Wave Editor is a document-based audio file editor for Mac OS X. Wave Editor natively supports direct editing of AIFF, Apple Loops, WAV/BWAV, Wave64, ACID, Sound Designer I, interleaved and split Sound Designer II, CAF (CoreAudio format) and µLaw audio files. It also imports ReCycle (REX, RX2, RCY), MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, AC-3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, voXover files and other CoreAudio and QuickTime-supported files.
Wave Editor supports files of any channel count (within the specifications of the file format), any sample rate and bit depth. It also supports groups of files referencing one multi-channel audio file (known as split file format, one separate file for each channel with a given file name extension).
Wave Editor allows you to view and change nearly everything about an audio file including the audio itself, "Labels" (regions, loops, slices, markers, etc.), MIDI information, tempo and time signature information, and metadata.
Wave Editor allows you to edit audio using familiar commands such as Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete, as well as Crop, Erase and Insert. Audio can be selected and edited channel-independently. Drag-and-drop is also supported, both from within the document as well as to and from other audio files.
Wave Editor's display also includes playback time and controls such as volume, speed and repeat mode, a user-configurable "Information Bar", grid, rulers, and a file overview, all of which are moveable and configurable within the document.
Standard audio processes are available to apply to audio files, including change gain, normalize, trim, fade, sample rate conversion utilizing the industry-best iZotope™ 64-bit SRC™, iZotope's renowned MBIT™ dither, invert phase and many more. Wave Editor also fully supports third-party Audio Units (VST support is coming in version 1.4).
Wave Editor includes indispensable metering windows for monitoring, including a level meter with variable ballistic settings, a stereometer (phase correlation meter) and a spectrograph.
Wave Editor was written from the ground up in Mac OS X using Cocoa. This allows for streamlined performance and a fresh start on the Mac OS X platform. It is a Universal Binary and supports all Intel-based Macs. It supports Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) and utilizes advanced Mac OS X where relevant.
Wave Editor uses standard Aqua interface elements as described by Apple. Many other audio editors (if not every other editor) use customized GUI elements. This makes these programs more difficult to learn because the interface elements are not familiar. Special care was taken in the development of Wave Editor's user interface to make it as elegant, powerful and easy to learn as possible.
Wave Editor introduces the concept of "Layers" to an audio editor for the first time, allowing users to Layer audio files on top of one another with an unlimited number of Layers. Each Layer can have its own effects and fades which are processed in real time. Each Layer has its own name, start time, order, volume and other properties. Layers may have different sample rates, bit-depths and channel counts. All Layers play and process properly in real time.
Wave Editor also introduces a new idea of fades as movable objects that describe ranges of time that allow for changes in level. They are not "printed" as a process. Rather, they are processed in real-time and are respective to a particular Layer. What makes these fades unique and superior sounding is that they can use true Bezier curves (as seen in common illustration programs). Fades are similar to Audio Units in that they can be shifted in order within the Layer.
Wave Editor has a "flattening" feature which creates a new single Layer as the sum of all the Layers and their audio processors. Thus, a multi-layered file may be saved or exported as a "single-layer" common audio file format. Wave Editor 1.3 introduced the new "Master Layer" which can own Labels and effects that apply to all Layers.