The Sonic Spot has recommended software for three different price classifications to help you find the best software that works with your budget.

Best Freeware

Tiny Wave Editor is a great freeware sample editor. Although it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles found in many shareware and commercial editors, it definitely packs a nice set of features. Some of the ones you wouldn't expect in a freeware editor are loop crossfade, EQ, time compress/expand, pitch shift and APSI SCSI transfer support for a few of Yamaha's samplers and synthesizers.

If the Tiny Wave Editor doesn't meet your needs but you can't afford anything other than freeware, there are a couple of the shareware editors which let you to select feature subsets each time they're started. This allows you to (painfully) get by without paying until you can get the funds together for registering a copy.

Acid WAV ($45) is a nice editor with a unique tab-style interface to help simplify finding the sample processing and synthesis functions by breaking them out into groups. It contains a rich set of effects and synthesis tools which are especially useful for creating instrument samples for use with samplers and wavetable synthesizers as well as trackers and other sample-based music applications.

Best Value

Cool Edit ($69) is probably the most successful shareware program in it's class. It has a clever way of letting you "try before you buy" by allowing you to select a subset of features each time the program is started. This gives you a good look at its simple and functional interface, huge feature list, seamless plug-in integration, and broad range of supported file formats that make it one of the top editors at any price, let alone under $100. Cool Edit is the first sample editor you should try because it probably has more features than you'll ever need. But, if you find yourself requiring more power and higher quality results, take a look at the programs listed in the next section.

Best Overall

As usual, the most expensive programs have the richest feature sets and get the highest quality results. Two sample editors rank above all the others in this category. They both have excellent feature sets which accomplish just about any editing task. The one to choose depends mostly on your work-style and which interface you'll be most comfortable with.

Sound Forge ($499) provides a clean and simple interface to the loads of quality features with a standard Windows look and feel. It has DirectX plug-in support, an extensive set of audio processing tools and support for just about every standard sample format in existence (including RealAudio, ASF and MP3 since version 4.5c). There are also plenty of options allowing you to optimize the programs performance on your system. Its graphical interface and editing tools are incredibly fast and simple to use, making it my personal favorite.

WaveLab ($499) is also an excellent sample editor which has a slightly less refined look and feel than Sound Forge, but provides an enormous set of features. Like Sound Forge it supports DirectX plug-ins, but it also works with the vast collection of free and commercial VST plug-ins which is a definite bonus. It also has the added ability to create play-lists and burn CDs. Sound Forge can create play-lists, but leaves CD burning functionality to CD Architect which is far more capable than WaveLab in this area, but also costs additional $395. It takes a live/real-time approach to editing, never requiring the audio to stop playing. You can easily add non-destructive real-time effects before processing as if you were in a music sequencer or multi-track editor. WaveLab is probably the best choice for less "technical" users.