AAUG Reviews

by Rob LeFebvre, AAUG Member

This software just keeps geting better and better. And now, it’s even less expensive. The main editing software, Sonicfire Pro 5, comes FREE with any purchase of the sound libraries. Buy a DVD full of amazing, customizable music, and get the main application FREE.

What is it?
Sonicfire Pro 5, by SmartSound, is a soundtracking application, made to help create music for videos and soundtracks. I’ve used it for podcast jingles and themes, and a variety of times when music of a specific length was required. It creates high-quality royalty free music for musicians and non-musicians alike for the fraction of the cost of buying a custom composition or hiring live musicians.

What’s new in this version?
Two versions, Express Track Edition and Scoring Edition. Express Track Edition lets users create custom music tracks using the Smart Sound music libraries (more on that in a bit). It allows for basic customization, length, and some mood mapping. Search for a musical style, track name, intensity level, or ownership (your owned tracks or downloadable tracks). Preview tracks and your customizations before exporting to a variety of formats.

Scoring Edition includes the Express Track application and adds more advanced mood mapping, timing control, spotting, and hit files to allow a high degree of customization. MOod mapping allows the user to control the levels and styles of up to 9 different instrument layers, while timing control lets users precisely define how and when a specific section of music emphasizes a scene in the soundtracked video. Hit files are swells, crashes, whooshes and other sound effects to highlight specific events in the video while spotting tools allow keyframe markers to be defined, to make changes in the soundscape or music file playing behind the video.

My Time with SonicFire Pro
I spent some time with the Scoring Edition, after having used Sonicfire Pro 3 and 4 in the past, and let me tell you, this application just keeps getting better. It’s easier to find musical styles I want, and easier to create the length of time I want in a specific piece. Some of the niggling interface issues (over selection of highlighted timing fields, for example) are missing from this new application, which makes it a joy to use.

My favorite thing to do is to grab a specific track, and then bring up the bin window. This allows me to see all the building blocks of a given musical piece, and begin to build a composition from the ground up. I can select a block that is denoted as a starting block, then drag that up to the main multi-tracking window. In the bin, the other blocks of music that fit well after the one I dragged up are now highlighted. I can pick and choose how the music happens, all the while feeling confident that it will all fit together, as SonicFire Pro takes care of all of that for me.

Multi Layer Sound Files
New to me are multi-layer soundfiles. Back when I began to use Sonicfire Pro, the royalty-free music libraries allowed you to customize the length and composition by moving the music blocks and loops around. Now, there’s even greater control. The multi-layer music files contain the tracking info for all the instruments in the specific piece of music. A rock track may contain tracks to separately include Percussion, Bass, Synth pads, ACoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, etc. By manipulating the inclusion of these instruments into a given section of music, Sonicfire Pro allows for different “moods,” like Dialog, Light, Sparse, Atmospheric, and Full. THis new system allows for one of the coolest features in the software: Spotting.

Basically, this allows you to have greater control over the intensity and business of a piece of music while it is paired with a video. Not only can I drop the volume of a piece of music precisely when I want to (when someone is speaking, for example), but I can decrease the instrumentation or choose a “lighter” version of the current music to go behind the video. It’s like having the ultimate control over the soundtrack, with many new possibilities. I can have a full, intense track of music come in at the beginning, while the action in the video is intense, then dial it back for some dialogue, or switch to just emphasize the percussion or drum track to add some anticipation or suspense. It’s really becoming a full movie and video soundtracking tool.

Online Greatness
One of the most helpful things that Smartsound has done this time around is to create online video tutorials. Go to http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/scoring.html and there is a video to explain and teach how to use the various features of the software. I enjoyed spending a few minutes with each new feature in order to see examples of how they could be used in real-life examples. You can also check out all the tutorials here: http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/tutorials/index.html

Music To My Ears
The past few disks full of music have been, to my ears, a little on the “royalty-free music” side. They always felt a little less “real” than what I could create (with a lot more time an energy, granted) in a program like GarageBand or Soundtrack. THe new discs full of music this time have become, to my ears, comparable in quality. I was lucky enough to get to review a wide range of music libraries, with titles like, “Indie Film,” “Indie Band,” “Almost Unplugged,” and “Street Scene.” With even this small list, I now feel able to create a wide range of diverse music soundtracks and styles. With this software and a little bit of practice, I’m thinking that anyone can create high quality music for any film or video project, from commercials to home videos, from full length films to jingles and stingers for podcasts and radio broadcast.

Bottom Line
If you need to create music for soundtracks or other audio-visual projects, Sonicfire Pro 5 may be the best bet out there. It has an edge on tools like GarageBand and Soundtrack with its easy-to-use system and interface coupled with a highly-customizeable framework. Musician and non-musician alike will be able to use this to create highly engaging, well-connected pieces of music to put behind a variety of video and audio projects. At $99 per library (multi-layer) and a FREE SonicFire Pro Express Track edition, SmartSound has created an affordable and attractive software package that is extensible and almost limitless in its ability to create custom musical pieces for a wide variety of projects.