Adobe Soundbooth CS4 continuted
From the Tasks menu you can Change Pitch and Timing, Clean Up Audio, Create Loop, Remove a Sound and Volume Correction. Under Processes, you can Fade In, Fade Out, Make Louder, Normalize, Hard Limit, Equalize Volume Levels, Change Pitch and Timing, Reduce Noise, Remove Clicks and Pops and Remove Rumble. Effects available include Analog Delay, Chorus/Flanger, Compressor, Convolution Reverb, Distortion, Dynamics, EQ: Graphic, EQ: Parametic, Mastering, Phaser and Vocal Enhancer.
What’s New in Soundbooth CS4
Multitrack support - assemble all the elements of a complex soundtrack into a final audio mixdown
New Adobe Sound Document - enables nondestructive audio editing
Automatic volume matching - quickly match the volume of multiple clips to each other or to a single reference volume level with a single click
Volume keyframing - adjust the volume of your dialogue and sound-effects tracks or adjust the volume of your audio over time
MP3 compression preview - allows you to preview the sound quality at any selected bit rate and see the consequent file size before saving.
Improved integration with other Creative Suite 4 software - use Edit in Adobe Soundbooth command from within Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and Adobe After Effects CS4 to send audio files directly to Soundbooth for clean up or enhancement
Adobe Dynamic Link workflows – creates a direct link between new or existing audio files in select Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium components.
Looping tool enhancements – includes automatic beat detection to create seamless loops and you can adjust the in and out points by individual beats until you get the right loop
Additional Soundbooth Scores and improved workflow - free and purchasable Soundbooth Scores are available online through Resource Central
Speech Search – turns spoken dialogue into text-based metadata so you can search your video files.
Adobe Soundbooth CS4 sells for just under $200 and is available for the both the PC and Macintosh. System Requirements: IBM PC or compatible, 1.4 GHz or faster processor running Microsoft Windows XP or Vista with 1 GB RAM, 10 GB Hard Disk space, 1280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0 compatible graphics card, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7. Multicore Intel processor Mac OS X v10.4.11–10.5.4, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB hard disk space, 1280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0 compatible graphics card, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
Adobe After Effects CS4
After Effects is a professional video effects program used to add creative enhancements to any video or animation. You can combine video, still images, graphics, text, and sound in 2D or 3D space and then animate any aspect of each element for a creative effect. And with the new CS4 features and improvements, the video professional can add even more creative elements to a project, and with ease. Some of the new improvements include a search feature to quickly find parts of your video you want to enhance, make cell animation or water color paintings using the Cartoon effect, import 3D layers more precisely and export compositions as editable layered projects for use with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional.
When you run After Effects CS4, it has a similar look to Soundbooth CS4 with a gray main menu but divided into several sections, not just four. A Welcome screen appears over the main menu with the Tip of the Day and quick access to Recent Projects. You can click on Open Project, New Composition, Design Center, Help, Browse Templates, New Features and Video Tutorials. Clicking on Video Tutorials takes you to the Adobe Video Workshop online where you can get some video help. If you click on Browse Templates, a new window opens displaying several pre-designed effects you can use. Double clicking on a template will open it as a new project with all its elements listed. You can also access the templates from the File menu by clicking on Browse Template Projects.
The drop down menu tool bar at the top is similar to Soundbooth and includes File, Edit, Composition, Layer, Effect, Animation, View, Window and Help. Below the menu bar is a tools bar, and then the screen is divided into sections. At the top left is the Project tab, to the right is the Composition and Layer tabs, and at the far right are the Info and Audio sections. After loading a template, the sections change a bit. The Preview tab appears on the top far right of the screen, where you can play and pause the video and below are several more tabs with Effects & Presets, Tracker, Wiggler, Motion Stretch, and more. Also the elements of the project are displayed for this template animation in the Composition window: Wispy, Background, 02-Ghosts and 01-Ghosts.
To start a new project, click on the File menu at the top, and then click New. Now from the file menu you can import your audio, video and graphics files in several different formats for editing. This is a powerful, but complex program, so before you do any serious work, it’s best to run a few of their video tutorials to get some practice. A great place to find in-depth tutorial help is from Adobe Design Center at adobe.com/designcenter/tutorials/.
What’s New in After Effects CS4
Searchable timelines and projects, plus easier composition navigation - quickly find project elements, keyframeable properties, effects and more.
Photoshop 3D layers import - import 3D layers into After Effects, move them, animate cameras around them, adjust lighting, and composite them with other elements.
Cartoon effect - give live footage the look of cell animation and tylize video by reducing the color palette of a clip
Independent keyframing of X, Y, and Z position, plus other 3D compositing enhancements - use the new unified camera, which makes the After Effects camera tool work more like those in 3D modeling applications
Rich media composition export from After Effects to Adobe Flash Professional - assets such as text and Adobe Illustrator artwork are preserved as vectors
Enhanced Dynamic Link (Production Premium) - link Adobe Premiere Pro sequences to an After Effects composition and After Effects comps to Soundbooth
Imagineer Systems’ Mocha for Adobe After Effects for 2.5D planar motion tracking - application to track the motion of elements even where elements move offscreen or where there is motion blur or excessive grain.
Integrated workflow for mobile-device authoring - automatically set up an After Effects project that targets those devices with settings that match the targeted devices and output to the proper codecs and resolutions
Project intelligence through XMP metadata - retain asset metadata while working in After Effects.
Adobe After Effects CS4 sells for $825 and is available for the both the PC and Macintosh. System Requirements: IBM PC or compatible, 1.5 GHz or faster processor running Microsoft Windows XP or Vista with 2 GB RAM, 1.3 GB Hard Disk space, 1280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0 compatible graphics card, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7.4.5. Multicore Intel processor Mac OS X v10.4.11–10.5.4, 2 GB RAM, 2.9 GB hard disk space, 1280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0 compatible graphics card, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7.4.5. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
Software Companies Mentioned
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Ave
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
Phone: 800-833-6687
URL adobe.com
