I’ve been podcasting since July of 2005. When I began, I edited the audio using a program called Audacity. It’s open source and cross-platform, but it isn’t particularly stable — especially on the Mac. Even if it were stable, the user interface is a mess. Around 2006, I switched to GarageBand full time. While I didn’t trust it to record my shows, it was fairly reliable for editing. Fast forward to today, and I’m running a quad-core iMac with 16 GB of RAM. Shouldn’t working with audio be snappy and easy? Well, not so much in GarageBand. The core product really hasn’t been updated in quite a while. Some features have been tacked on, but we’re still using pretty old technology.
Enter Amadeus! This is the audio editing app that I should have been using for years. It’s beautiful, customizable, reliable, and it’s blazing fast. It comes in two flavors: Lite and Pro. If you’re doing light editing, dropping $24.99 USD on Lite is a no brainer. If you need more advanced features like multitrack editing, real-time audio units, or batch processing, you should really spring for Pro. It’s only $59.99 USD. When you compare that to $349.00 USD for Adobe Audition and $199.99 USD for Apple Logic Pro, Amadeus Pro is a deal.
Don’t know which version of Amadeus is right for you? No problem. There is a comparison chart available that shows what each version offers feature for feature. If you’re on the fence, just go for Pro. You won’t regret it. When you see how fast things import, export, and move around in Amadeus, you’ll never go back to GarageBand again.
