One piece of software that I use all of the time is Sound Forge. It's come a long way since 4.5, which is what I still use. I like living in the past.

Sound Forge is great when you have a final mix that you want to add effects to, or fade the entire song out, or just cut and paste something to the final song.  They even used Sound Forge when I was an intern at a recording studio.

Sound Forge is an audio editor that includes a powerful set of audio processes, tools, and effects for recording and manipulating audio, effects processing, streaming-content creation, and more.

It supports video and CD burning, and saves to multiple audio and video file formats. You can Pan, Reverse, Crossfade, Trim, Normalize, Insert, and Silence with Sound Forge.

Sound Forge includes:

• Powerful Editing Tools
• Professional Audio Recording
• Powerful Audio Effects
• Pristine Audio Quality
• Extensive File Format Support
• Powerful Video Capabilities

I use it for every song. When I'm done recording, I open the song in Sound Forge, clip the front and the back, fade it out, add any effects and save it again. Sound Forge is a breeze to work with. Took me about 10 minutes, and I was up and running.

Technorati Tags: sound forge