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What's more, you can embed root note data, pitch range information and more into your file – an area in which some other audio editors fall short. This makes quick work of mapping notes in your favourite sampler.

In addition to this standard fare, there's the nifty Loop Surfer, which mines a length of audio for rhythmic loops of a pre-ordained BPM. Plumbing a two-track drum sample through Loop Surfer yields a wealth of dead-on loops.

Similarly, Perpetual Looper is designed to take the donkey work out of looking for suitable loop points in non-rhythmic, pitched samples. Just give Peak the approximate pitch range of your material and it will attempt to create a seamless loop for you.

This works remarkably well on traditionally difficult sounds such as brass, though for some sources, you might have to play with the parameters a bit to ensure a natural sounding loop. It's not quite good enough to replace for the lamentably OS9-locked Infinity, but it does help reduce the tedium of finding good loop points in challenging material.

Summary

Peak has been around for years now, but it's showing its maturity rather than its age. It's chock-full of little details that demonstrate its creators' willingness to listen to their customers, and offers a great deal of long-term practical use. We've witnessed Bias staff seeking out feature suggestions on various online message boards, and that kind of dedication shows every time we use Peak Pro.

The program was perfectly stable and almost entirely glitch-free during the review process, with the only exceptions being a minor graphics bug in Vbox, and the authorisation app freezing a few times on our Leopard machine (though we hasten to add that it worked in the end).

So, is Peak Pro 6 good value for money? Without a doubt – particularly if your audio editing extends into commercial sound design or mastering. Peak Pro will save you time, money and stress – it's a sure winner that just gets better with each incarnation.

Listen to what some of the toys in Peak Pro 6 can do: