
Handling sample rates up to 768kHz and with a 64-bit audio engine humming behind the front end, I’d say SoundForge 13 Pro Suite is a comprehensive audio production and restoration package aimed at professionals. There’s also the Vandal guitar and bass virtual amp and effects suite which accomplishes a complete guitar effect signal chain. The Vintage Effects Suite includes tape echo, modulation, chorus, filtering, and flanger effects by the means of Corvex, Ecox, and Filtox. VariVerb 2 stretches between classic, modern and artificial reverbs with the option of designing your own without the aid of impulse responses. While Melodyne Essential and iZotope’s Ozone 8 Elements and RX 7 Elements likely need no introduction to seasoned producers, the other, less-known content is worth having a look at. Finally, the new coreFX Suite gets a firm grip on mastering with the inclusion of two compressors, limiter, expander, gate, and the VolumeFormer. Visualization and metering are enhanced with an update to Peak Meter V2 and a new oscilloscope. Improvements to the VST engine promise increased stability and speed with plug-ins, as well as ARA2 support. It also features redesigned icons and dock.

The user interface is now customizable with four hues. Fully integrated via ARA, the latter is a big focus in version 13 with its spectral editing facilities which include Spectral Casting and Molding, and noise print-based noise reduction. Aside from technicalities like ARA2 support, upgraded VST engine, and customizable GUI, the content-heavy update brings a new collection of effects and plug-ins, the inclusion of Melodyne Essential pitch correction, and Steinberg’s SpectraLayers Pro 6 audio repair and restoration suite.
