Help

[Rusty K]

I'm using a Sony 4trac digital to record and I'm at an impass. Should I get outboard gear such as compression, effects or should I just upgrade to a more professional editing software such as Cool Edit with pro effectors. Would someone please sell me on Cool Edit?

Thanks,
Rusty K

[dobro]

Look, I'm going through the same thing you are - outboard or software - what's it going to be? And the answer is: I don't know. In the end, I got outboard gear (compressor, reverb) for the time being. But in the long run, I think software is the way to go, because with increasing bitdepth and sampling rates, digital's going to be able to sound as good as analog, I think. And soon, too - this stuff is changing almost daily.

About Cool Edit, though. Syntrillium's long overdue for a new version, to bring Cool Edit into line with other good editors, and that's going to cost me (and anyone who buys it now) the cost of an upgrade soon. Why don't you email them and ask them if you should buy now or hold off for the new version? They probably won't tell you (they keep their cards *real* close to their chests), but that way if a new version came out embarrassingly soon after you bought the present Version 1.2, you'd have a case for asking for a reduced price on the upgrade, I think.

[Kelly Holdridge]

I love CEP, but I hate having to wait on the fx to "compute." For the money, CEP is great--especially for the editing features. But applying different fx is not like twisting knobs andhearing the difference; it's more discovering your favorites after a couple of weeks of mistakes.

One good thing about CEP: you WILL know the technical specs for effects, because the more you know on that end, the faster you can produce your music. It's not, "twisting this sounds good..." It's, "the backup vocals are too forward, lets delay by 20 ms." You'll find what works for your music, and then be able to save these settings as presets for next time.