It also comes with iZotope’s Ozone 8 Elements mastering suite, and appears to be a popular solution for people wanting to digitise a vinyl record collection. However, it does support third‑party plug‑ins in VST2 and VST3 formats, and includes Zplane’s Élastique Pro time‑stretch algorithm along with a selection of core restoration tools. Restricted to mono or stereo editing with 32‑bit floating‑point number‑crunching, this lacks the more sophisticated multi‑channel editing capability and extensive file‑format handling found in the more expensive Pro versions, as well as many of their processing and effects tools and plug‑ins. The most junior member of the Sound Forge 12 family is the introductory Sound Forge Audio Studio 12.

Naturally, upgrades are available from previous versions of the software, while there’s also a new monthly subscription option with perpetual updates for anyone who prefers this payment model. This latest update is claimed to be the largest ever, refreshing and extending Sound Forge’s mastering and audio restoration capabilities to bring it more into line with its competitors, without throwing away its familiar user interface and workflow.

(A Mac version, with somewhat different functionality, is also available, and was reviewed in SOS August 2017.) Now, some 25 years after its original release, current owners Magix have breathed new life into this editing software family, starting by bringing the platform up to date in terms of support for 64‑bit PC hardware and current Windows operating system compatibility. When Sonic Foundry changed their corporate direction in 2003, Sound Forge was sold to Sony Creative Software and then, in 2016, it changed hands again. Originally developed by Sonic Foundry in the early ’90s, Sound Forge is one of the longest‑standing audio mastering and editing platforms, alongside the likes of SADiE, Adobe Audition (which started out as Syntrillium’s Cool Edit) and Steinberg’s Wavelab, to name just three of the industry’s veterans.

With 64‑bit compatibility and VST3 support, Magix’s Sound Forge 12 is ready to face the future. The phase meter in the top right corner is in the novel and useful circular mode. Sound Forge Pro 12 with a stereo audio file loaded.

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