I'm a fairly tough customer for wave editors, since I wrote one of the first
graphic wave editors for PCs back in '83.  I'd used CoolEdit for a long time,
until it was sold to Adobe and basically orphaned off.  (Would have continued
using it, but I lost the registration and Adobe wouldn't renew it.)

Since then I've been trying various cheap and free editors, without much
satisfaction.   Finally found one that handles all the leading types of audio
files, edits neatly, and has a pitch-shifting facility.  Not as powerful as
CoolEdit, but not as expensive either.   After buying it and using it for a week,
I had a couple of suggestions.

Here's the email I sent: note the date and time.

===========

01/24/08  9:53 AM
 

I bought the Audio Editor a week ago, and like it a lot ... best editor for the money.

Two quibbles:

1.  I find the musical splash screen rather annoying and surprising.  Is there a way to turn off the music? 

2.  Is there an easier keystroke for play and pause?  Most editors use the spacebar for that

purpose.  Ctrl-Alt-P and Ctrl-P are difficult to remember and reach.

===========

And here's the response.  Again note the date and time.

===========

01/24/08  8:55 PM

Hello,

Thank you very much for your suggestions! Please donwload the newest version (2.10) on this page:

**************** 

Some shortcuts are changed and some new shortcuts are added. The music on the flash screen is removed.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Best Regards,

David
EArt Media Software
http://www.eartmedia.com

============================

And sure enough, the new version takes care of my suggestions!

So, I wholeheartedly recommend EArtMedia.com!  They have a few other
free and cheap products for editing and splitting video files.

Now THAT is customer support!

(O__O) WOW! ^____^

They sell a seamless texture creator as well. I'm going to give it a try.

I had a similar experience with both CoolEdit and Acid, once they were sold my copy became unreinstallable (is that even a word?!) These super-responsive one man bands are very rewarding to deal with - the trouble is, either they become successful and get sold to a corporate monolith, or they aren't successful and disappear. I'm now using Audacity, which has the advantage of being free - but this is worth knowing about.

Not to turn this into a rant but that's exactly what makes me nervous about online activation. The companies always say they will take care of the customers in the event they sell or close but I worry that we will be the last thing on their mind. Thanks for the heads up. I also used Cool Edit. Will check this out.

@E-bob:
"These super-responsive one man bands are very rewarding to deal with - the trouble is, either they become successful and get sold to a corporate monolith, or they aren't successful and disappear."

True in general.   Darwin in action.  But we have two outstanding counterexamples in 
our own field: Steve Cox and Phil Cooke.  Both super-responsive, and both have lasted 
for at least 7 years now........  Crossing fingers and knocking on wood....

Interesting heads-up; thanks.

My audio requirements aren't complex, and I stopped looking for editors when I found Audacity; how does Audio Editor compare?

@steerpike:  I remember trying Audacity some time ago, and couldn't
make the LAME encoder work properly for MP3s.  Perhaps I didn't
try hard enough, but it didn't seem to work for me.

The E-Art editor loads and saves MP3s natively, and has a wider variety of 
effects and filters built-in.  

I've been haveing good luck with Audacity too :)