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Peak is just as easy to use as it always was.

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Bias Peak is a well-crafted, fully developed audio editor, exhibiting a level of maturity that Mac users would be hard-pushed to find elsewhere. However, that power comes at a price: £380 for the Pro version and a whopping £800 for the XT bundle. The LE version is a lot cheaper, though, at £89.

While the XT package is the most impressive, its core program is identical to that of Peak Pro, so we'll focus our attentions on that version here.

Overview

Peak Pro comes bundled with a wealth of goodies. There is, of course, the program itself, along with SoundSoap LE, Bias' excellent noise remover; WireTap Pro, an audio capture tool; a bundle of 32 VST effects from Maxim Digital Audio; and the wonderful SFX Machine LT plug-in, which contains nearly two dozen unusual effects.

Third-party AU/VST effects and instrument plug-ins are supported too.

Additionally, you get a suite of analysis tools in the form of Bias Reveal LE, a gorgeous four-band EQ, Bias Sqweez dynamics, and the dynamite Vbox plug-in matrix.

As if that wasn't enough, AMG's ONE sample player is included, along with audio files from PowerFX, Hollywood Edge and Sound Ideas. Believe it or not, the XT version gives you even more, adding SoundSoap 2 and SoundSoap Pro, along with the Master Perfection Suite.

If you're an experienced Peak user, you'll notice immediately that the interface has been given a bit of spit and polish for this version. Peak has always had a reputation for being very easy on the eye and, more importantly, easy on the brain, and that approach is maintained here.

The most useful options are available from the toolbars in the customisable interface, and we were thrilled to see that, for example, our Frontier Design Tranzport controller is supported out of the box.

As you'd expect, CD authoring and playlist editing tools abound. Volume envelopes enable changes to be implemented across entire regions or crossfades.

Speaking of which, Peak offers a vast array of crossfading tools, along with custom default fades that can be saved and applied to other projects.

The DAW also provides loads of export options, and all the expected file types are supported (including WAV, AIFF, SDII, FLAC and MP3). You can drag and drop between Peak and iTunes, and export playlists directly into the latter, too. Very cool indeed.

Metadata tags can be written for many file types, and you can create and upload podcasts from within Peak itself. It almost goes without saying that CD-Text information, index points and PQ sheets are supported.

Working with loops

Peak's advanced sample editing and looping tools make it an essential purchase for OS X-based sample providers and sound designers. There are functions designed to work out the BPM of an audio clip, zeroing in on loop points and crossfading between loop markers.