WavePad not only provides an easy-to-use interface that even a novice audio editor will feel comfortable using, but it also has a large toolset to accomplish a variety of audio editing jobs. WavePad is also compatible with a multitude of audio files and can convert those files to a wide variety of audio formats.
WavePad has a clean and inviting layout. When we ran this software on a Mac operating system, the toolbar was not fixed and would interrupt your work by blocking the waveform overview. This is not an issue when the software is run on a PC operating system. The toolbar sits fixed above the audio editor and displays a tool ribbon that is easy to navigate.
The tools within the toolbar change as you click on different tabs on the ribbon. This toolbar is helpful from an organizational standpoint. You can also create a customized toolbar to have any tool that you wish across the ribbon.
We tested each audio editing program by importing a noisy audio file that was burdened with hiss, cracks, hum and pops that are associated with vinyl recordings. We ran the click/pop filter on the audio to remove some of the unwanted noise. WavePad takes far too long to render/apply the effect to the audio. When we ran this effect, it rendered for over a half an hour before the effect took place. This is something we didn't experience with any other audio editing software that we reviewed.
With WavePad, you can undo and redo an unlimited amount of processes. This is critically important if you are working on multiple audio files at once and need to undo a mistake that was made many processes ago. WavePad also has batch processing ability, so you can convert a variety of different audio files simultaneously to one format (.wav, mp3, etc.) instead of manually converting each one individually. This saves you time on file conversion and gets your audio ready for editing.
Recording audio into WavePad is as easy as connecting a USB microphone into your computer and pressing record. With WavePad alone you can't record more than one audio source at a time, but you can download MixPad within WavePad – a multitracking program that allows you to record and mix multiple audio tracks simultaneously. Because you have to download a different application to multitrack, we did not give WavePad credit for multitracking capabilities.
WavePad has virtually every effect and filter we looked for in audio editors. It has dozens of automated and manually applied effects including echo, delay, reverse, amplify, reverb and distortion. This editing software also includes features such as auto-trim, fade-in/fade-out, a normalizer, an equalizer and a sample-rate converter. Other programs give you fade options such as speed and duration of the fade. However, WavePad doesn't give you the variety of fade options that other programs like Adobe Audition provide.
WavePad has excellent file conversion and importing capabilities. WavePad successfully imported a wide variety of different audio files including AAC, AIFF AU, FLAC, MP3, MP4, M4A, OGG, WAV and WMA. This audio editor was also able to convert an audio file to any one of those file formats. This is a feat that only WavePad was able to accomplish compared to the competition. WavePad currently claims on its website that you can't import MP4 and some M4A video files, but the company has since released a version of WavePad which is compatible with those file formats.
We also tested each audio editor's ability to extract the audio data from video files. We took seven popular video file formats – including M4V, MOV MP4, MPG, DIVX, DV and WMV – and again, WavePad exceeded all expectations and was able to extract the audio data from all of the video files that we tested. WavePad's importing and file conversion capabilities are impressive.
You can send WavePad an email via the company's email forum if you have any questions concerning WavePad. You can also visit the user forum to talk to other users to resolve any issues you may have.
WavePad is a good audio editing program for users of every level. The program has enough editing tools to satisfy the professional user, and the interface is easy enough for the most novice user to handle. The rendering time it took for the program to remove clicks and pops from our audio sample was unfortunate. Outside of that program hiccup, this is easily one of the best audio editing software options available.
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