Wave Crafter

Wave Crafter is much more than the average audio recording and editing tool. Actually, it is a suite of audio-related utilities, each of which truly deserves its own review.

Wave Crafter includes – among others – a recording utility, a full-featured audio editor, an audio merging and cutting tool, a mixing desk, a file conversion tool, and ID3 tag editor, and various CD-related tools. All these audio utilities are neatly organized in a small and convenient menu bar. Each tool will open its own interface, whose degree of complexity varies according to the task performed.

The Audio Editor shows a clear waveform graph that allows for accurate audio selections and precise marking (down to the millisecond). It comes complete with zooming capabilities, editing tools, and a set of audio effects for you to enhance and fine-tune your audio files and even to craft your personal version of a given track. As expected, it comes with a built-in player to let you check the validity of the changes made.

The mixing tool (not to be mistaken with the “mixing desk”) can mix up to four tracks simultaneously. It can mix them all automatically, just putting each track on top of the previous ones, or you can mix them manually by telling the program the exact time position where you want each track to start playing. The length of the mixed track will coincide with the length of the longest track in the mix. You can mix just a portion of a track by marking it with the mouse, or by using the convenient merging and splitting tool that comes with Wave Crafter.

One of the tools that also deserves mentioning is the DJ Player, a mixing desk where you can mix and record up to two tracks simultaneously, which you can select with a click from your own playlist. There are independent tempo, pitch, and volume sliders, as well as a 7-band equalizer for each audio track.

Other “more conventional” tools include a comprehensive ID3 tag editor, CD ripping and burning tools, and a file conversion utility with support for MP3, WAV, Ogg, AAC, MP4, AIFF, and AU files.