Inexpensive audio program recommendations.

[Innovations]

I was thinking that I would get Pro Tools Free, but with the lack of XP support I am looking instead at some of the well under $100 audio programs out there. This is not just a matter of being cheap, but that for what I am looking for (voiceover for training programs, program prompts, etc.) I do not think that I will be needing that much. About the most I expect to be doing is doing a little equalization on my voice tracks, maybe adding some reverb to give a little depth, and then laying them over some prerecorded music. The equipment that I am thinking of using for this can sample at 24 bits/96mhz so I am thinking it would be a waste not to have a recording/editing program that could do the same when I so desire.

I have been looking at several things. One was n-track but while its feature set looks excellent a musician friend of mine said that he thought it added extra noise to his recording. Is that true? Cakewalk Music Creator is another choice, although the information on Cakewalk's site is unclear if their lower end programs can process 24/96 files. Sound Forge Studio looks good but lacks 24/96 support. The local computer store has a program called Magix Music Studio 7 at a good price but nobody seems to talk much about it here so I am skeptical of it. Among the lot of them Cool Edit 2000 seems to look very good.

What feedback can you give me?

[Porter]

I haven't checked theses links, however they were posted by housepig in another recent post:

www.databaseaudio.co.uk
www.audiomelody.com
audacity.sourceforge.net
www.thepluginlist.com

Might want to check them out... they are all freeware.

And just one comment you passed in your post... 24/96.... do you really need to record at that? Remember that a CD is only 16/44.1.

Porter

[Innovations]

Originally posted by Porter
....
Might want to check them out... they are all freeware.

And just one comment you passed in your post... 24/96.... do you really need to record at that? Remember that a CD is only 16/44.1.

Porter

I am a little ambivalent about freeware. I like the idea that there is a support staff and upgrade program. With GPL software you are kind of at the mercy of whether there is enough volunteers and whether they are interested in fixing or improving the things that need to be fixed/improved.

As for 24/96 I most likely will not be using it always, or even regularly, but if your software cannot use it why spend the money on the hardware (or vice-versa). Nearly all effects processing results in some sort of averaging and distortion or loss of quality of the data. By working on the data at a higher quality you have headroom for that loss of qualtiy, so to speak.

[Grizzly]

Howdy
Yoou might want to check out Gold Wave. It is a free fully functional editing program download. Get it at
http://www.goldwave.com
It works very well with XP.

[Innovations]

Originally posted by Grizzly
Howdy
Yoou might want to check out Gold Wave. It is a free fully functional editing program download. Get it at
http://www.goldwave.com
It works very well with XP.

Well, it is shareware, not freeware. But it does look full featured for only $40.

[Porter]

Originally posted by Innovations
I am a little ambivalent about freeware. I like the idea that there is a support staff and upgrade program. With GPL software you are kind of at the mercy of whether there is enough volunteers and whether they are interested in fixing or improving the things that need to be fixed/improved.

As for 24/96 I most likely will not be using it always, or even regularly, but if your software cannot use it why spend the money on the hardware (or vice-versa). Nearly all effects processing results in some sort of averaging and distortion or loss of quality of the data. By working on the data at a higher quality you have headroom for that loss of qualtiy, so to speak.

True on both accounts, however, at home now I'm using a freeware HTML builder & a freeware FTP program, both of which are better than some 'off the shelf' programs which I've used. I guess you have the good free ware and the crap freeware.

As for the 24 bit... if you are just going to be doing 'voiceover for training programs, program prompts, etc'. If you are using a little reverb, the deteriation of audio recorded at 24bit vs 16 bit will appear to be invisible..

Porter

[cyanatic]

You might try looking at a program called Power Tracks by pgmusic. Relatively inexpensive, a lot of bang for the buck (IMO).

pgmusic.com

Their latest version 8.0 supports 24/96 and their tech support is very responsive.

Just my .02

Good luck,

Cyanatic

[moskus]

And I think that at least Cakewalk Home Studio supports 24/96...

[TimOBrien]

I use and am very happy with N-Track (and I'll politely say your friend is full of beans about it adding "noise" to recordings.)

Check it out yourself, the download at www.ntrack.com is a fully working version that is only restricted to not doing the final stereo mixdown.

At only $60, it's a huge bargain.

My $0.02 is that software choice is VERY subjective and you should always download as many demos and try out as many packages as possible.

[Porter]

The only way that extra 'noise' could come into the picture is if when bouncing tracks he routes it externally... then the D/A A/D converters/process will add extra noise... bouncing digitally or mixing internally shouldn't add any extra noise.

Porter

[Innovations]

actually I looked on the n-track support site and noted a page specifically on turning off the vu-meters during playback on Soundblaster cards or....noice would occur. I think that this may have been the problem that my friend was seeing.

[Porter]

I don't want to break copyright or anything... but this is from the n-tracks support site:

2.b - Q: I hear a strong noise during playback that I don't hear with other programs (applies only to Creative Labs soundcards)
A: Make sure you turn off the recording vumeter before starting the playback. This must be done with Creative ISA cards (SB16, 32, AWE32 and AWE64) to overcome the limitation of this cards that lets them work in full-duplex (simultaneous recording and playback) only with 8 bit playback. Read the "Troubleshooting/Creative soundcards issues" help topic for more details.

The Creative cards mentioned them had problems with working in Full Duplex. Hence the Noise... the card couldn't play and send the data quick enough to the program. For what it is worth... the cards there don't record 24/96... the 64 might record it 16bit. The Audidgy 2 was the first 'true' Creative Card to record 24bit.

This was also in the same FAQ:

Creative PCI64 (also known as "Ensoniq AudioPCI") and PCI 128: inexpensive but with a very good recording quality

Creative Soundblaster Audigy: the card works well with n-Track Studio. It's a 16 bit card, it doesn't support 24 bit recording or playback as the specifications may seem to suggest. It has a very good MIDI hardware synth.

Creative Soundblaster Extigy: it too is a 16 bit card, it doesn't support 24 bit recording or playback as the specifications may seem to suggest.

Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2: unlike the Audigy 1 the Audigy 2 finally supports true 24 bit recording and playback at sampling frequencies up to 96 khz. The Asio drivers only work up to 16 bits/48 Khz but 24 bit/96 Khz recording works with WDM drivers. Since n-Track natively supports WDM drivers the limitation with Asio drivers is not a concern.

Creative Soundblaster Live! is quite good for both audio and MIDI. It has the characteristic that it internally always works at 48000 hz and for different frequencies simply does a sampling frequency conversion. This seems to happen also with digital I/O. This can make the card less attractive if you plan to work at 44100 hz.

You might want to let your friend know this.

Porter

[Toker41]

I've tried alot of the more expensieve multi track proggies, and keep going back to N-track. It is the most user friendly, and the cheapest. Don't really have too much of a noise problem with it. I kinda think I'm getting better stuff out of it then I did in multi million dollar studios. However, that could be because there is no one standing over me bitching about time and money. Gotta love modern tech and home recording.

[cominginsecond]

DON'T GET N-TRACK!!!!! I repeat: DON'T GET N-TRACK!!!!! It made my life a living hell for six months. It is the most unstable piece of crap I've ever had the displeasure of working with. Even today when I use it just to listen to old archived songs, it crashes at least five times an hour. Get Cakewalk Home Studio or Cubasis; anything but N-Track. What a piece of crap.

[Toker41]

Never had problem with N-track on XP. No crashes ever. Maybe your problem was operator error, or maybe you were running win98 (which is a mess in it self)

[cominginsecond]

Originally posted by Toker41
Never had problem with N-track on XP. No crashes ever. Maybe your problem was operator error, or maybe you were running win98 (which is a mess in it self)

The big problems started when I switched to XP.

Oh yeah, my system crashing when I hit "record" is operator error. That's it. How can crashes and stability problems be "operator error?" Your setup must be conducive to working well with that buggy piece of s&@t! My sure wasn't. Sonar, on the other hand, runs like a dream. Probably only crashes once a month.

[SPINSTERWUN]

shareware / freeware....................

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm

[Toker41]

Originally posted by cominginsecond
The big problems started when I switched to XP.

Oh yeah, my system crashing when I hit "record" is operator error. That's it. How can crashes and stability problems be "operator error?" Your setup must be conducive to working well with that buggy piece of s&@t! My sure wasn't. Sonar, on the other hand, runs like a dream. Probably only crashes once a month.

Sorry, I was refering to "operating system" error. Did not mean to sound the way that did. Thing with XP is you have to make sure you have all the updates. Xp was very buggy early on. Not the smooth problemless system it is now...hehe.

[cominginsecond]

Originally posted by Toker41
Sorry, I was refering to "operating system" error. Did not mean to sound the way that did.

That's pretty funny. Sorry if I overreacted a little.

[Toker41]

hehe...not at all. I would have really fired back at that if I were you....hehe.