Amadeus Pro 2.8.14 Beta — Mac version

Most audio editors tie you to one file at a time. Amadeus Pro lets you open and edit multiple tracks side by side, cutting, pasting and layering without switching windows. It handles big recordings without choking because it writes straight to disk as you work.

What it does well

Think of it as a workbench for sound files. You can record, slice, fade, apply effects and analyse waveforms all in one place. Audio Unit plugins slot right in, so reverb, EQ and compression are a click away. The waveform caching keeps things snappy even with hour-long recordings, and the interface switches between English, German, Danish, Spanish, Italian, Finnish and French.

Runs on an older Intel Mac that newer tools dropped

Podcasters cleaning up interviews, musicians stitching together demo tracks, or anyone doing field recording edits on an older Intel Mac. It asks for macOS 10.9 or later, so it runs on machines that newer software has left behind. If you need to line up multiple takes, remove noise, or just trim a long recording without waiting for renders, it fits the bill.

The Gatekeeper “damaged” warning on first launch

First launch on a newer macOS sometimes throws a "damaged" warning. That's Gatekeeper being over-cautious. Open Terminal, type xattr -cr (with a space after it), drag the Amadeus Pro app into the Terminal window so the path fills in, then press Enter. After that it opens normally.

VST plugins not showing up is another one. Amadeus Pro prefers Audio Units, and if a VST has no AU counterpart it might stay invisible. Check the plugin manufacturer's site for an AU build. When you add new plugins, quit and reopen the app so the plugin scanner picks them up.

Long recordings sometimes look like they've frozen during an edit. They haven't — the direct-to-disk engine is still writing. Watch the progress bar at the bottom of the window before reaching for Force Quit. On older spinning hard drives, this takes longer than you'd expect.

Exporting to MP3 occasionally complains about a missing encoder. Grab the LAME framework from a trusted source, drop it in /Library/Frameworks/, and the option comes back to life.

Quiet features worth knowing

The Favourite Actions panel is easy to overlook. Drag any command from the menus into it, and you've got a one-click button for things you do repeatedly — normalise a clip, convert to mono, apply a high-pass filter. Right-click a button to rename it or assign a keyboard shortcut. If you process the same kind of files every week, this saves more time than you'd think.

Markers do more than label sections. Place one with Command-B during playback, then double-click it later and type a note. When you export, you can have those markers written into the file metadata — handy for podcast chapters or cue points in a live set recording.

Batch processing works on more than just file format conversion. Set up a chain in the batch window: normalise, fade out the last two seconds, then export as FLAC. Drop a folder of field recordings on it and walk away. The output goes wherever you tell it, and the originals stay untouched.

The sound analysis tools — spectrogram, sonogram, waveform stats — live under the Window menu. They're not just for show. A quick spectrogram view before noise reduction shows you exactly where the hiss sits, so you can target the right frequency band instead of guessing.

Things people ask

Does it handle multi-track recording or just editing? It records multiple inputs at once if your audio interface exposes them. Arm each track with the input you want, hit record, and they stay in sync. You can also pull in a backing track and record overdubs against it.

Will it open old Audacity or Sound Forge projects? Not directly — those use their own formats. But export stems or WAV files from the old project and drag them in. Amadeus Pro lines them up on separate tracks and you're editing again straight away.

How's performance on a machine with 4 GB of RAM? Fine for most jobs. The waveform caching and direct-to-disk design mean it leans on your drive more than your memory. A solid-state drive helps more than extra RAM. If you're stacking dozens of tracks with real-time effects, that's where an older Mac will start to feel the strain.

Can I use it to digitise vinyl or tapes? Yes — connect your turntable or tape deck through an audio interface, set the recording input, and hit record. The noise reduction tools are built for cleaning up crackle and hum afterwards. Split tracks by dropping markers between songs, then export each marker range as its own file.

Does it create iPhone ringtones? Trim a clip to under 30 seconds, export as AAC with the .m4r extension, and AirDrop it to your phone. The format is all that matters — Amadeus Pro handles the trimming and conversion in one go.

• macOS 10.9 or later
• 64-bit Intel processor