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Review: BIAS Peak 2.1 [ continued]

Peak was always good at dealing with a large variety of file formats, and the new version extends that capability. It can import all the standard Mac formats, with up to 32-bit word lengths, and sampling rates of 96 kHz or even higher (if your hardware supports it), plus .WAV and various older compressed formats; the program developers at BIAS also say that it imports MPEG-3 files, but that was not mentioned in the manual, so that was not part of my test. However, like most other stand-alone audio editors, it does not support RealAudio. The output side however, is very flexible: You can save as RealAudio, with a full array of optimization choices for various bandwidths; MP3; Shockwave; Ensoniq PARIS format; JAM, for Adaptec's CD-burning software; and even Sonic Solutions' peculiar flavor of .AIFF, which can save a lot of time if you're exchanging files with a Sonic system, since the latter's conversion of standard .AIFF files is quite slow. A caveat, however: To do MPEG-3 and Shockwave, you have to download a plugin from Macromedia's Web site called SoundEdit 16 SWA Updates, and drop it into Peak's plugins folder. The URL for the file is provided, but the procedure is pretty confusing, and the odd nomenclature doesn't help.

The RealAudio export, in a quick test, worked well, and the results using a stereo 32 kbps bandwidth setting were completely respectable. On the other hand, the MPEG-3 conversion is disappointing: The procedure is ridiculously slow, at least on my 266 MHz G3, 17 minutes for a six-second stereo file, and the sound quality when set to 56 kbps is disappointing. After I completed my testing, BIAS' staff told me that turning the disk cache way down would speed the encoding process considerably, without any decrease in sound quality. It would have been nice if this quirk were documented somewhere, and then I would have had a chance to try it.

Packed with features
The list of features that Peak has crammed into this software, both visible and “under the hood,” is pretty impressive. Simple cut-and-paste edits can optionally use a blending envelope that can be of any length, with user-definable fade ins and outs. Two modes of scrubbing are available: the usual tape-style, where the sound slows down and speeds up, and “dynamic” scrubbing, which is more like frame-based editing. As you move the cursor, little pieces of audio (you define the length) are looped, so you can pinpoint and lock onto a particular audio event very precisely. It's not pretty to listen to, but it works really well.

Amplitude Fit is a feature borrowed from Alchemy: You draw an amplitude envelope, and no matter what the envelope of the original file looks like, it changes to match your new envelope—sort of like a supercrunching limiter with automation. The Duration Change function allows you to specify the new length in tempos and beats. Modulate combines two files like an old-fashioned ring modulator, and Convolve analyzes the spectral content of a sound you place on the clipboard and applies it to the current file, which serves to reinforce spectral elements that the two have in common.

Repair Clicks does an admirable job of finding and eliminating clicks, and gives you a comprehensive, if initially a little confusing, set of parameters to play with. The program displays a pair of large, fast bar-graph meters, whose sampling speed, peak-hold and clip-indicator times can be adjusted. And the program will now play back audio locked to SMPTE/MTC, with an adjustable re-sync parameter for dealing with timecode drift.

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Copyright © 2000 by Intertec Publishing. Reprinted with permission.