As mentioned in an earlier post, there has been a teaser campaign running for several weeks now at www.finallyonthemac.com, heralding the imminent arrival of an OS X version of Sony’s Sound Forge Pro audio recording, editing and mastering software. Well, the day has arrived – Sony Creative Software officially announced today that Sound Forge Pro v1.0 for Mac will be available later this month at a suggested retail price of $299USD.

From the press release:
“People who work on audio editing platforms recognize the need for a fresh option in the marketplace, one that’s built for OS X as opposed to something that’s simply been ported over. In addition, it’s no secret that cross-platform professionals have been demanding Sound Forge for the Mac for years,” said Dave Chaimson, vice president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. “Our response is Sound Forge Pro Mac, a truly contemporary OS X design. Producers will appreciate its simple elegance, uncluttered look and amazing flexibility. The included suite of mastering and repair plug-ins makes this 1.0 edition a value-packed editing powerhouse right out of the box.”

Touted features include a completely redesigned interface for OS X, up to 32 channels of simultaneous recording at 64-bit/192kHz maximum resolution, a pro-level time-stretching and pitch shifting tool, a bundle of six mastering and three audio restoration plug-ins from iZotope (creators of the truly awesome Ozone 5 mastering and RX2 audio restoration packages) and support for both AU and VST plug-in formats.

The version 1.0 nomenclature reveals how much the company want to stress that this is a fresh product designed specifically for the Mac, rather than just a port of the PC version of the software. Will it be good enough to elbow its way through the ranks? I guess we’ll find out later this month…