AVS Audio Editor is a waveform audio editor for Windows from AVS4YOU. It records sound, cuts and rearranges audio files, applies effects and filters, generates tones and speech, mixes several tracks together and saves the result in another format. AVS4YOU sells the paid program through a subscription for one year or without a time limit. Until you activate it, the program adds a voice logo to the audio it saves.
Getting audio into the editor
AVS Audio Editor opens common formats such as MP3, FLAC, WAV, M4A, WMA, AAC, OGG and AMR. It can also grab tracks from an audio CD, with a choice of fast or more error-corrected reading modes. It fetches track names from an online CDDB database. Import from Video extracts the soundtrack from a video file or a DVD, and lets you pick a track when there is more than one.
Recording captures a microphone, turntable or other line input, starting at the cursor position. You can replace the file’s existing audio with the new recording or mix the two. This lets a voice-over play on top of existing music.
Cutting and splitting
Editing works on a selection: you highlight part of the waveform, then copy, paste, delete or trim it. Trimming keeps the selection and drops everything around it.
Markers divide long recordings. Split File by Markers cuts the file at each marker, so a digitized vinyl side or a long interview becomes separate numbered files. You can also edit stereo channels one at a time. Ctrl-clicking the left or right channel dims the other, and most edits then affect only the active side.
Effects and filters
AVS Audio Editor applies an effect to the selection, or to the whole file when nothing is selected. Each effect has a settings window with preview, and you can save its settings as presets. The built-in set includes:
- Volume and dynamics: amplify, fades, normalize, envelope, compressor, multiband compressor and limiter.
- Delay and modulation: echo, chorus, flanger, phaser, reverb, vibrato and Voice Morpher, which reshapes a voice to sound like a different speaker.
- Time and pitch: tempo change, pitch shift, rate change and reverse.
- Filters: equalizer, high-pass, low-pass, band and notch filters, FFT filter, noise gate and Delete Silence, which removes gaps that stay below a set level for longer than a set time.
DirectX filters and VST plug-ins add more effects. Once you point the program to a VST folder, its plug-ins appear on the DX/VST tab with their own settings windows.
Noise removal
Noise Removal works from a sample of the noise itself. You select a short stretch that holds only background hiss or hum, and AVS Audio Editor stores it as a noise profile. The filter then reduces matching noise across the track, with controls for reduction strength, frequency band and smoothing. A Keep only noise mode plays back just what the filter removes. This lets you hear whether it removes music along with the hiss.
Batch effects
The Batch window builds a chain of effects, sets their order and parameters, and applies it to every loaded file you tick. You can save a chain as a preset and repeat the same treatment later. For example, a chain can normalize and remove silence from a set of podcast episodes.
Tones and text to speech
The Generate tab inserts silence, noise, test signals, chirps and DTMF telephone tones. Text to Speech turns typed text into a spoken clip through the Windows speech engine, so the available voices are the ones installed on the computer. Sliders set pitch, rate and volume.
Multitrack mixing
The Mix tab opens a timeline where several files play together on stacked lines. You can drag each clip to a new start time or line, trim it or split it. Each line has volume, balance, Mute and Solo controls. A recording line captures new audio straight into the mix. Effects placed on the timeline cover a stretch you set by dragging and apply to all tracks in the mix. Mixes are saved as project files that can be reopened later.
Saving and conversion
Save writes changes back to the original file. Save As converts it to formats including MP3, WAV, WMA, M4A and FLAC. You can use ready-made profiles or custom codec, sample rate, bitrate and channel settings. Save Selection As exports only the highlighted part, which suits ringtones and short clips. When the source was a video, AVS Audio Editor can save the video again with only its soundtrack replaced.
