Whatever happened to CoolEdit Pro?

Submitted by mic on Fri, 03/30/2018 - 10:47

admin: First posted on 2016 09 23

A long, long time ago, we used CoolEdit Pro to record and mix our music. This would have been around 2001, on an ancient desktop running a processor at 300 MHz, in our mockup home "studio." At that time, CoolEdit was impressive. I can rant about how great it was for a long time, but here is the important stuff.

  • It was a very intuitive piece of software. Session tracks were available immediately upon startup. The most important mixing controls where there next to the tracks. The effects were all organized. Learning how to record and mix music took seconds. No other software even came close to being as intuitive.
  • It was precise. You could basically zoom to the sample, beyond milliseconds, and cut, move, adjust envelopes, and so on.
  • It worked. You have to understand that, in those times, processing power was not what it is now. Effects could not process sound data during playing, but had to be pre-processed and stored in temporary sound files. The simple fact that CoolEdit successfully managed all these sound data was amazing. In fact, its version 2.0 from those times continued to work flawlessly at least through Windows 8.

Alas, CoolEdit is no more. Its maker – Syntrillium Software – was bought by Adobe in 2003 and rebranded as Adobe Audition. I checked Adobe Audition CC recently. Likely, I will not be using it, simply because of its price. It is subscription based, where you can pay $19.99 per month or $239.88 per year. The subscription scheme makes sense perhaps. In addition to the application itself, you get 20 GB or cloud storage and a portfolio website. It is linked with Adobe's Creative Cloud, which is meant to help you create (whatever it is that you want to create) and share it.

Adobe Audition CC is a different animal. It seems to target primarily those, who want to engineer sound for video (CoolEdit did not handle video). Its latest version, for example, supports dual display full screen video, Dolby digital sound, and iXML.

And yet, just looking at screenshots, it looks like a lot of the same functionality is still there – just with a lot more bells and whistles. Do I need those? I have no idea. I suppose at some point I will want to figure out what to do with my existing recordings.

authors: mic

Comments

I liked it too but found it stopped working on Win/7 but I got a copy of Adobe Audition 3.0 which does not require a monthly subscription and works even better than cooledit 2000.

Interestingly enough, I can run CoolEdit 2.0 on Windows 10. I have to run it as administrator, but beyond that it seems to work fine.

I looked around to see what Adobe Audition 3.0 looks like, but it is no longer supported. Good to know though.

The big question is: which one should we go for now? Today, my friends dabble in Audacity and ProTools (the latter is now apparently free of hardware requirements). I will obviously experiment with Orinj, since I build it, but I also like MAGIX Music Studio. Cubase?

Mic, I had this! On 3.5' 1.44mB floppy for Windows 95. You're right my friend. A damn fine peice of software!!! Abobe may be 'the industry standard' but so what? I remember DAWs that took minutes to install, worked and were YES! - FREE!!! I still use SoundForge 5.0 (not the bloated VIDEOforge which it really should be called!) We have SCD in this country now - Simon Cowell Disease!!! - where everything and anythings OK as long as it's TV-friendly. I think Ableton SUCKS! We don't all have billion-dollar sound budgets. And while I'm on it - GO HOME YANKS! - We don't use DOLLARS in the UK. I didn't vote to leave EU to become a damn COLONY of the USA!!! Oh!, & I think you might find CoolEdit Pro is ALIVE & WELL - I think it's donationware or such. Keep the faith & keep making CHEAP good music that people love:)

I do a podcast and relied on CEP for years. It was always a little unstable but it did the job as long as I continually saved. I just set up a new I7 system however running W10 and it has become so brittle as to be useless. Too bad because I really liked that software.

I hope other companies come out with really stellar versions of the Softwares that Adobe has stolen from the public access, by sucking them into their "We Own Everything - but you'll never own it, you'll have to keep paying for it over and over" Scheme.

What a load of crap.

Thank the many people who design open-source software - let's get rid of Adobe's "Subscription Hostage Crisis" over all the rest of us.

Remember a time, one could buy the software, and it was yours?

And you could keep using it, instead of having forced upgrades shoved down your throat, that are frankly, not necessarily better....

Agree. Basically, they killed the hobby experience, but there is no guarantee that it is good enough for a professional

Cool Edit Pro was so ahead of its time. It was so easy to use and had so many great features. I use Studio One now. Studio One feels like the successor to Cool Edit Pro. Has that very approachable feel to it. Plus you don't have to get a subscription.

I Loved it ... it was so user friendly .
The zero point crossing allowed seamless editing.
I miss it a lot . and have done for twenty years .
There was nothing like it

OZ

Hello y'all my name is Brett Mitchell and I fell inlove with Two TurnTables and a microphone. Im gonna tell you how I met Cool Edit Pro. I'm from Ohio in-between Cleveland and Pittsburgh PA. NorthEast Snowville USA growing up in my area there wasn't much to do in the early 90's but go to the city and try fake IDs at all the hot poppin city clubs at these dope-ass warehouses where you had to find them by special location. Yes Mom I started going to underground raves in 95 every weekend because they didn't close till the next day and we had to car pool like 20 of us no shit maybe more depending on who was spinning. Because they changed your life at every one. All the girls fell inlove with their favorite DJ. So I had to learn and had to learn fast. I bought me a pair Technique1200s and a Vestax mixer with Ortofon needles because I wanted to learn how to scratch like Dj Premier and battle DJs like DJ QBert man those dudes were my idols. I started practicing and before you know it I wanted to make my own CDs. Mixes of my favorite artists on vinyl Edited down mixed better than just a live set so I went down the road of options at that time its 97-98 I found MAGIX Studio, at the mall, so I learned on it all the fundementals first. then after growing up and wanted more knowledge because I wanted to do more like record rappers in the neighborhood over my beats I started to make so I found out Guitar Center was the place I needed be at. I never knew there was a heaven until I found a SamAsh and GuitarCenter boy I'm not playin. After walking through paradise I found mixing consoles and all the ProTools-Shit and how expensive it was the best option for me was between Cubase and Cool Edit Pro. My best friend he and I were learning how to mix and record together since he was very smart and could learn reading manuals where me I need someone to show it to me first. So we said fuck it got both. He got Cubase and I got Cool Edit Pro. The rest is history I used CEP from 2000-08. with all the point O's.... then I went and got DIGI002 learned the real reason why PROTOOLS is the best because they fixed every thing so its flawless when it works..... ahahahahaha still to this day its 20 years later and its the same but with minor changes because its great. you don't change a McDonalds 1/4 pounder do you!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????

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