SOUND FORGE Pro

Detailed stereo edits

SOUND FORGE was a household name in radio production decades ago. Note for 2026: Boris FX acquired it from Magix in March, so the ownership story changed. Pricing is now $24.95/mo subscription or $299.95 perpetual, with two tiers. Still a precision stereo editor, even with the new corporate parent.

SOUND FORGE is one of the longest-running names in stereo audio editing, going back to the Sonic Foundry days. The product changed hands again in March 2026 when Boris FX acquired it from Magix, and pricing was restructured to two tiers — Sound Forge Pro and Sound Forge Plus — sharing a core feature set of waveform editing, noise reduction, mastering chain, LUFS metering, batch processing, 32-channel recording at up to 192 kHz, VST2/VST3/ARA support, and the full restoration toolkit. Pricing under the new owner is $24.95/mo on annual subscription or $299.95 perpetual licence, with simplified upgrade pricing for existing Magix-era Sound Forge Pro 18 owners running through December 5, 2026 via the Boris FX webshop. Current upgrade prices aren't always published cleanly online, so check the webshop directly. It's fundamentally a stereo audio editor rather than a multitrack DAW, which means it shines at end-of-project work: precise edits on a single voice file, batch normalisation across a folder of episodes, spectral cleanup, sample-level repair of clicks and pops, and final mastering for delivery. The interface still feels like radio production from a previous decade, but everything is fast and predictable. The Mac version that arrived a few years back closes a long-standing gap. For podcasters, SOUND FORGE is rarely the primary editor today, but it remains an excellent stereo finishing tool when paired with a multitrack DAW for the heavy lifting.