Audio Editing for Radio Pros on a Budget

Twisted Wave audio editor

Like a good set of headphones, a solid laptop and a damn good show prep service, every Radio Pro needs a trustworthy audio editor. It’s hard to beat Audition, but like many software companies Adobe has gone to a subscription model. For a radio pro on a budget, $20 a month for editing show audio seems a bit heavy. (And we noticed that even if you cancel your subscription, you still pay $10/month till your annual agreement expires.)

I’ve always had the free Audacity on my computers, but it’s pretty slow and has some quirks. So I was pleased to discover that Twisted Wave, which makes a great recording/editing app for iOS devices, also has a Mac app.

Twisted Wave is not free, but the $80 one-time price is a heck of a lot cheaper than other software options. And it works well.

While the Twisted Wave interface is clunky and dated the program is simple to use and does it’s job quickly. A few of Twisted Wave’s features:

  • Recording. Open TwistedWave, press record. That is how easy it is to start recording.
  • Mastering. Equalization, compression, limiting, you name it. From the hundreds of available Audio Unit or VST plugins, you will surely find the right one for the best effect.
  • Converting files. TwistedWave can read and write files in many different formats. Converting a single file, or a whole folder of audio files from one format to another is straightforward.
  • Batch processing many files. You load a list of sound files in TwistedWave, and it will automatically cut them, apply fades in/out, equalize, convert to mp3, or anything else.

Besides the Mac and iOS versions, Twisted Wave also offers a browser-based audio editor.

Comment below: What’s your favorite free or low-cost audio editor?