Hey Everyone,
I am looking for a good multi-track audio editor for mac that is available for a reasonable price. In the past I have used Adobe Audition, but I am now looking for a mac solution.
Any suggestions?
AGhost
Don’t discount the power of Garageband if you haven’t used it yet. If that doesn’t cut it for you, Logic Express is the next step up, but has a price tag of $200. That’s cheaper than Audition, but I don’t know if that’s within your budget, and it’s more of a creation + audio/MIDI editing tool, rather than just a strict editor. If that doesn’t sound to be up your alley, try going with Audacity or Garageband. They’re both astoundingly good, for being free.
(I myself am a Logic Studio user. The only other pro DAW software I would recommend is Ableton Live.)
If you are serious
get Protools
at http://www.digidesign.com
Products ranges from FREE to VERY expensive.
Most Audio studios use Protools, so you can do professional finishing
if your project gains some weight.
There hasn’t been a free version of Pro Tools since OS 9 (or Windows 98/Me). And it is true that many, many studios use Pro Tools, but you won’t ever find me in one of them. 
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Mbox2Micro/
That’s the cheapest you can get now. In order to run Pro Tools, you MUST be using a Digidesign or M-Audio interface (with an extra dongle on top of that). That’s why this dongle has a headphone jack. Ridiculous.
You can pickup a decent M-audio soundcard for a decent price and then get Pro Tools M-Powered (its exactly the same but for M-audio hardware).
I dont have a price offhand but a couple of years ago i picked up a 2 in 8 out M-audio Firewire 410 sound card and Protools M-powered for a snip of the Digidesign alternative. I did get It at a even cheaper price due to great exchange-rates in my favour, but it was a great deal none the less!
Saying that, if your not ‘serious’ about the audio work you can get very decent free DAW programs, or theres Logic Pro, basically the same as pro tools but you dont need the externals, the new version doesn’t even require a dongle.
For free ones i would suggest Ardour!
If you’re not going to be mobile with your audio software, then this is the cheapest Pro Tools setup:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MBox2Mini
It’s not that big, but it’s still a pain if you just want to use your laptop and nothing else. You can’t even listen to your Pro Tools session without running through the Pro Tools hardware.
So, that’s $300, and Pro Tools “M-Powered”, for M-Audio interfaces, cost $250. Considering there is no M-Audio interface for $50, the MBox is a better deal.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTMP/
If you actually need an interface and a DAW, then there are some cost-effective Pro Tools LE solutions. Logic Express is $200, and there isn’t a $100 interfce out there that can match the Mbox 2 Mini. However, you could get the Alesis iO|2 for $139, with Logic Express, and have a much nicer setup, in my opinion, than you would have with the Mbox 2.
I wasn’t really looking for that complex of a setup. I was just looking for something with multitrack and a collection of useful filters like fade in and out, pitch, etc. I suggested something like Audition because I have used it before, but I don’t need anything close to that level of features.
The problem is that most cheaper audio apps these days don’t have multitrack support which is a must.
AGhost
You can get the latest Audition (CS3) for the Mac cant you?
Unfortunately, Audition is one of Adobe’s products that is unavailable for Mac and Soundbooth does not support multi-track editing.
Wow, I thought they were committed to getting ALL their apps over to OSX. I never knew they were leaving items out.
At $0, Audacity, Ardour, and Garageband are the cheapest multitrack editors of all. Have you given any a shot yet? I’ve never used Ardour, because I hate X11 and the installation was too much of a pain for me to get through it, but the other two really are top-notch, comparable to other applications that cost upwards of a couple hundred dollars.
Isn’t ProTools one of the companies that are known for not supporting new Mac OS versions (for a long time)? I’ve heard there’s been a lot of trouble with Leopard (actually, not trouble - it simply was not supported).
E.g.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055214631
I’m only unhappy that Steinberg so far hasn’t released WaveLab for the Mac at all, because WaveLab is one of the few applications that doesn’t really work in my VMWare XP 
Jashan
yea protools is not technically supporting Leopard, but i know many people including myself who are running protools fine in leopard. At the same time i know there are people who cant get it to run at all.
I have never been able to understand Steinberg. Why do they have so many products that all do the same thing? (4 versions of Cubase; Nuendo; 3 versions of Wavelab; Sequel) I feel a bit similar about Soundtrack and Logic, but considering Soundtrack isn’t a standalone product, and including Logic in Final Cut Studio would not make for as much of a cost-effective package, at least that makes sense on some level to me. You could argue that there are different pricing tiers for Steinberg’s selection, but none of those prices are competitive in the modern market.
Avid and Protools have been around for along time.
Both used to be available only on Mac.
It is when Avid, decided to support PC that Apple released FCP. I think they were a little put out.
In a way Apple is where it is because of the use of these products in the pro media industries.
As far as i am concerned there are other standards to adhere to, rather than an Mac OS update that as far as i can see, offers very little extra, bar a few bells and whistles.
So I’m not jumping all over Leopard right now.
I think when choosing software tools, one should look at the entire product range.
ie. Adobe AfterFX is the top of Adobe, for compositing.
Combustion is a the bottom end of the Autodesk(Discreet) range, with comparable capabilities. Difference is, you are upwardly mobile into a high end skill set.
Same thing with Protools
If Pro Tools actually had anything unique to offer, then it might be worth waiting for Digi to play catch-up.
Ableton Live is a great tool for almost any audio work. Importing audio is a matter of drag and drop (and it supports MP3, and chopping up sound is also incredibly simple.
Plus, if you’re feeling especially dope you can use it to DJ too.
Demo’s are available and you can get a lite edition with various soundcards/keyboards etc…
I’ve been using Amadeus Pro for a while.
http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/
It’s a great, fully-featured multitrack editor reminiscent of SoundEdit 16 from the ‘classic’ days of Mac audio. It has a ton of features, including good OGG support, and it’s only $40. I’d highly recommend giving it a try.
I have protools but I also use Deck and Peak for audio editing and mixing. They are great tools making audio loops and mixing sounds while adding effects. I’ve made some nice ambient battle sounds in 5.1 surround as well using Deck and Peak.