Last update 16-07-10
Here are answers to Frequently Asked Questions that we have received over the past couple of weeks concerning our sonicWORX software. We are frequently updating this page so check back later if your question isn’t answered, or contact us to get an answer from our support staff.
Index:
Q: When (and where) will sonicWORX be available for purchasing?
Q: What are the minimum system requirements?
Q: What will be the recommended retail price of sonicWORX?
Q: Will there be a Windows version?
Q: Will you offer a demo version?
Q: I am interested in beta testing this product. How do I get enrolled in your beta testing program?
Q: How does sonicWORX compare with the “old” sonicWORX Artist and Studio? Which of the tools that were available in version 2 of sonicWORX will be included in the new version?
Q: Is it possible to upgrade from an old version of sonicWORX?
Q: Is there an upgrade from Pandora RT to the new sonicWORX?
Q: Will there be an educational discount for students and universities?
Q: How long did it take you to prepare the sound files shown in the movie at YouTube?
Q: Can I remove sounds from a mix?
Q: Can I use the extracted instruments to create a 5.1 surround mix?
Q: How do I edit multiple channels? Do I have to edit them individually to extract an instrument?
Q: Can I export the sound representation as an image file?
Q: Can I load the images of my sounds created by sonicWORX into Photoshop for processing, and import them back?
Q: Does it use the same technology as Melodyne DNA, or is it in any way comparable?
Q: What about products like Metasynth or AudioSculpt – don’t they do the same thing?
Q: When (and where) will sonicWORX be available for purchasing?
A: There are two versions of sonicWORX: A version called “sonicWORX Isolate” that is optimized to extract (and suppress) voice from 44.1/48kHz mono or stereo music mixes, and a more general “sonicWORX Pro” with multi channel and high sample rate support, more elaborate tools and many additional options for mastering.
sonicWORX Isolate is shipping as of May 2010, sonicWORX Pro is scheduled to be released in 2011. An upgrade path from Isolate to Pro will be available as soon as Pro hits the stores.
For the latest status please visit our Facebook or Twitter pages.
Please note that due to international treaties and copyright regulations sonicWORX will not be available in all countries.
Q: What are the minimum system requirements?
A: Although sonicWORX might work with limited functionality on other systems as well we recommend an Intel Mac with 2.66 GHz Core 2 duo or 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPU or better, 4+ GB RAM (8+ recommended), 125+ GB free disk space (250+ recommended for working with large files), MacOS X 10.5.8 or higher (required). sonicWORX has been optimized for MacOS X 10. (Snow Leopard)
Q: What will be the recommended retail price of sonicWORX and where can I purchase it?
A: The RRP of sonicWORX • Pro is 1.690 Euro, sonicWORX • Isolate retails at 499 EUR. A list of dealers that carry the product in your country will be made available as soon as we start shipping physical copies of sonicWORX. You can purchase the product as a download from our sonicWORX Store page.
Q: Will there be a Windows version?
A: Prosoniq has always been primarily a Mac software company. We do not have plans to release sonicWORX on Windows at this time as this product depends on Mac specific system services that do not exist on Windows.
Q: Will you offer a demo version?
A: A limited demo version of sonicWORX Isolate is available for download from our sonicWORX page.
You will be able to test drive sonicWORX • Pro at your local store. We currently do not have any information on whether or not a separate demo (such as a time limited version) will be made available for the Pro version, please watch this space for more information.
Q: How does the new sonicWORX compare with the “old” sonicWORX Artist and Studio? Which of the tools that were available in version 2 of sonicWORX will be included in the new version?
A: The new sonicWORX series is again an innovative audio editing application like our previous sonicWORX series that has been available on MacOS 7-9 in the 1990s. Our previous sonicWORX products were intended to give the user a comprehensive set of tools to manipulate audio signals in totally new ways. In keeping with the popular program architecture of the 1990s this was accomplished by splitting the program into a main editing application and many built-in DSP plug ins.
With the new sonicWORX this approach is no longer feasible. In order to delve even deeper into your mix to extract and manipulate sound we have decided to integrate the signal processing part with the actual editing application. While this breaks with the tradition of sonicWORX we believe it is ultimately the better and more intuitive way to work with sound.
However, due to popular demand we are planning to bring out some of the plug ins of the previous sonicWORX versions as AudioUnit plug ins in late 2010.
Q: Is it possible to upgrade from an old version of sonicWORX?
A: You can upgrade from sonicWORX Studio, Artist and PowerBundle, but not from the free sonicWORX Basic and Essential. In order to do this your previous sonicWORX software will need to meet one of the following requirements:
- You need a valid version 2.x serial number of sonicWORX (these are serial numbers starting with SWB2-, SWS2- and SWA2-)
- or -
- You need a valid version 1.5+ of sonicWORX (the ones with serial numbers starting with SWST-, SWAR- and SWPB-).
Please note that version 1.x of sonicWORX (the one that came with an ADB port dongle or with serial numbers starting with SWRX-) cannot be upgraded.
Beta versions of sonicWORX (serial numbers starting with SPBB-) cannot be upgraded.
In order to do the upgrade please email our support desk with your previous sonicWORX version and serial number and we will email you with a coupon code that you can use in our store when you purchase sonicWORX Isolate or Pro.
Q: Is there an upgrade from Pandora RT to sonicWORX?
A: No, we’re sorry, there is no upgrade path for this product. Since Pandora RT required sonicWORX 2 in order to run you can use the sonicWORX 2 serial number to purchase an upgrade.
Q: Will there be an educational discount for students and universities?
A: Yes, we recommend you inquire at our partner stores before making the purchase. Educational discounts typically range from 25% – 30% off of the RRP.
Q: How long did it take you to prepare the sound files shown in the movie at YouTube?
A: The files were picked at random and prepared by sonicWORX developer Stephan Bernsee in the night before the first day at Messe. It took him about an hour per sound file to make the selection and render the results. Check out this page for audio examples.
Q: Can I remove sounds from a mix?
A: Yes, absolutely. You can extract (isolate) or remove sounds with both sonicWORX Isolate and Pro. In addition, Pro allows to process the selection directly within your mix without exporting it as a separate file. Check out this tutorial for details on sound removal. Check out this page for more audio examples.
Q: Can I use the extracted instruments to create a 5.1 surround mix?
A: Yes.
Q: How do I edit multiple channels? Do I have to edit them individually to extract an instrument?
A: With sonicWORX Isolate you will be working with an overview that groups both channels together. There is no way to separately edit left and right channels unless you load and process them as separate files.
With sonicWORX Pro you can either choose to edit what we call the “overview channel”, which is a channel with information from all channels of a sound file that gets created when sonicWORX • Pro opens a file ( in this case all edits will be applied to the other channels automatically) or to each individual channel in the file.
Q: Can I export the sound representation as an image file?
A: sonicWORX Pro supports exporting a graphic representation of your audio file. You can save the 72dpi image of your sound that is currently displayed on the screen as TIFF file to your Mac hard drive for viewing and printing.
sonicWORX Isolate does not support this feature.
Q: Can I load the images of my sounds created by sonicWORX into Photoshop for processing, and import them back?
A: No. sonicWORX cannot import images at this time
Q: Does it use the same technology as Melodyne DNA, or is it in any way comparable?
A: No, sonicWORX is not related to this product and works on a totally different principle. Here are the most important differences:
- Mono-timbral vs. multi-timbral. Melodyne DNA is intended to be used on mono-timbral (= one instrument) polyphonic audio tracks. A piano track or a guitar would qualify and DNA will allow you to change the pitch and timing of the notes of that track. sonicWORX was specifically designed to work with entire mixes, not just single tracks, and lets you perform all kinds of operations on the selection. You could for instance apply a different EQ to a voice within a mix, or compression, or a reverb, without affecting other instruments in the mix.
- Note based editing vs. WYSIWYG sound editing. Melodyne DNA detects notes within the track for you. This limits your capabilities to note editing and doesn’t give you any freedom to choose the parts of the track that you are really interested in. sonicWORX gives you total freedom to select and group anything you want, not just the notes detected for you by the program. Since the selection is made by you, the user, and the pattern tracker sorts out everything for you behind the scenes you don’t have to worry about the program detecting something that isn’t there. With sonicWORX, you are in control while with Melodyne DNA you have to rely upon the note detector to accurately find the notes for you.
- Editing vs. Extraction. Melodyne DNA is not intended to be used to suppress and extract individual tracks from an entire mix, it is intended to manipulate notes in the presence of other notes. sonicWORX is specifically designed to do extraction, suppression and processing.
- Sound abstraction vs. authentic high res display. Melodyne DNA represents the audio signal in an abstract way (”blobs”). This is convenient for note editing, but it does not accurately represent the original signal. sonicWORX allows editing within the context of the original mix, everything you see in the sonicWORX editor is real, not a simplified abstraction.
- Pitch shifting vs. track editing. sonicWORX is not intended to change the pitch and timing of notes within a song. While you can do this with sonicWORX, it is easier to do with Melodyne DNA. However, you could use sonicWORX and Melodyne DNA in tandem, to achieve perfect separation with sonicWORX and intuitive pitch shifting with Melodyne.
- Overlapping sounds. DNA does not work reliably with sources that contain overlapping harmonics or noise (drums). sonicWORX can track and resolve instruments even in the presence of noise, drums and other interference.
Q: What about products like Metasynth or AudioSculpt – don’t they do the same thing?
A: No. While it might look that way at first sight they are doing something completely different. In a nutshell, there are 3 important differences:
- Resolution: sonicWORX uses a proprietary transform that overcomes some of the limitations that the Fourier transform used in these other products normally has. Therefore sonicWORX is better suited to analyzing musical signals. See this web site for more information on the underlying technology.
- Pattern detection and tracking. None of these other products has pattern tracking capabilities. The pattern tracker in sonicWORX helps you select different parts of instruments that belong together, without requiring you to select all the frequencies manually (and sort out drums and other interference by hand). You are not simply painting in your spectrum, your pencil is “intelligent”.
- Artifacts. Other products are based on the Fourier transform, which is essentially a filter bank consisting of very steep filters. Typical artifacts of Fourier transform processing fall into 2 categories:
- Magnitude thresholding: discrepancies between the magnitudes of neighboring frequency “bins” create the typical “warbling” artifacts that occur eg. with low bitrate MP3 files. Hi-hats appear to sound metallic and high frequency ringing can occur with transients.
- Phasiness: phasiness can happen during reconstruction of the time domain signal due to the non-localized nature of the underlying sinusoids used by the Fourier transform. The sounds appear to sound reverberant, synthetic, “phasey” and lack sharp attack transients and details.
sonicWORX does not have the abovementioned restrictions.
---