Computer-based digital audio editing software and sound cards provide a set of extremely powerful tools for the audio designer. Commonly available digital audio editing tools are only now becoming mainstream, and are still not being used to their full potential in many settings. Most sound cards have audio inputs, and can sample sound at CD-quality or better. Once the sounds are sampled, they are usually saved on the computer's hard disk. The most common format for saving digital audio on computers is the Microsoft .WAV format.
Most sound cards come with simple software for editing audio files.
Third-party companies such as Sonic Foundry, Inc. produce comprehensive packages that provide many more features than the software shipped with cards. Packages such as Sound Forge provide features such as equalization, fading, panning, reversing, slowing down or speeding up, pitch changing, delay, reverb, flanging, etc. They also allow the content of the sound to be edited, allowing for words to be rearranged in a speech or sounds to be strung together, such as an explosion following a gunshot. Learning to use audio editing software is one of the most useful things an audio designer can do, as it affords flexibility and power that were not possible until recently. Once the sound effects have been edited and are to the satisfaction of both the audio designer and director of the production, they can be cued directly off of computer or burned onto a compact disc.