There is a such a solution…however it does have a few warts.  It’s called WildFX.  It works on both Windows and Mac.  And you can see my detailed video review and demonstration of it below:

OK…let’s cover the good things about this product again.  It’s very easy to use and gives you hundreds of very nice, point and click animated text effects.  The videos created by the software can be used with any video editing software.  And the help documentation provided, while not always 100% current, is far better than most products.  The bottom line?  If you want a quick way to come up with animated text, this software delivers as advertised.

And the bad? My biggest gripe is the QuickTime issue.  The software uses QuickTime to produce videos and you must use an old version of QuickTime…I had to uninstall version 7.6 and install version 6.5 to get the software to work…effectively killing my ability to open or render QuickTime files in Sony Vegas along the way.

That’s not a deal-breaker for me though, as I rarely if ever work with QuickTime videos on my Windows machine…and this problem doesn’t exist in the Mac version…it’s a Windows only problem.

Because of the lack of competing solutions in it’s price range (around $100), I don’t have any problems recommending WildFX either.  Just be aware that if you’re a Windows user, you might have to jump through a few hoops before you get it working.  Consider yourself warned.

A free demo version is available if you’d like to try before you buy (I highly recommend you go the demo route before purchasing, because of the aforementioned Windows/QuickTime issues).

And you can get your free demo version by clicking here.

Disclosure - I’m a compensated affiliate.  I gave you my honest review and opinion on this product.  But I am also an affiliate of this product.  That means if you order the product using the link I supply,I will be paid a commission on the sale.

With virtually all other titles, there is either no upgrade path or if there is, you have to learn entirely new software.  But onto the two titles I recommend.

For Mac user’s, it’s Final Cut.  Specifically if you’re just starting out, Final Cut Express.  This will give you near pro-level video editing software for under $200 (and it’s made by Apple).

Later, if you want to upgrade to Final Cut Studio, you’ll get basically the same video editing software…along with a suite of additional applications for color correction, graphics, DVD creation, sound and more.  Final Cut Studio is used to edit many television shows and movies.

For Windows users, I recommend Sony Vegas.  If you’re just starting out, go with one of the lower Movie Studio versions of Vegas.  You’ll get an awful lot of bang for around $100 or so.

When you’re ready to upgrade, Sony Vegas Pro is the way to go.  It’s extremely powerful, flexible and easy-to-use software.  Plus if you’re upgrading from a lower version, there will be nothing to re-learn…the interface is the same.  Sony Vegas Pro is used to edit many documentaries, news and television shows.

Which do I use? I use both.  I am both a Windows and Mac user.  That means every video you’ve ever seen produced by me was done in either Sony Vegas or Final Cut.  You simply cannot go wrong with either of them.

Disclosure - I’m a compensated affiliate.  I gave you my honest review and opinion on these products.  But I am also an affiliate of these products.  That means if you order a product using the links I supply,I will be paid a commission on the sale.

For years I’ve used products from NCH. I’ve used their products for recording audio books, to create voice-overs for video, to cleanup the audio in videos, to cleanup the audio in recorded telephone interviews and more.  In short, their products are inexpensive, they are simple to use, they work as advertised and they work on both Windows or Mac.

The product I most often use is WavePad.  With just two clicks of a button you can start recording an audio file:

From there you can easily edit the file to remove any mistakes you’ve made:

And you can also add over a dozen “point and click” effects to the recording, from reverbs to noise reduction to fade in’s and out’s and more:

You can then instantly save your recording in a variety of file formats, including all popular and standard formats like MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A and more:

Of course the bonus is that you can edit existing audio files in the same way.  Say for example you have an existing audio recording of some type of interview.  You can open that recording, chop it up however you’d like, add effects…and even record new audio to insert into it:

Any drawbacks?  Not really.  It can be a bit confusing adding new recordings inside existing recordings and the help documentation is pretty basic, but other than that, it’s a very solid product.

They also offer a free demo version that you can try before you buy.  If you’d like to learn more and instantly download a free trial of WavePad, just click here now .

Disclosure - I’m a compensated affiliate.  I gave you my honest review and opinion on this product.  But I am also an affiliate of this product.  That means if you order the product using the link I supply, I will be paid a commission on the sale.