Version 1.14 reviewed by Mitch Bechtel - 04/09/99

Internet Audio Mix provides a clean and easy to use interface for arranging and mixing multiple clips of audio into a complete piece. There are few things in this program worth complaining about. Even the commonly neglected on-line help is useful with clear text and illustrations. It also includes a small troubleshooting section to help with common problems when getting started.

Arranging and Mixing

The main interface provides drag and drop support allowing you to easily add audio clips from the Windows Explorer. Audio clips are added into the project exactly where you "drop" them. Wave files are the only supported format for importing digital audio. But the program will work with Window’s Audio Compression Manager (ACM) to load compressed wave files. I found this useful for adding MP3 encoded wave files generated with MP3 Decoder.

Audio clips can be moved left to right to adjust the start time, up and down to change tracks and the right edge can be "resized" left to end the audio early or right to loop the clip. Looping the clip this way makes managing background sounds and even looping drum beats simple. The drop down box on the toolbar allows you to switch between editing the volume, pan or sample rate (adjusts pitch and speed together). All three of these parameters are edited with non-destructive envelopes. The envelope points can be adjusted by clicking in the end point boxes to move the point, on the line to adjust the two connecting points together, or anywhere else in the clip to add a new point. In my opinion, this is the most intuitive and easy way the audio clips could be edited. Audio clips can also be played individually by clicking on the mini play button in it's upper right.

Once you have a set of related audio clips in place you can group them together so they can be easily moved around together from that point on. Like all editing operations grouping is non-destructive and the individual clips in a group can be separated and edited as a single clip again.

One drawback of the interface is the low resolution at which audio waveforms are displayed when zoomed in. This makes fine tuning of audio clip placement and editing adjustments difficult. The bright side is fast waveform display.

All audio clip additions and edits can be made during playback. Output is quickly adjusted but with only occasional and fairly unimportant glitches (it is not meant for live mixing). This makes it possible to hear changes right away. One feature that is not implemented and would be nice here is looping of a selection or audio clip so you can keep adjusting an audio clip without having to stop and restart playback. Also, a minor annoyance is the inability to turn off automatic scrolling when the play cursor goes outside of the window. This can cause the window to jump/scroll while you are focused on editing a clip (although it will not jump if you are actually adjusting a clip or envelope).

Recording New Audio Clips

New audio clips can be quickly recorded with the programs built in facilities. The new audio is saved to a wave file and can be automatically added to your project at the currently selected time. The record dialog pops right back up after saving an audio clip, making it easy to record several takes or segments at once and then arranging them once you have finished recording. This is just one example of the developers great attention to the details that make this program such a productive tool.

Saving The Results

Your work can be saved in the programs proprietary SoundGroup file format (.sgp) for later editing. Of course, the main purpose of the program is to export the final results to a Wave (.wav) or RealAudio (.ra) file. Exporting to these formats is done the same way you save a SoundGroup, only you select Wave or RealAudio from the Save Type list. You can also preview sounds from the save dialog, which is a nice touch if you are going to overwrite a file and want to make sure you know what's in it.

Saving as a Wave file presents you with options to save as 11025, 22050 or 44100 Hz, 8 or 16-bit, mono or stereo. Wave file output can be previewed directly within the program.

Saving as a RealAudio file presents you with a slightly different set of options allowing you to set the quality/compression rate (6.5 to 32 Kbps) with a friendly list that's presented with a brief description of each setting. This makes deciding on the correct amount of compression easier, even if you aren't an audio engineer. RealAudio output is previewed from an external RealAudio player, so you must have the RealAudio player installed for previewing.

Both the Wave and RealAudio save dialogs display the calculated destination file size so you know how much space is required before you save the file. Plus you can enter Title, Author and Copyright information that will be stored in the file.

Bugs/Stability

The program didn't crash or have a glitch the entire time it was tested. Fairly standard hardware was used, a Pentium 200 MMX with 32 MB RAM and a SoundBlaster AWE32.

Final Analysis

Internet Audio Mix is an excellent example of how keeping things simple and avoiding extra complex features can be a great feature in itself. Every part of the program is consistently clear and simple to use because it sticks to doing the basics well and doesn't have hundreds of mysterious sub-menus and dialog boxes that add confusion. This means that it may not have the special features you might want for a complex project, but it performs it's main purpose, mixing audio clips, quickly and intuitively. Any extra features you may need can usually be found in an external digital audio editor where you can process a Wave file and then easily add it back to your Internet Audio Mix project.

I highly recommend this program to anyone that (like the software description says) wants to create audio ads, stories and personal welcome messages, especially if it will be published on the web.

Pros

• Interface is fast and easy to use
• All features are executed well
• All edits are non-destructive and can be made during playback
• Great illustrated on-line help

Cons

• Interface doesn't support high resolution editing
• No effects or plug-in support (DirectX, VST, etc.)