Wave Hammer for Sound Forge

[romanotrax]

Has anybody tried this Sound Forge tool? If so, whadya think????

[Grant]

Yes, I have. It's the same thing as the Hard Limit in Cool Edit.

These tools do what is frowned on by most members here, they boost the levels of the music by simple gain and/or compression, then limit the wave so that it does not clip.

They ARE useful in certain situations, and should be used with extreme caution. Of course, some, like Steve Hoffman would say, "no way, Jose!"!

[Doug Hess Jr.]

I prefer Cool Edit, but I leave Soundforge installed so I can use the Direct X plugs like Wave Hammer. I prefer Wave Hammer because it has more controls and I find it sounds smoother-- especially when you use the Longer Lookahead setting. I use it when I'm mixing cheerleading tapes, etc. and need to really max the sound-- I never use it for the CD's I listen to. I prefer it over hard limiting--although I sometimes use Hard Limiting on a small segment that may need to be louder and then use Wave Hammer as the overall processor for the whole track.

[Grant]

Well, they are the same thing. They are both hard limiters.

But, you're right, Wave Hammer has more controls, but I go back and fourth over which has better sound.

One use I have for either of them is to simply chop off wild peaks down to under 0FS and I don't want to lower the levels any. You can do it without actually boosting anything, so you don't compress.