4, so your audio and video is searchable by other tools that can read XMP metadata, such as search and indexing engines.

Creative Pro Online Services

Adobe Resource Central
Access product-related news and tutorials by using the Resource Central panel in Soundbooth. Jump-start your audio projects with drag-and-drop efficiency using Soundbooth Scores and sound effects offered online. (Internet connection required. There are additional fees for some content accessed through Resource Central.)

Adobe Community Help
Get the power of an online search engine within Soundbooth, but with more targeted results thanks to Adobe Community Help. Searchable content includes the in-depth, product-specific Help that Adobe has always delivered, plus additional Adobe and third-party content chosen by experts at Adobe and in the design and production communities. With Adobe Community Help, you can find the focused answers you need, fast. Use either the search bar within Soundbooth CS4, or simply choose Help > Soundbooth Help. (Internet connection required for extended content.)

Part of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 family

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium combines the latest video, audio, and design tools from Adobe to provide a complete pre- and post-production solution. This powerful Creative Suite 4 edition helps you deliver compelling stories on film, video, and disc, as well as online and on mobile devices.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium is a complete solution for creating interactive websites, applications, user interfaces, presentations, mobile device content, Adobe AIR applications, and other digital experiences. This Creative Suite 4 edition includes everything you need to prototype your project, design assets, build web experiences, and efficiently maintain and update content.

Adobe Soundbooth CS4 is also available as a component of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection software, which includes all the components found in Production Premium, Web Premium, and Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium software.

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review




Great tool for the novice, October 12, 2009
By Marvin Bell (tinley park, IL)
I bought Soundbooth because I was making a podcast and Audacity would crash every few minutes. I haven't had the problems experienced by the other reviewers. Adobe Soundbooth CS4 was easy to learn and produced wonderful multilayer tracks without a glitch.



Buggy software ~ Careful it might delete your files. , April 10, 2009
By Robert G. (Carrboro, North Carolina)
Unfortunately, my experience was the same as the previous reviewer. Over a period of weeks, Adobe Soundbooth has dumped complete files (even without crashing) and when I try to retrieve even the SAVED versons later, they are blank. Weeks of work down the drain. Adobe needs to address these glitches before putting their products to market.

If you use this program, be sure to periodically do a "SAVE AS" to another hard drive or external hard disk and under a different file name ~ in case you need to retrieve your files later.



A Buggy Piece of Cr*p, January 3, 2009
By Michael D. Sepesy (Cleveland, OH USA)
When I use software, it's important that it doesn't crash in the middle of what I'm doing and lose everything I've worked on. Therefore, although Adobe Soundbooth has some nice features I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, even someone I don't like. It takes forever just to save files--and this is on a computer with 4GB of memory. It has crashed twice on me while working on a large project. I must save every ten minutes or so to ensure that it doesn't dump everything I've done so far. In the past, I've used Sony Sound Forge, which was much easier to use and never crashed on me no matter how large the file. Save your money for this overpriced buggy nightmare that should have been tested more before they shipped it out and slapped a $200 price tag on it.