“I’ve been using Kraken for some time now in a very light, straightforward capacity. Import rushes, import EDL, assemble to daw, DONE. Rinse, wash, repeat. Well, this last week I had the… misfortune (lol), of needing to use it in a deeper capacity. And without getting into specifics (NDAs, ya know…), let me just say that up against any other sound editors EDL toolkit, Kraken as a software wins hands down. And looking beyond the software, Marc as an owner is a truly amazing human being. So, talented, patient, and an amazing teacher. And I say that having had firsthand experience with the owners of the other major EDL softwares. No disrespect to any of the others, but the combination of the amazing software and superior support makes using Kraken a no-brainer. I wish I could post more about my specific workflow, and one day I might, but in the meantime, if you’re on the fence about whether Kraken is as good as I (and many others) have said it is, don’t be. Make the jump. You won’t be disappointed. Thank you Marc!”
Torrel Alexis (Monster High, Jersey Shore)
“Kraken 2 , quite simply put, is an industry game changer for post production when working with both Dialogue & ADR. It has made its way on my shortlist of essential software and ultimately has replaced both outdated and even some current software. If you are working with Dialogue/ADR in features/streaming/tv (assistant, editor, and/or supervisor), I cannot recommend it enough. It is an all-in-one tool which has too many great features to list that we have all been waiting for.”
Micah Loken (Emancipation, Infinite, True Detective)
“Kraken is a life saver and a game changer. What took us hours to navigate in other similar programs took us less than 20 minutes from start to finish to get a sample accurate assembly with the new Tighten Sync feature. The new interface is designed with great care making all the features we’ve grown to love in Kraken easily accessible.
Marc really should come up with a better term than “basic” because the non-pro version is anything but basic. You can immediately tell that it was created by a dialogue editor FOR dialogue editors. Kraken’s guiding philosophy is all about doing every task with maximum efficiency which successfully challenges the “old school” way of doing things. Finding alts, exploring production sync shot by shot, organizing dailies (aka rushes) and everything else dialogue editors value cannot be simpler or easier than Kraken.
Kraken very quickly made its way into the “always open” applications in my arsenal. I look forward to where it goes from here.”
Brian Armstrong (Walking Dead, Shogun, A League Of Their Own, Bates Motel)
“Kraken is a great tool to deal with production sound, it is fast and efficient. It has quickly become my go to software for assembling dailies. Marc is a pleasure to deal with and very responsive. I highly recommend.”
David Stanke (Iron Man 3, Shrek, Pacific Rim)
“There’s a short list of essential software that I use everyday and Kraken is at the top of that list. Not only does it preserve the original timecode on the assemblies it creates, but it references this timecode and allows me to find alts lightning fast. Long gone are the days of having to load the production sound rolls into a sound database and search for them based upon scene and take number. Kraken does this all automatically, so you can focus on making the dialogue sound it’s best. Marc has made this software extremely easy to use and very user friendly, plus he is always happy to talk with his users over a zoom call. There’s not many developers out there who are so dedicated to supporting their user base like Marc is. With all that said I think the biggest selling point is the fact you no longer need to split production sound rolls. Just load up the polyphonic wav files into Kraken and watch the software work it’s magic. If you are an assistant or dialogue editor and you are not using Kraken you should! You might just find yourself talking about it to all your sound editor friends like I do!”
Chase Keehn (Shazam!, Greenland, Raised By Wolves, Without Remorse)
“Without doubt, this is the MUST HAVE Dial Editors toolkit. I first started my career editing on film, and at the transition to digital workstations, I bought a Waveframe, because it had been developed as a collaboration between Editors and Computer Pros. For that reason, I was attracted to Kraken, because Marc is a Dialogue editor himself. I have not been disappointed. It’s by far the best software I’ve encountered for dialogues on Protools. Elegant, intuitive, not overly complex, but so useful for a myriad of processes: Autoconforms, Scene Edit tracks, Video EDL tracks, but above all for finding non sync alternatives. It is making my work life so much easier and faster. Not having to waste time snuffling through the rushes relentlessly, I can concentrate on the more creative and interesting aspects of my work. Marc is also a brilliant teacher and offers tremendously patient and enthusiastic advice/tutorials, even via Zoom from the UK to Australia at midnight UK time!.”
Sarah Morton (Shakespeare in Love, Veronica Guerin, Agatha Christie’s Poirot)
“We’ve just started using Kraken on a dial editing job, and its already become our go-to dialogue editors tool kit. The speed of finding alts has improved the process an order of magnitude. The “scene region group” function was something we used to do manually, so having it automated has been a real time saver. As client expectations increase, whilst schedules stay the same you need every time saving device you can get your hands on, Marc’s brilliant software helps you to work faster, better and smarter.”
Howard Bargroff (Sherlock, Doctor Who)
“I can’t imagine working without Kraken, the fact that it is so easy to look for alts made me change my whole approach to dialogue editing. Now I’m looking forward to diving into the sound rolls to find every line of dialogue or production effect that makes the film better. The process has become so fast that directors are more excited to explore alts even on the mix stage”
Michael Feuser (The Tragedy Of Macbeth, Little Women)
“Kraken has been an amazing find for me and has quickly become one of my must have pieces of software for Dialogue editing. For years I had been using a different program that was designed for sound fx. It worked okay, but there were a lot of things I wasn’t happy about for Dialogue editorial. I’d had a long standing idea of learning to code and building my own program for finding production Dialogue alts, if only I could find a spare 1000 hours to do it. Kraken is the program that I would have built if I knew how to code. Marc has added a ton of features to Kraken that I wouldn’t have thought of but now find indispensable. The “Stacked spotting” and “Maintain Solo” features alone are worth the price. The “Track Name filter” is brilliant! I never have to look at empty channels again. And doing Dialogue assemblies is so easy now that I actually look forward to it, sick as that may sound. Kraken has changed the way I work!”
Brad Semenoff (Guardians Of The Galaxy, Star Wars – Force Awakens)
“Kraken improves legacy workflows and executes new ideas that allow dialog editors more time to spend focusing on the cut and less time wrestling software into performing tasks it wasn’t really created to do. Where sound effects editors have plenty of software options that allow them the ability to work efficiently and creatively, Kraken finally feels like software created to help dialog editors be as efficient and creative as they can be with their own work. It literally is dialog editing specific software, created by a dialog editor. Marc sees value in every feature and tweak the dialog editors using his software ask for, because making these changes helps him in his own dialog editorial work as well. You cannot beat the level of enthusiasm and attentiveness in software support. Thanks Marc!”
Jacob Riehle (Avengers: Endgame, Pirates Of The Caribbean)
“Kraken has been a godsend . Thanks for creating a superb piece of software that should be in everyone’s toolkit”
Paul McFadden (Sherlock, Dr Who)
“Kraken is all I need to produce a high quality dialogue edit. Every one of its well considered features has sped up my workflow considerably, meaning less time spent on menial tasks and more time to be creative, experiment and bring out good acting. A genius tool! ”
Nina Norek (Catherine, Called Birdy)
“Simply put, Kraken is amazing! Having worked with it on several projects now, it has now become an indispensable tool in my workflow. Building an assembly is a breeze. Hunting for alts is fun! And Marc is incredibly generous with his time, always available for any questions. This is a must have!”
Alfred DeGrand (I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Russian Doll)
“To finally have a tool like Kraken which is tailor-made for dialogue editors is glorious! Alt-pulling is one of the more tedious parts of the job but Kraken has really streamlined the process making it so much easier than before. Being able to have the software track where I am in the session and parse through the dailies to the corresponding time code is such a game changing feature. I am so excited to see what else Marc has in store for Kraken in the future!”
John Creed (Walking Dead, Barry)
“I’ve cut more dialogue than most people could even imagine. So I’m very well aware of all the difficulties we encounter as dialogue editors. Once Marc has given me the basics of how his approach works, I understood immediately that this is an absolute MUST HAVE for any professional dialogue editor in the film industry who works with Protools. A fantastic tool which can help to make your work-flow faster and more fun to cut dialogue. HIGHLY RECOMMEND AND EXCELLENT SUPPORT..”
Oliver Barth (Martha & Tommy, The Mopes)
“Kraken is a fantastic tool and I don’t know how I worked without it before!”
Michele Ciment-Woods (Vera, The Royals)
“Looking for Alts and weeding thru Outtakes has never been something I have looked forward to doing until I found Kraken. Kraken allows me to easily thumb thru all the takes and quickly choose the best option for clarity and performance. Locating the best option is a breeze and I love how Kraken allows you to spot the Outtake into your session at the desired timecode. I switched to Kraken to for assembling our show because the software we had been using was no longer being supported. I needed to find an assembly software that would continue to upgrade with the new Apple Operating Systems. Marc is a hundred percent committed to supporting his software and is also committed to supporting those who use it. Our entire show takes less than 5 minutes to assemble now and is more than 99% in perfect sync once the assembly is done. The 1% out of sync is from the cuts not being reflected correctly in the EDL. Aside from a fast assembly, and a fantastic solution to finding outtakes, Marc is also working on a function of Kraken that will generate a Clip Group Session blocking out by scenes using the Picture EDL. As far as I’m aware no software is currently able to do this. A priceless feature for those cutting Backgrounds and for Mixers doing Reverb Automation. Literally next time turnover comes in….you better get Kraken!!!!”
Kimberly Lambert Gibson (Sound Supervisor NCIS: Los Angeles)
“Kraken has become one of my essential tools when dialogue editing for film. It saves me a great deal of time when sifting through all the production rushes. What was once a clumsy process, is now incredibly quick and efficient. I’ve got instant access to all of the possible choices for a particular line at my fingertips”
Dan Morgan (Shaun Of The Dead, In Bruges, Black Mirror)
“Kraken has made a big part of my job incredibly easier. It simplifies so many parts of the process and has become a ‘must use’ tool that I now setup at the beginning of every project. Kraken is the perfect example of ‘work smarter not harder.'”
Ryan Cole (Stranger Things, The Invisible Man)
“Kraken is the dialogue editing tool everyone needs, but doesn’t yet realize they need. It is simply amazing! Even more so, Marc is truly one of the humblest and genuine people I’ve every ran across. He’s not just selling you a piece of software, he also makes himself available to help you solve any problems you may have, which actually aren’t yours because you likely inherited files that weren’t delivered properly.
Even if you just want to learn more about EDLs, Timecode, and how everything works together, the price is far worth the wealth of knowledge that Marc freely gives. The things that Kraken can do quite literally save you hours if not days of headaches and cussing at a computer screen.
Once you use Kraken to assemble your first project, you’ll never work from an AAF again!”
DeLaVanta Tabor (Tyler Perry’s Sistas, The Oval)
“Kraken has become a essential part of my workflow really fast. It just works. Within few minutes you know how to use it. Finding and spotting alt takes can’t be easier and faster. Assembling production sound with video EDL is very useful too – I found that picture editors often doesn’t care about production sound effects, and with Kraken I can easily assembly the whole “sync sound” and use everything I can to give back life to the dead B-rolls or, at least have nice guide track for sound effects editing. Simple thing as picture cuts guide saved me (and other editors I worked with) literally hours every project I started working on. And then there is Marc and his support. The guy who connected via teamviewer to my (stranger’s) foreign language computer and helped me in few minutes after I wrote him I need help. At Sunday afternoon. Shall I continue?”
Samuel Skubla (Slavs, Unseen)
“Kraken is the software you never knew you needed. I had workflows in place before using this wonderful toolkit, but this one single piece of software beats the lot. Simple, effective and very clever app. From clean conforms from both video and audio EDLs, to alt finding and EDL problem solving, this app has you covered. No more time wasted tracking down alts and lost wild tracks, which leaves more time to edit dialogue. Fantastic support from Marc also, quick to respond and always on hand to troubleshoot turnover issues. An invaluable part of my process now, how did I cope with out it?'”
Iain Anderson (The Nest, Shetland)
“Kraken has become an essential tool for me while working on a dialogue edit. Looking for alt takes and sections of fill can be so time consuming, but Kraken makes the workflow so much quicker and tidier. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Thanks for developing this software Marc!”
Filipa Principe (Patrick Melrose, The War Of The Worlds)
“Kraken has been an amazing addition to my toolkit and massively speeds up my workflow giving me more time to be creative in the edit. It makes super clean timeline assemblies – even with incomplete or corrupted metadata – being able to dig out the required information from EDLs and rushes so assemblies are smooth and easy. It’s ability to track along to any track in ProTools – the AAF, picture cut track or the assembly tracks – makes finding alts effortless, speeding up the whole process. It’s fast become something I can’t work without.”
Gustaf Jackson (Pure (C4), Noughts and Crosses (BBC), Us (BBC))
“Finding and pulling alts can be two of the most time consuming parts of your job as a dialogue editor. Kraken Dialogue Editors Toolkit makes this process infinitely faster. Once linked with Pro Tools and your assembled rushes (which Kraken can also help with), the software follows your position in Pro Tools and immediately cues that take as well as all the surrounding takes in a waveform preview window. The interface is snappy and once you find what you are looking for, a simple “s” command spots the original rushes audio (not a rendered, trimmed selection) back into Pro Tools. This is a total game-changer and a must for any serious dialogue editor!”
Korey Pereira MPSE (Boyhood, Where’d You Go Bernadette)
“There’s no shortage of sexy utilities and toys for sound effects, but despite dialog being the cornerstone of our art form- the tools and technologies geared at improving workflows on the dialog side are depressingly few and far between. Enter Kraken.
Kraken is, simply put, an indispensable tool for dialog editors and supervisors. Kraken removes the barriers between sound and picture and between production and post production in a way that no other tool I’ve ever seen has done. Within hours of getting Kraken up and running, I wondered how I had worked without it for so long– and knew I didn’t ever want to edit dialog again without it!”
Vince Tennant (The 100, Swamp Thing, Titans)
“With projects allowing less and less time with a smaller and smaller budget, Kraken paid for itself within minutes by doing the impossible. Thank you, Marc! Kraken will forever be a must-have in my dialogue editing toolkit.”
Ryan Young (ADR Mixer – Warner Bros)
Read full testimonal from Ryan here
“For me Kraken is a key for modern and efficient dialogue editing. It makes it so much easier to secure a clean and neat assembly. When it comes to finding and spotting alts Kraken is a game changer. Its intelligent communication with ProTools allows a super fast workflow. It is clearly written from an experienced dialogue editors view and is very intuitive to use. I am really looking forward to which other magic features Marc is going to develop in the future..”
Marek Forreiter (Ironbark, Judy)
“I’ve only been using Kraken for a short time but it’s become an essential part of my workflow already. From assembling the timeline with an EDL to spotting alternate takes, the software is slick, fast and reliable. Marc really helped me get to grips with Kraken too, and offered help and support when I needed it.”
Daniel Pugh (The Stranger, Safe, Brassic)
“Consistently quick and clean conforms, incredibly fast to audition and find alts and updates, and spot them to the timeline, great support from Marc Specter. Kraken is now an essential tool for me.”
Chris Roberts (Fortitude, Ripper Street)
“For something that initially seems a straightforward tool – once you start using it, it becomes an absolute essential. It’s made trawling for outtakes fun.”
Jamie Roden (The End Of The F*****g World, Years And Years)
“Just a quick note to say how brilliant Kraken is. It’s really quickened my Dialogue workflow.”
Ian Morgan (Paddington, Babylon)
“Kraken has become my number one tool for cataloguing and searching through production sound, and is now an essential part of my dialogue editing workflow. Its value is undeniable, it really helps me doing a lot more in much less time. Also, Marc is great at support!”
Espen Rønning (Doctor Proctors Fart Powder, Kon-Tiki, The Kings Choice)
“Marc is a genius! This piece of software is obviously made by a dialogue editor as it does the stuff we’ve all been wanting, but not realising it until Marc made it. Very easy to use and works like a dream. Everyone should buy it.”
Adele Fletcher (Peaky Blinders, Dark Crystal)
“I can’t work without Kraken anymore. I’ve been a dialogue editor for almost 20 years and I tried every existing audio file manager. Kraken is smart and follows my every move and made my workflow quicker and lighter”
Dario Ramaglia (Devils, Medici)
“Since the first project I used it with, Kraken has become indispensable for my dialogue editing needs. From simplifying workflows to assembling sync sound to finding alternative takes and rushes gold, I can’t imagine working without it.”
Tom Beale (Bulletproof 2, Wounds)
“This is WILD!!!!! Its going to make my life so much easier – Over here everything is on a budget so it is always a mission to fish for clean audio. I cannot believe how well this is working!”
Stef Albertyn
“Kraken is the Swiss army knife for dialogue editors, but also a very handy tool to have for anyone working in audio post. For example, I create video cut tracks with Kraken for easy ambience editing”
Timo Saila (Mimi On A Mission)
“Kraken has been a life saver on a recent job, far far speedier for alt finding than doing it all manually. Useful as a EDL assembly tool and for scene change marking too”
Anna Sulley (The Owners, Shameless)
“Kraken is an absolute time saver on difficult projects. Add to that the constant support and upgrades from Marc Specter means this software will continue to grow into an essential piece of kit.”
Ayush Ahuja (Gully Boy)
“ Kraken has absolutely revolutionised my dx editing workflow… it really is such a powerful tool and has proved a real bargain!.”
Robert Newman (Horrible Histories)