Jimco Software Reviews - Sonicfire Pro (continued)
How Sonicfire Pro Works
Sonicfire Pro works with what SmartSound calls "audio palettes." Essentially what this means is that each song is broken up into blocks each lasting a few seconds. Sonicfire Pro creates an entire song by putting these blocks together. Blocks are designed to work well with other specific blocks. Some blocks are also suited well for the beginning or ending of a song.
By using this method of "creating" songs on the fly, Sonicfire Pro is able to create a song that fits exactly into a specific time block. This is one of the greatest capabilities of Sonicfire Pro. You can import a video clip of any length and Sonicfire Pro can whip together the perfect soundtrack that will sound as though it was custom written for the clip.
Sonicfire Pro does a remarkable job. When you hear the result, it blows you away! 
This claim sounds like it's inflated, but it's not. Sonicfire Pro does a remarkable job. When you hear the technical aspects of this software described to you without actually hearing the result, you won't be too optimistic. However, when you actually hear the result, it blows you away. (SmartSound has a guided tour video on their Web site to demonstrate Sonicfire Pro.) The results you get from Sonicfire Pro will show no hint that the score was arranged on the fly.
Figure 1 - The Sonicfire Pro Interface
The boxed version of Sonicfire Pro comes with two CDs of songs and will run you $299. A bundled package that contains five CDs will run you $499. If both of those are too rich for your budget, you can get a download version that includes 8 songs for $149. You can purchase additional CDs from SmartSound for $99 each or individual songs for $19.95. More on that later.
Digging in Deeper
In the most basic sense, Sonicfire Pro takes a song and "rewrites" it to fit into the alloted space. You have the option of dragging the ends of the song to make it longer or shorter. For more precise timing, you can enter in the exact timecode to the hundredth of a second. Both dragging and changing the timecode will cause the song to be instantly reorganized to fit into the specified time slot.
Songs have different variations that can be selected via a dropdown. A variation represents a reorganized version of the song. In my work, I have found these variations to be a great way to reuse a song later in a video and have it remain fresh.
In addition to letting Sonicfire Pro recompile the song into the space provided, you can also choose to do so yourself. When you use this method, the song is broken into blocks as shown in figure 1. You can then drag and drop the blocks into the order you desire. Individual blocks cannot be extended or shrunk to fit into a particular space. Using this method, it may be difficult to find just the right combination for a particular length of video, but it does give you more control over the arrangement.
Sonicfire Pro does have some visual cues to make block editing easier. Some blocks carry a symbol to indicate that they are particularly suited to the beginning and/or end of a song. (See figure 2.) When you add a block to the timeline, Sonicfire Pro will highlight blocks that go well with the block that you've added.
Figure 2 - Blocks showing the blue triangle indicating it is appropriate for the beginning of a song.