There is somewhat of a learning curve though for manual the editing chores, but if one is familiar with advanced photo editing (Photoshop type apps), there are similarities and the leaning curve may be less steep. I was totally blown away, and it literally rocked my world. Recently (a year or two) I needed to remove some odd string noise for a Celtic harp remastering project and tried SLP again, since nothing else would work. I originally tried SpectraLayers 2 a long time ago but could not get my head around it and gave up. However a few years ago, Steinberg acquired the publishing rights and Robin in still involved with it's development (and moderates the Steinberg SpectraLayers forum). not related to specific user equipment or OS issues.SLP (SpectraLayers Pro), was originally developed by Robin Lobel and published by Sony (or was it Sonic Forundry) along with Sound Forge, Vegas and Acid, and subsequently acquired by Magix with the other SCS A/V apps. There are also not very many forums where you can have direct interaction with the developer in the case of there being genuine issues, i.e. Personally I’m not aware of any major issues that have been ongoing, or left unaddressed for more than a few months. Regarding “the number of people with issues”, bear in mind that many people will only post on a forum when they encounter a problem, so the ratio of unhappy-to-happy users is always going to be distorted. FInally, you can sell Steinberg products (there’s a clear process for the transfer of ownership) and once activated, the eLicenser system is completely standalone, which is no longer the case with Magix products, which require internet activation (and re-activation on a regular basis). An update to the next version is always reasonable, usually in the range of about $50 for the Elements versions and about $100 for the Pro. For example, you can buy WaveLab Elements, try it out, and upgrade to WaveLab Pro for the difference in price.

Steinberg have a very clear policy regarding upgrade and update pricing whereby you basically pay the difference to the next higher edition and you are not expected to pay full price for the next version. As a user of several ex-Sony products (though not Sound Forge), if Magix do produce a new version, be prepared for a very high “upgrade” price, effectively you are likely to be expected to re-purchase the product.

Sony vs magix sound forge pro