Edit Programs For Mac
If you're a musician or simply like to produce music, a great music editing apps is the best way to go about turning your recordings into well-produced masterpieces. Whether you're just a novice or a seasoned pro, a DJ or an acoustic guitar player, there's a music editing app for you!
GarageBand
Apple includes their entry-level GarageBand music editing app with every new Mac. That means, if you're new to music or a hobbyist, GarageBand is where it's at. GarageBand uses the same Drummer digital session player as Logic Pro X (though to a lesser extent in terms of available sounds) and is the perfect app to help you start creating and mixing songs — especially if you're a super novice.
For the ultimate editing experience, run Final Cut Pro on the world’s fastest Mac, the new Mac Pro. Final Cut Pro takes advantage of all the GPUs in Mac Pro and uses multithreading to spread tasks across up to 28 cores. And when equipped with the optional Afterburner card, Mac Pro delivers the fastest ProRes performance ever. Mac OSX; Quik for Desktop How to do it. To view, manage and edit your GoPro videos on a home computer, you can use our free software GoPro Quik for Desktop. GoPro cameras create MP4 and HEVC files. MP4 is a format that is supported by many video editing programs while HEVC will need a more robust graphics card to play smoothly.
The interface is easy to use and though the app is powerful and full of controls, it's not overwhelming or as involved as some of the more professional audio editors.
You can upload your own recordings to GarageBand and mix them with the digital instruments, or you can create an entire song using just your recordings or just the instruments found in GarageBand. If you're not satisfied with the instruments available, you can also purchase instrument packs to get different sounds. Use iCloud to store your projects or share them with friends for collaboration. You can even start a song on your iPhone and then finish it on your Mac!
If you want to get into music production and also want to keep things convenient and within the Apple ecosystem, GarageBand is the best place to start.
- Free with new Macs or $4.99 - Download now
Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X is Apple's pro-level music editing software that still manages to be accessible to beginners. The powerful app has all the tools you could want for mixing, editing, and songwriting, with a massive library of instruments and effects. If you're looking to make polished, professional-sounding recordings, without a ton of complexity, then Logic Pro X is where it's at.
The 64-bit architecture supports projects featuring hundreds of tracks and instruments, so if you're a composer, it's like heaven. I have to say: As a drummer, I hate canned drum sounds. Logic Pro X's Drummer is top-notch when it comes to producing authentic acoustic drums sounds, and sometimes I actually can't tell the difference (I know, shame on me).
The app does come at a professional-level price, at $200, but if you're serious about music editing on the Mac and enjoy songwriting and composing on a grand level, it's easily one of, if not the best choice out there.
- $199.99 - Download now
Pro Tools
Pro Tools, by Avid, is one of the most popular music editing apps in the industry. It can be used to record, mix, master, and much, much more. You can lay down up to 128 tracks per session, with 32 inputs and over 60 plugins, and you can create an unlimited number of sessions.
Pro Tools is definitely not for the faint of heart and isn't necessarily an app you can just pick up and go with. I had to go to school to learn how to use it (before all these damn YouTube tutorials made school obsolete!). That being said, it isn't beyond the pale to learn the basics and get yourself up and running fairly quickly. Importing audio is as easy as dragging from the Finder window and placing it on the timeline (so long as your current session supports that file format).
From there, you can add a plethora of effects to your audio and edit it like mad, controlling volume, speed, pitch, tone, and much more. Honestly, the stuff you can do with Pro Tools seems just about endless. It is one of the most robust audio editing apps available, and is definitely for those looking to tackle things on a professional level.
That being said, if you have the cash, go for it, and learn all there is to know!
Pricing is what you'd expect: $24.92 per month with a 12-month agreement or $29.99 month-to-month, $599 to buy it outright.
djay Pro
For the performance DJ (or even the hobbyist, really) djay Pro has all the effects, compatibility, and mixing capabilities you could ask for. You can sample from iTunes and Spotify simultaneously, and you can even mix in video from the extensive video library for the ultimate experience.
Edit Programs Free
You can mix from four decks and create mashups and transitions galore, and you can edit playlists on the fly, use external displays and AirPlay, and there's Pioneer CDJ/XDJ integration for even more versatility.
If you're a pro DJ or just want a fun way to mix at a house party, djay Pro's price might be its best selling feature, at only $40.
- $39.99 - Download now
Audacity
Audacity is a free open source audio editing and recording software that lets you cut, copy, paste, and delete audio. It isn't exactly the most powerful when it comes to music editing, but if you're wanting to slap together some demo material or something like that, it's perfect. You can import audio in many formats, though for MP3, you'll have to install a separate, optional encoder library.
You can edit and mix a large number of tracks at once and even alter individual sample points, though you can't add effects or do any sort of mastering. Audacity may be better-suited to podcasting, but, like I said, if you're putting together demos or just need to create rough ideas, it's perfect, because FREE.
- Free - Download now
Are you a mixmaster?
What's your favorite music editing app for Mac? Are you a pro or is it more of a hobby? Let us know in the comments below!
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Jun 17, 2019 What to Look for in Video Editing Software for a Mac. Paid- If you’re a beginner just dipping your toes into the world of video editing, a free software program is probably your best bet. If you have more advanced needs, you’ll likely need to pay to access the features you’ll need. However, most software programs have free. Video software for mac.
You don’t have to use Adobe Photoshop on your Mac to edit images like a pro. There are plenty of Photoshop alternatives for Mac that you can download or use in-browser to create just the right images and graphics for your projects. And some of them are completely free!
None of these are necessarily one-size-fits-all solutions. Each tool tends to serve a specific purpose; Do you want to edit online or on a desktop? Are you editing photos or multiple file types? Is all the work for web or will images get printed?
Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Mac in 2019, but not in any particular order. Have a read through to find the one that’s right for you.
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1. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a past Apple Mac App of the Year Winner and the professional tool has everything you’d expect in a premium photo-editing product.
Use it to edit and retouch images as well as create multi-layer pieces. The professional corrections and adjustments tools rival any other app out there and it has a great noise-reduction filter. Retouching options include the usual dodge, burn, clone, patch, blemish, and red eye tools, but there’s also an inpainting brush and liquify feature.
Other key features:
- Dedicated camera RAW workspace
- HDR merge
- Panorama stitching
- Bath processing
- 360-degree image editing
Cost: $49.99
Try it:From the App Store
2. Sketch
Sketch isn’t a photo-editing app per se, but you can editing images within the Mac prototyping tool.
The best part of editing in Sketch is that all edits are nondestructive, meaning that any of your changes take effect without overwriting the original image file. (So you can always go back to the original if you want.)
Sketch allows for basic image editing including inverting images, cropping and color fill. It can be described as a basic bitmap editor and for many simple projects is enough.
Other key features:
- Color adjustment capability – hue, saturation, brightness and contrast
- Reduce image/file size
- Replace and change images in projects with one click (Since you are using the same tool)
- Ability to work in layers
- Also includes ability to edit vector elements
Cost: $99/year
Try it:From Sketch
3. GIMP
GIMP offers powerful photo manipulation and editing capability in a free, open source package. (You can also download the source code and make changes as you see fit and add more functionality with third-party plugins.)
GIMP is designed for high-quality photo manipulation including retouching images and photo restorations. Users can also use it to create original artwork, a feature that many other non-Photoshop editors don’t provide (or have but it can be difficult to use).
Other key features:
- Ability to create icons and other elements
- Use for scripted image manipulation (C, C++, Perl, Python, Scheme and more)
- Color management tools included with Scribus, Inkscape and SwatchBooker
- Large number of usable file formats and a customizable workspace
- Extensive tutorial library on the website so you can learn the tool easily
Cost: Free
Try it:From GIMP
4. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a nondestructive editor that allows you to make changes to images and draw in the app. It also includes a nifty machine learning auto color adjustments tool to help make color changes a breeze.
One of the best features of Pixelmator Pro is that you can even export images for the web – hello, optimization – so you don’t have to use multiple tools to edit and then shrink image for top website quality production. Pixelmator Pro also includes some workflow tools to help you work more efficiently.
Other key features:
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Best Photo Edit Programs For Mac
- Works with Mac’s Touch Bar
- Live preview option so you can see how changes will look before committing
- Text editing capabilities
- SVG editing and export
- Painting tools so you can draw anything by hand
Cost: $59.99
Try it: From the App Store or try the free demo
5. Pixlr Pro
Pixlr Pro is an in-browser image editing app that’s packed with photo, vector and text editing capability. You can edit like a pro with tools that include layer masks, multiple brush options, curve and level adjustments, color and blend modes, effects and filters, and transform and wrap tools.
What’s different about Pixlr Pro, which also has a free version, is that you don’t have to download anything to use it. All the tools are right in your browser (and it has strong browser compatibility). It also includes a lot of other goodies to help jumpstart projects, such as templates and fonts.
Other key features:
- Includes access to 1 million royalty-free stock images
- Comes with more than 10,000 photo templates
- Works with PSD and Sketch image files
- Smart healing tools for photo correction
- Refine edge tool make it easy to mask complex objects
Cost: $5/month
Try it:From Pixlr
6. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a well-known online photo editor and retoucher. It has the most complicated structure of features of all the tools in this list with free, basic and pro pricing plans with different levels of features and tools.
If you plan to use any of the advanced features – save and export, advanced retouching, effects and overlays, fonts – then you are probably looking at the pro level plan. Free plans include ads; paid plans do not. PicMonkey is a pretty straightforward tool that is popular with users creating images for social media and online-only use with a simple photo editor and design tools.
Other key features:
- Add-ons include filters, overlays and text tools
- Touch up photos to add more visual interest
- Watermark and other templates to make projects quick
- Ability to create a photo collage
- Simple interface with ready to use buttons in-browser or using the desktop app
Cost: Starting at $5.99/month
Try it: From PicMonkey
7. Fotor
The tool that the BBC called “Photoshop lite” is simple and easy to use. Edit images, add effects and text or tough up portraits like a pro with Fotor.
The photo editor has all the tools you’d expect for everyday editing with shape and aspect ratio cropping, color, saturation and white balance options and ability to straighten and rotate images. You can also create a custom college in the app.
Other key features:
- Bath processing option
- Tilt-shirt tools adds focus and blurring for a professional look
- 13 1-tap photo enhancement options
- Use popular file formats such as RAW, PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF and TIFF
- Optimize images for retina displays
Cost: Free
Try it:From the App Store
8. Acorn
Acorn is another nondestructive piece of Mac photo editing software that has a robust set of tools. The company claims that it has “everything you need in an image editor” with the ability to add layer masks and selections to touch up images or make something entirely new. You can also remove backgrounds, combine images, perform color corrections, resize, transform, crop and more.
While Acorn is billed as an image editor, it also includes vector tools as well and a text on a path feature.
Other key features:
- 100+ photo effects — vignette, drop shadow, gradients, sharpening, color correction, distortions, blurs
- Web export and scaling
- Smart layer export
- Camera RAW image import and editing
- Ability to import Photoshop brushes
Cost: $29.99
Try it:From The Flying Meat store (other addons also available)
9. SumoPaint
SumoPaint has free and paid version with different options. One key difference is whether you want to edit image on- or off-line (paid only).
SumoPaint is billed as an image manipulator with plenty of options, not all of which are designed for working with photos. The native Sumo file format also provides a nondestructive save option. The tool includes plenty of brushes, shapes and colors and gradients to jumpstart any project. It also allows for use of layers and comes with plenty of filters.
Other key features:
- Lighting, reflection and mosaic tools
- Animated and 3D brush options
- Auto-smoothing feature
- Text tool
- Ability to adjust curves and levels with ease
Cost: $4/month
Try it:From SumoPaint
10. DxO PhotoLab
DxO PhotoLab is the go-to for RAW photo editing. It’s packed with features – you might even mistake the dashboard for Photoshop at a glance – and doesn’t get bogged down when working with large files and detailed images.
The tools include the ability to editing using control points to work on just the parts of a photo you want to edit, there are plenty of brushes for precise work, a graduated filter makes landscape photos look great and the auto repair mode can remove unwanted elements from images.
Other key features:
- Smooth transitions between elements that preserve textures and shadows
- Fast processing
- Auto lighting optimization tool
- ClearView filter removes atmospheric haze from landscape photos
- 40,000 camera and lens combinations
Cost: $99.99 (Essential Edition)
Try it:From DxO