Audio Editing, Processing & Mastering Software Mac OS X. By Paul WhiteThe main waveform-editing screen, where regions are selected and markers placed. The complete file is shown at the top of the display, while selected sections can be zoomed in the lower area.This major update to Peak includes a new Playlist editor, full AU plug-in and virtual instrument support and a heavy-duty suite of mastering plug-ins.I often describe BIAS' Peak as a 'Swiss Army Knife' of a program, as it goes far beyond the stereo audio-file editing capabilities that are at its heart. Certainly, if you simply want to trim or edit audio files and then produce a pre-master for CD duplication it will do the job perfectly, but it is also a powerful sound-design tool popular with sample developers and film sound-effects creators.

Numerous sophisticated DSP sound-processing functions (which seemingly increase in number with every incarnation of Peak) are built into the program, but third party plug-ins, including virtual instruments with the latest version, may also be used. Peak can also handle numerous batch-conversion operations, which can be a real time-saver in a commercial situation, and there are several tools for improving or rescuing damaged audio files.These features, along with a comprehensive graphical interface, have helped to keep Peak at the forefront of audio editing on the Mac platform. However, far from being complacent, BIAS (Berkeley Integrated Audio Systems) have radically overhauled the program, adding enhancements that include comprehensive Audio Unit (AU) plug-in support and a brand-new Playlist section.

In the Peak Pro XT version they've also bundled the six heavy-duty mastering plug-ins that comprise the Master Perfection Suite. ( Peak Pro 5 is essentially the same program but without the Master Perfection Suite.) As with the earlier version of the software, audio files of up to 32-bit, at whatever sample rate your hardware can deliver, are supported. All edits are non-destructive until a project is saved, and there's unlimited Undo/Redo, with a full Undo history.

FromBIAS:Take your audio project to the next level with Peak Studio. This immensely powerful bundle includes Peak Pro 7 - the latest version. BIAS AMP was designed to integrate directly with BIAS FX, Positive Grid’s flagship amp-and-effects processing software. All of the custom amplifiers you create with BIAS AMP 2 are automatically available in your BIAS FX, providing a foundation for your ideal finished tone. Start with an amp that fits your playing like a glove in BIAS AMP 2.

I don't propose to cover all of Peak 's many attributes again during this review of the update, so for more info on what Peak is already capable of,.If you don't need the Pro version of the sotware, the budget Peak LE offers similar editing features and, like the flagship version, has been updated to include movie support (more details overleaf) and Peak 's newly designed Red Book-compliant Playlist, complete with all the necessary PQ subcode editing, ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) entry and CD Text features for CD burning. Missing from Peak LE is the new advanced waveform view in the Playlist — a key feature of the professional edition.On the plus side, Peak LE features the same high-quality sample-rate conversion used in Peak Pro (although the highest quality setting is capped at '4', as opposed to the '10' of Pro XT). According to BIAS, this is still very good, and better even than that offered by Peak 4.The updated Peak engine also includes Quicktime Movie/DV-clip synchronisation, plus a new Change Duration DSP process for adjusting the length of audio clips with minimal side-effects and without affecting pitch. The Change Duration feature in Pro 5 offers an additional tempo-envelope option, and the same technology is used to provide a high-quality Change Pitch DSP function. For easier editing, there's also an Auto-Define Tracks tool that can automatically divide up album-style material into separate tracks by detecting pauses. If all this sounds impressive, check out the full extent of what's been done to Peak Pro at.

For a limited time, bundles offering free extras in all versions of Peak are available. Again, full details are provided on the BIAS web site.The first obvious difference during installation of Peak Pro 5 is in the copy-protection scheme, which now uses a USB dongle. This is authorised on-line when you register the software and allows the program to be installed on multiple machines, as all you then need to do is plug the key into the machine you wish to use. Clearly, this is good news if you tend to move between a laptop and a studio machine. My dongle is sticking out of a USB hub along with several others and appears to work perfectly happily.

Just prior to going to press, BIAS informed me that when the forthcoming Peak Pro 5.2 update is released, the USB key will be optional and the program, as well as the additional plug-ins included in the XT edition, will be protected by default using a new software authorisation key. This means that a USB key will not be required, which is good news for dongle haters, but it will be available for a nominal fee if you prefer a hardware key.As with most updates, some of Peak 's new features and capabilities are added to menus and so may not be immediately obvious, while others take the form of new windows where it is immediately apparent that something has been added or changed. One such area is Peak 's Playlist, where the newly designed List view window has been augmented by a graphic waveform view directly above it, showing staggered or linear views with object transparency, allowing crossfades and tracks to be adjusted visually (see screen above). You can zoom in or out much as you can in the main window, and drag region boundaries as required. Several styles of crossfade are available and customised crossfade versions can be saved for future use.The updated Playlist editor, showing the newly introduced waveform view.Roxio's Jam features a very nice graphical window for adjusting track gaps, fades and start markers, and BIAS have had to add comparable features to Peak now that it no longer relies on Jam for its playlist and album-editing features. BIAS stopped including Jam because both Peak Pro and LE 5 now support full Red Book disc-burning directly.

They don't all work in exactly the same way, but the end result is much the same, including the ability to dither while burning. Other important differences are that Peak uses the Apple disc-burning engine and Jam doesn't offer such comprehensive editing and processing capabilities. Having said that, in order to maintain compatibility Peak continues to offer Jam Image import and export.The revised Playlist editor can be used to sequence multiple audio files or regions, with flexible options for crossfading between items. The POW-r dithering algorithm is the same one employed by Logic and Pro Tools and is well regarded.Essentially, the designers have tried to ensure that they've at least covered all the options offered by Jam and then added some more of their own.

The Playlist offers unlimited Undo/Redo, plus keyboard trigger functions for auditioning and nudging audio segments and edits. Because the Playlist burns files that are Red Book compatible, they may be used as the source for professional duplication and they include ISRC entry windows, CD track indexes, PQ subcode editing, CD-Text, and so on. Peak 's own V-Box plug-ins may also be applied to the files within a Playlist as part of the burning process, which can save a lot of time if you want, for example, to make a CD out of some noisy audio (say, an old recording) and de-noise it as you burn it.Of course, audio-format CDs are prone to errors and on most systems you have no way of checking these, so the first you know about them is when the pressing plant throws your master back at you and says the block error rate is too high to work from. To get around this problem, Peak 5 Pro has an extension that supports the standard 'DDP' file-export format. Many pressing plants prefer to receive material in the robust DDP data format, so the availability of this extension is a very welcome addition for anyone preparing pre-masters for duplication. Although it will normally be a paid-for option, I understand that the extension will be offered free to Peak XT purchasers for a limited period.The plug-in side of Peak follows the same philosophy as it did in earlier versions of the program, using both inserts and a graphical effects (V-Box) routing window, but it now supports Audio Units plug-ins as well as VST throughout. There are no direct alternatives to Peak on the Mac platform, although i3's DSP Quattro (last reviewed in Sound On Sound April 2003) improves with every incarnation, so that may be an option if you need something less heavy-duty.

There's also Peak LE 5, as described in the main body of the review, which currently costs even less than DSP Quattro. On the PC/Windows platform, Steinberg's Wavelab is the obvious 'big-gun' contender.Some of the improvements in Peak Pro 5 are hidden under the hood and are therefore less obvious — for example, the refined time- and pitch-manipulation algorithms that include a new transient mode to help prevent artifacts when percussive sounds are being processed. BIAS have always been very concerned about the quality of sample-rate conversion and their SRC routine now appears to be one of the best available. (After all, there's no point in recording at high sample rates and then using an SRC to provide a 44.1kHz CD version if the SRC is going to negate any benefits that recording at a high sample rate might have had in the first place.) An industry White Paper that I saw at the NAMM show earlier this year compared Peak 's SRC to that of 11 other mainstream audio programs and concluded that Peak 's was amongst the best out there (the paper is available at, for anyone who is interested in seeing the results in full). The SRC algorithm is also utilised to provide high-resolution tape-style audio-playback scrubbing via Apple's Core Audio. Where quick and dirty sample-rate conversion is required, however, Peak can be set to use faster, less sophisticated algorithms.In addition to upgrading established algorithms, Peak Pro includes some completely new DSP processes, such as the aforementioned Auto-Define Regions, a Strip Silence function and the ability to derive an envelope from an audio signal. The already comprehensive Batch File Processor has now been updated to enable the preservation of file resolution and type, while a new Recover Audio File command gives users a fighting chance to recover part or all of damaged audio files.Some improved features take the form of additional convenience tools, such as the new Region Split command, and Unicode support that allows file names longer than 32 characters to be used.

Audio files of up to 10GB can now be worked on without you first having to split them up, while waveform drawing has been updated, allowing more meaningful audio phase information to be shown in the audio waveform window. SMPTE HD units (relating to frames of High Definition TV picture as opposed to PAL or NTSC) have been added to the time display, but one of the real biggies for those working in multimedia or game development must be the addition of the facility to Snap to CD Frames, PS2 or Xbox Units in the Actions menu.While Peak Pro 5 no longer needs Jam to take files to the CD pre-mastering stage, the days of included audio-DVD mastering are still some way off, so a special trial edition of Minnetonka Audio's Discwelder Bronze DVD-Audio disc-burning software is bundled with Peak Pro. The trial version enables users to burn up to five DVD-A discs, after which there's an opportunity to upgrade to the full version at a preferential price.

However, I still find it frustrating that although surround sound has been with us for a long time, there's no straightforward integrated editing and Audio DVD-burning application that will let us take a bunch of surround WAV or AIFF files from a DAW and turn them into a playable surround album in one or more of the currently popular surround formats. Maybe if more effort went into this area across the board, surround would catch on more seriously in the project studio marketplace. As it is, it seems to be attracting very little interest. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2020.

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