Sweep 0.8.0 Audio Editor

One of the more popular audio file editors that is available for Linux and other Unix compatible platforms is Sweep. Sweep will work with a number of different audio file formats including WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, MP3 and others. Sweep supports the LADSPA plugin API, which allows a wide range of audio processors to be plugged in. Sweep works with both the OSS and ALSA sound drivers. Unlike many sound file editors, Sweep has a number of real-time audio effect capabilities, making it useful for live music DJ applications. Sweep also works well for more typical audio editor uses, such as the creation of CD audio tracks.

Some of the major features of Sweep include:

• Unlimited undo/redo.
• Multithreaded background rendering and file import/export.
• Interactive Scrubbing.
• Support for multichannel files.
• Customizable keybindings.
• Support for French, Hungarian, Italian, German, Russian, and Polish languages.
• Support for the Speex speech codec.

Sweep editing, recording, and playback capabilities include:

• Cut, copy and paste insert.
• Support for discontinuous selections.
• Invert, double/halve, and shift left/right.
• Many wave visualization options.
• Numerous playback modes including reverse and looping.
• Tape loop recording.

Sweep features a "virtual stylus", known as Scrubby. Scrubby is useful for quickly locating sounds in audio tracks. By moving the mouse over a section of the displayed audio waveform, Scrubby plays the underlying audio track. The effect is similar to that achieved by manually moving a reel tape over a tape head. Scrubby can also be used to modify live audio inputs.

Other features of Sweep include the ability to mix and speed-modify an unlimited number of samples and loops, and "piano style QWERTY playback", which allows the computer keyboard to be used to generate musical notes in real-time.

Version 0.8.0 of Sweep has been released. "This is the first milestone release for Sweep 1. Please test it thoroughly for both general sample editing and live performance." One interesting new features in version 0.8.0 is the inclusion of a new monitoring system that allows people with two sound cards to listen to a monitor track on one sound card while playing a main output on the other sound card. This opens up a wide range of capabilities that are typically performed by an audio mixing console. The release also features bug fixes and an improvement to the Italian language support.

Sweep 0.8.0 may be downloaded here.

Sweep has been released with a GPL license.

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