Soundtrack

Rarely does a tool for creating music appear on the review pages of CA, but Apple Soundtrack really made us stop and think. Why? Turns out this extremely capable app isn’t your typical audio tool. In fact, the intention is that you need no audio knowledge to use it. The idea behind Apple’s offering is a simple one: to help the musically ungifted (and gifted alike) to create royalty-free tracks to complement their Web, DVD, broadcast or film projects.

On the basis of the last few months’ Apple reviews in CA, it may appear that the company can do no wrong in our eyes, and in the pro (or serious enthusiast) creative Mac market this is probably true. Apple has been making great tools for creative pros everywhere, from DVD Studio Pro 2 and Final Cut Pro 4 to the new G5 and G4 PowerBooks. Soundtrack is no exception. It’s a similar tool to Sony’s ACID software (previously Sonic Foundry’s) – sharing the ‘arrangement of loops’ take on audio creation.

Soundtrack immediately impresses with its ease of use. While today’s digital artists and designers have to be adept in a number of disciplines, knowledge of pro audio tools cannot be acquired overnight. Which is why Soundtrack is the perfect tool for creative professionals involved in the visual genres – you need no audio knowledge whatsoever to make the most of it.

On opening the tool, the interface is kind of a cross between DVD Studio Pro 2 and Final Cut Pro 4. To the left is a huge browser, enabling you to search for specific loops and drag them onto the main timeline. Although the installation of all the supplied Soundtrack loops (over 4000 of them) will take up around 4GB on your hard drive, you can browse for and run them from the DVD if space on your Mac is at a premium.

The variety of loops included is truly incredible. Everything from electro-funk to jazz piano to hip-hop vocals is included, and you can begin assembling loops immediately, creating tracks that sound almost saleable pretty much straightaway. This is because Soundtrack cleverly matches music loops by key and tempo (you can adjust these manually as well). It’s so straightforward, even a child could whip up a catchy tune in minutes.

Soundtrack works by intelligently building your tune from the audio ‘blocks’ you present it with – you arrange the loops, the app takes care of the rest. For finer control, you can open up pan and volume envelopes to adjust specific timing and mixing with keyframes. Video editors will appreciate the NLE-like way this works; they’ll also like the fact that you can import a QuickTime movie into Soundtrack to sync a track up correctly.

The program supports the import of ACID, AIFF and WAV. You can export your creation to AIFF or WAV (either entire mix or individual tracks) or, if you have video in your Soundtrack project, export the entire project to QuickTime. It would’ve been nice to see MP3 export, but it’s likely that Web designers wanting this format will already have the means to convert the file.

This app does everything in real time – when you add a new loop, shorten or lengthen it, or add an effect (Soundtrack includes effects from both Apple and Emagic, and supports Audio Units effects plug-ins), no rendering is required, making the process of creating royalty-free tracks much quicker than you might think.

From the perspective of the audio novice – those who want to add soundtracks to their Flash movies, DVDs, film projects, and so on, without expensive development costs, buying costly royalty-free music or even more expensive commercial tracks – Soundtrack is a truly fantastic tool, and one that DV artists and Web designers simply can’t afford to ignore.