BIAS today unveiled Peak Studio — a new edition of their audio editing, mastering, and delivery software for Mac OS X.
Peak Studio will include Peak Pro 7, along with a suite of tools for multi-channel mixing, mastering, restoration, streamlined analog archiving, and more.
Here’s an overview of what’s in BIAS Peak Studio:
Advanced Mastering, Restoration, and More:Peak Pro 7 includes a new de-clipping tool for repairing audio files. “Clipped” recordings are corrected using advanced re-synthesis and spectral repair DSP algorithms from BIAS that produce jaw-dropping results. Peak Pro 7 also integrates editions of the highly acclaimed SoundSoap Pro 2 and Master Perfection Suite plug-ins, plus a new wide-band peak limiter. The additional signal processing tools make Peak Pro 7 the most comprehensive audio editing and processing application for Mac OS X in its class. Other enhancements include support for MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate) and compressed WAVE files, Japanese CD-TEXT, Pro Tools playback keyboard short cuts, and other improvements. Unlike previous editions, Peak Pro 7 includes DDP (Disc Description Protocol) Export — providing support for this popular pre-master delivery format at no additional charge.
Multi-Channel Audio Production: Peak Studio provides a new state-of-the-art audio production environment from BIAS — offering intuitive multi-track audio recording, multi-channel editing, mono/stereo/surround mixing, onboard signal processing, cross-fades featuring Bezier curves, independent volume envelopes, integration with Peak, and more.
Whether used for streamlined multi-channel editing, multi-track recording, compositing, or surround mixing, Peak Studio users will certainly appreciate the intuitive control and ergonomics in this new and powerful audio production tool.
LP & Tape Archiving: Peak Studio also includes a new application from BIAS called SoundSaver — a powerful utility optimized for the analog archiving workflow. Whether transferring from analog tapes or vinyl LPs, SoundSaver streamlines the process and produces professional results.
Other Peak Studio Editions: Peak Studio XT (Extended Technology) adds editions of SoundSoap 2, SoundSoap Pro 2, and Master Perfection Suite for compatibility with most host applications that support the popular AU, VST, and RTAS/AS plug-in formats.
Availability and pricing — Peak Pro 7 and Peak Pro XT 7 will be available in Q4 2010 at a US Suggested Retail Price of $599 and $1199 respectively through authorized resellers worldwide and directly from BIAS. The Peak Studio multi-channel production environment will be released in Q2 of 2011. All customers purchasing new retail editions of Peak Pro 6 from November 1st 2010 may receive a free upgrade to Peak Pro Studio when available.
For more information, visit the BIAS web site: http://www.bias-inc.com
Honestly, there's no way this is going to compete with mainstream DAWs at that pricepoint, and it doesn't even have any MIDI editing. Peak is good, but it's always been ludicrously overpriced for the functionality you get.
I really wonder what their rationale is for going down this route. I can't see any at all.
I disagree…here's my take on it – as stated in the Peak User forum – and as a contributor of ideas on this to Bias developers….
I can only hope Peak Studio will be the multitrack app that's been missing – what would set it apart from the rest? Ideally, for me — easy, audible scrub/cut/splice waveform editing capability of each individual channel directly accessible – without having to "exit" the single-window environment.
The cumbersome edit/scrub interface of other DAWs has always been the deal-killer for me…
I've LONG advocated simply this….a multi-channel version of…. PEAK! (Think – everything you do in Peak – only instead of 2-tracks, you have the identical functionality in a multitrack platform,on each independent channel).
This is hopefully what we'll see with Peak Studio. Lest one think Deck is what I describe…no – the editing still involves bouncing out to Peak and then back "in" to the multitrack display for placement of the edited segment. If you recall – or still use – the Orban Audicy – there was the idea – though i still found Peak easier to edit because it allows a single command vs. multiple steps to accomplish the simple act of cut/paste edits…no "switch to edit mode" or dragging segments together to "join" them nonsense…So many music-intensive DAWs were adopted for broadcast production only because there was no alternative for that use. There's alot of unpleasant needlessly complex feature-clutter and tediousness in even much higher-end DAWs which are simply absurd for a rapid production room workflow. The best technology to me makes my job
simpler and easier – I don't need a cockpit of layers of steps standing in the way of straightforward
editing and arranging of a final mix for spot work in particular.
The beauty of Peak has always been in the simply easy and logical editing interface. The original comparison I made at the dawn of its creation was… it took the cut/copy/paste simplicity of word-processing and applied it to audio….but for me the great bonus is the ability to audibly monitor what you are dragging across with your cursor to precisely mark edits.
Far more expensive kind-of-similar apps have never given me what is to me such a blatantly obvious feature! To me that's remarkable.
Yep…hopefully this is "it!" –(with 8+ channels ; )
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Multimedia/Voiceovers Worldwide Since 1970-something…
So much for that. Bias has ceased operations.