The Aural Relics of Operating Systems Past: Cool Edit Pro 2.0

Cooledit Pro 2.0 (now Adobe Audition 3.0)
In the mid-1990s, two former Microsoft employees started a company called Syntrillium Software that became known for two products -- a psychedelic screen saver called Snoqualmie, and Cooledit.
Ignored during its heyday, Cooledit’s spotlight was stolen by other programs at the time like Soundforge, Protools, even Peak.

In August 2003, software company Adobe purchased Cooledit Pro for 16.5 million dollars. They changed the name to 'Adobe Audition' but kept things mostly identical until May 2004.
Whereas the early versions were a skinned Cooledit with newer features, the newer versions (i.e., Windows/Mac iteration 4) are stunted by the drastic new limitations. Additionally, Audition replaces a lot of the original algorithms with Izotope's. The original Cooledit Pro was miraculous. The power of the effects suite alone rivals most contemporary plugins. Cooledit Pro lets you type in numerical values going to the 5th decimal place, and in some circumstances (Phaser rate comes to mind), you can get away with typing in negative values for really interesting results. Unlike most plugins of today, you can actually nearly freeze cool edit for typing in a rate or voice amount too fast (try this in the Chorus feature).
I had a very depressing hard drive headcrash experience back in 1997 and lost a lot of my best Cooledit work. I swear, I have been trying ever since to recreate some of the magic in those original sessions. Some of it managed to escape the erasure here, which i later used in the track 'Telelogical Attractor' on Gaseous Opal Orbs

secret hint: Try playing with the Time Stretch algorithm's stretch ‘rate’ typing in values like 222 or 999 for very strange results. The pitch shift mode also reacts strangely with the same values

One of these days, I'd like to try what Markus Popp
set out to do in 'O' and start by isolating myself back down to using only Cooledit. I know that it is not just my work (or the memory of my teenage experimenting) that proves how far one can get in Cooledit. Judging by an ambient album my friend Powmod made using 80% Cooledit Pro. I don't think he used preexisting samples, but rather the source tones and white noise that you can generate inside the program. Listen to the opening track generated entirely on Cooledit here , you can check out the full album here

You have to be careful when experimenting around in Cooledit, but it can give you the
freedom to try extremely surgical but maximal effects. Even if you aren't a programmer, you can still feel how much knowledge of DSP and love was put into these effects by the quality of the output.
I have friends who swear by Adobe Audition 3.0, and I do believe that there is little reason not to (save for the annoying interface redesign). While Adobe Audition 3.0 is still a PC-only program that maintains the same algorithms that Cooledit 2.0 had (plus some new effects, of course), by the time you get to the version 4 (the first available for Mac), you have a crippled interface that frankly annoys the hell out of me. But for all the grief that Adobe’s cannibalizing of Cooledit has given me, I will admit that there are benefits to using it. One of the nicest features of Audition 3.0 is the ability to use Photoshop-like selection tools on the spectral view, and once you select only a portion of the spectrum you can use most of the effects just on that spectral selection. It's great for doing manual dub delay inserts or anywhere from extremely subtle (if you keep it on only a high-pitched spectral range) to very drastic psychedelic effects.
We tried to get in contact with the infamous Peter Quistgard while writing this article, unfortunately our search grew cold. You will find his name as the 'registered user' on practically every cracked copy of Cooledit out there.

secret hint 2: in the parametric EQ you can turn a few bands’ Q length to under 1 Hz (switch from the unquantified 'Q length' unit to Hz) and boost the volume quite a bit. I have yet to hear another software EQ that can produce such an eerie ringing ambience from lowering its Q length.

ps: Powmod also had some fun with the default 'Cooledit Pro 2.0' anthem that would load by default in the multitrack session. The Cooledit Rap can be found here

Availability: Cooledit 2.0 still floating around, Adobe Audition sold here
Practicality: Very light weight and fully functional wave editor, crash recovery
and loads faster/reacts faster than Adobe Audition’s reskinned version.

Next installment: Anarchy FX & Rhythms by Leighton Hargreaves