Filed under: Audio, OS, Software, Switchers
Leo Laporte might go 100% Mac: "So long Suckah"
Leo Laporte, podcaster extraordinare and the web's general tech-guru-on-steroids, has blogged that the Soundbooth beta Adobe announced today just might let him jump ship to the Mac entirely. Since the first days of his podcasting adventures, Leo's been using Adobe's Audition for all his podcast recording and editing, but it's Windows only. While Soundbooth isn't entirely a Mac counterpart (Leo's initial impressions are that it's an "Audition Elements"), his "So Long Suckah" post title sounds like he's optimistic.Still, I agree with Leo and I'm a little disappointed in the offering. Soundbooth's biggest ding right now is that it only does single track recording and editing. For Adobe's girth as a company, I'm a bit surprised this feature is missing. Here's hoping the term 'beta' is applied for every ounce it's worth right now.
Either way, it's nice to hear Leo might be able to make the jump entirely. One less workflow intrusion is a good thing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hammo said 4:11PM on 10-26-2006
Bit of a dopey f*cker if he's been sticking to a PC just to use that ordinary software. Has he even bothered to look for sound editing software on a Mac. It's certainly appears that he has kept his eyes firmly shut.
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Roberto Felgueiras said 10:07AM on 10-27-2006
Um, garageband?
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David Chartier said 4:48PM on 10-26-2006
Garageband is a decent recorder but not a great editor. It's made to be easy (and somewhat powerful) for the general masses, not truly powerful for heavy-hitting recording and editing. I've been running into this proble myself, as I typically use iChat + Garageband to record our podcasts, but I have to take the audio somewhere else to do any decent editing and cleanup to it.
A lot of powerful audio apps on the Mac are aimed at the über-pros, like Pro Tools and Soundtrack Pro, which isn't even sold by itself. There really isn't a whole lot of middle ground it seems (especially for multi-track recording and editing), so I bet Adobe could really nail something here if they step up to the plate.
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Billy K said 4:58PM on 10-26-2006
He says he just spent $1000 on Bias Peak Pro, yet he still uses Audition on a PC for podcasting?
"Podcaster extraordinare and the web's general tech-guru-on-steroids?" Sounds like a moron to me.
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Billy K said 5:01PM on 10-26-2006
@3 - Middle ground for Mac Audio is SoundStudio. Lots of great features (especially in EQ and Dynamic Compression) for $75.
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Aleks said 5:04PM on 10-26-2006
I wonder if cash made it's way from Adobe to Leo's hand to promote this.
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Joe said 5:16PM on 10-26-2006
Really? He's been hanging on because of an audio editor? Why wouldn't he use Peak or Sound Studio? Sounds fishy to me.
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Clark said 9:11PM on 10-26-2006
Yet he also said he might abandon the iPod for a Zune.
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ChrisM70 said 5:58PM on 10-26-2006
This is the same guy that refuses to say "podcast"...
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ChillyWilly said 6:16PM on 10-26-2006
For those that haven't listent to Leo, check out TWiT podcast or Mac Break video podcast.
So if Audition doesn't support multi track editing, there is LogicPro Express, which is a bit costly, but it should work for what he needs.
Or Audition will evolve past it's beta and support multi tracks.
Regardless, I'd be pretty happy if he left the Windows side to go all Mac.
I'm pretty much all Mac, with the exception of what I do for my day job (Network Admin on an all Microsoft network). A friend of mine would love to make the jump, but he's very heavy into MS Access and SQL Server 2000. And Parallels and Boot Camp are solutions that haven't worked for him yet.
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ChillyWilly said 6:20PM on 10-26-2006
Opps... That should be SoundBooth for Mac, not Audition as I stated above.
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ultim8Fury said 2:32AM on 10-27-2006
Tech-guru ? Leo Laporte ? Honestly, my grandmother has a better understanding of the tech industry than him.
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Stuart said 5:42AM on 10-27-2006
I just noticed something amusing (I'm being a pedant). Leo's the guy who wants us all to use his word 'netcast', though it seems he can't remember to use it himself. First he says "I use Adobe Audition for all my netcast" and then "The kind of thing most podcasters need." Not "Netcasters" then? ; )
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allan smithee said 4:30AM on 10-28-2006
You Leo hata's are all idiots.
If you had an iota of clue, you'd know that Leo has a radio background. People with radio backgrounds tend to prefer Cool Edit Pro, as it is/was the defacto standard editing application used by radio-types. Cool Edit was turned into Audition when Adobe acquired Syntrillum Software. Neither product was ever ported to the Mac, until SoundBooth, which looks like Audition "Lite".
The fact is (and I ONLY use Macs for professional digital video/audio production), none of the major OSX audio editing apps, except maybe for ProTools, holds a candle to the stuff available on the PC. Yes, that includes Peak and Soundtrack Pro (which is really a steaming pile of crap, to be quite frank).
This explains why he is excited about Soundbooth, and why he "held out" on the PC for so long.
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Jeffbbs said 11:29AM on 12-15-2006
allan is right for the most part. Good mac apps for radio/podcasting style work are pretty lacking. Although I would disagree with "hold a candle." cool edit pro was never really that great of a program (although it was easy!) nor is audition (although better). But I did wish to have something even of that quality for mac. But Furthermore for musicians, there are loads of great mac apps for audio, protools being merely the tip of the iceberg (but a darn big tip, no "maybe" about it). But for the types of things that I gather Leo would be doing, there is a definite gap missing on the mac.
also while not amazing, i don't find soundtrack to be a steaming pile of crap. and as a free program for regular folks, garageband is head an shoulders above everything in its catergory.
audition could very easily fill that gap and make some people into switchers. I hope adobe takes advantage of that.
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