Forgive me if this is an obvious question - I’ve been away from this world for quite some time…
Is there a good piece of Mac software for editing samples -before- sending them to an OP-Z (or EP-133, or…)? I’m looking for something that let me do a little sound design on the sample before using it. Things like adjusting EQs, combining sounds, tweaking loop points, adding effects, etc.
Thanks
I use ocenaudio. The new version of Audacity seems to be well-regarded.
Audacity, GarageBand
I checked out ocenaudio, which seems nice but very simple. I’d like to have something with very basic effects - echo, reverb, flange, chorus, that kind of thing. More than just trim and normalize, which I can do already with Amadeus. The option to have more elaborate effects would be a bonus.
if you have a mac
use this
I’ll give a little +1 for Ocenaudio. It is actually a VST and AU plugin host, which means that you can add the Apple AU effects (or any other plugin effects you might have) to your sounds. The other nice thing is that it can open and save to basically any sound format that you might come across. I use it at work for unpuzzling weird sound formats and doing no-frills plug-in work like Izotope de-click.
I do also like Koala. I have it on my iPad and iPhone, but I’ve never tried it on the Mac. I remember I was obsessed with running apps on my Mac when the M1 chips came out. 
I’m very grateful for all your suggestions - thank you.
The idea of using Ocenaudio and a bunch of plug ins for effects seems like it will work.
I suspect that there is an overwhelming market for VST plug ins with, presumably, varying levels of quality and usability. Can anyone recommend any high quality, basic tools? I’d love it if someone offered a good collection of essentials.
Thanks again
Adam
You might want to put out some parameters for what you’re looking for… because I’m afraid this is like asking “what kind of car should I drive”… well… depends where you are coming from/going to, do you have any comfort expectations, what is your price range, do you want a unique experience…
The problem here is that what one person might consider essential, somebody else might think isn’t that great.
What is your budget? How do you feel about free? Are you looking for demos with paid solutions? Do you want something that will work on both iOS/iPad/Mac, or just on Mac? Do you want specific types of effects like guitar amp simulation, delay, reverb, LoFi, equalization, …? Are there specific sounds or songs that you like that you want a rough idea how to emulate?
Broadly… I tend to use whatever comes “in the box” with Ableton Live and Reason Studio… but Eventide makes some pretty great plugins, Antares at least used to be a thing (though I haven’t kept up with them), Waves is certainly worth looking into, Arturia’s continued to be interesting… Native Instruments has a lot of stuff… but I’m not so sure how they are holding up as a company these days… plus there’s plenty of tiny developers like Goodhertz doing some absolutely cool and unique stuff. Oh and Ohmforce has been a personal favorite for a long time, though plenty of there plugins aren’t supported quite so well on newer platforms.
Unfortunately… I feel like that the list is kind of a “here’s a few places to get started” and not likely to be directly helpful.
Good luck with your search!
@adampwsmith
Ocenaudio plus AUs works well for me.
My effects suggestions would be
high dollar-
Uhbik by u-he:
less cash, less pristine but still great and maybe more fun-
BLEASS
https://www.bleass.com/
They have a lot of sales.
The Classic FX are all good, but I think the reverb could be improved. The Creative FX are a mixed bag for me although Slow Machine is one of my favorites.
There are thousands of effects out there, though. You can pick and choose the ones that appeal.
If you have an iPad I would recommend using AUM and iPad effects which are much much cheaper. Then you can get BLEASS, Eventide, Unfiltered Audio, Moog, Sugarbytes…for much less.
100% free
https://www.airwindows.com/airwindows-plugins-starter-kit/
5 Free vst’s from their core collection and most others are $30-50
Several free plus $50 at full price
All these products are high quality (imho) so just depends which aesthetic you click with and which features you prefer