Review:
Sonicfire Pro 3.0
Reviewer: Cliff Hollis and Mike Dixon
Edited by: Mike Dixon (7/28/03)
Publisher: SmartSound. ($299+)

So you've got lots of digital video but no music to accompany it? If you're planning to develop video projects, films, documentaries, etc. and want to stick to royalty free music, you'll need a program that helps you wade through the tons of music out there. Sonicfire Pro 3 might be what you're looking for.

Sonicfire Pro performed well on my PowerBook G4. No complaints. Be advised that the more music you buy/download, the more hard drive space this software will require (25-30 MB minimum is suggested to start with).

Everyone producing desktop video runs into the question of what do to about music or where to get it. You work hard on a project and need that special piece of mood music to move your audience. For me this usually meant buying royalty-free music and searching royalty free sites until I thought I would go nuts listening to snippets and committing to purchase, always hoping the full piece would sound like what I thought it would or better.

I came into Sonicfire Pro 3 as a former user of Sonicfire Pro 2. I had not used version 2 a lot before making the switch for this review. The thought of making custom music for my video has always been exciting to me.

The program is pretty simple but powerful. You load a movie that needs a score and follow an assistant or "maestro". The two methods are similar but offer different helpful options. The assistant asks you questions to tailor your music needs. The maestro is more streamlined and gives you a view of all available music. Both methods allow you to then insert the music into your movie clip you have opened. You can score music without having a clip open by just using time constraints. The advantage of the clip method is seeing the impact of what you are doing. Once you have made your choices and your soundtrack is open you can still add variations to your choices. I found this a nice fine-tuning option for the music I had compiled. You can fade in and out at the beginning and ends of your music soundtrack as well. There is also a master volume control that gives an overall master volume control. There is no loop creation required which will save lots of time.

(Editor's note: So how does this compare with Apple's Soundtrack program? We haven't received a copy of Soundtrack yet. As soon as we get it, we'll prepare a review for that as well. SmartSound has posted a web page with some comparisons between Sonicfire 3 and Soundtrack. Obviously, the page shows favoritism towards Sonicfire, but we'll reserve judgment until we review both products.)

The Mac version creates WAV files and works with QuickTime for movies. The Windows version of Sonicfire 3 works with both QuickTime and Windows Media. The WAV files can be exported with or without the movie clip you imported. This allows more control in other programs by importing the exported WAV file. You can do without that step by simply exporting movie and audio together as a QuickTime file. The sound files you work with are not limited to just Sonicfire files you have the option of working with CD audio and any sound file on your system. New to version 3 is the option of browsing music files available from the huge Sonicfire online library. You can purchase tracks instantly and download them for immediate use. This was a handy option for adding just the right touch to your project.

(Editor's note: SmartSound makes a consumer soundtrack creation tool called Movie Maestro. Read the ECU-MUG review. Those who are not interested in selling a video-based product might opt for this $49 program. Those involved in video development for profit should not use Movie Maestro for that purpose as the software and its music is not cleared for that kind of use.)

Sonicfire 3 is not cheap ($299), especially if you add five additional 44K music CDs with it ($499). Upgrades for Movie Maestro owners run $249. Music purchased for Movie Maestro will work in Sonicfire, preserving your music investment. Additional CDs are available, in both "Multimedia music CDs" and 44K (CD-quality) music CDs. Multimedia CDs are technically half the audio quality of a regular audio CD, but still very good quality for most uses. Best of all, the multimedia CDs cost $50 each versus $99 each for the 44K CDs. These prices might seem high, but if you factor in that a good chunk of that money goes to pay the composers of that music, it's not that bad a deal (especially since you have royalty-free use of it!).

No bug reports were encountered. All movie files brought into Sonicfire worked fine.

Overall, Sonicfire is a good solution for people who need music beyond the home and educational use. There is a large selection of music to choose from, the music quality is excellent, and performance is also quite good. The product itself is expensive for home video editors, but for companies looking to sell video projects, this is what you need to ensure you use legal music in your soundtrack.

Note: The version 3.1 update for 3.0 users is available (as of this review) which fixes a few things and adds in looping feature for DVD menus).