Czar,
First of all, let me state that you can do what you want to do utilizing Cakewalk. I did something similiar a few months ago but on 2" tape. I will tell you how later but in reading your initial post
I,m not certain that you have the recording process fully understood. I,d like to offer my similiar experience with what your
doing to maybe give you a more informed view on the decisions you are going to have to make.
First off, you have already created your wave files it appears.
I hope that you did this at the highest resolution possible.
Looking at the initial post you dont have a high end audio card
which means your audio will be degraded in D/A conversion
and this is absolutely crucial at this point in the transfer. The engineer should be making you aware of this by the way, if he
has you and your recordings best interest in mind.
O K youve got your lets say 24 tracks on 1" tape and now youre
ready to do a mixdown. You did not mention this important step
so im not sure that you are aware that this is what you are
gonna have to do rather than going straight to the mastering
process. this means runinng the 1" tape through an analog mixing console and using outboard effects. If it is to be run through a digital mixer, well now youre talking about another conversion. Analog back to digital which of course means degrading the signal again. Unless its the really high end converters this does not make sense.
Now youre mixing down your 2 tracks to another medium. You are
already analog lets assume you are going to 1/2" analog tape.
If not you are going to Dat or CD whcih will mean another conversion.
Now you are ready for mastering and your choices here are also
to stay analog or digital but more than likely a combination of the two provided that you know what is you want and how you want to go about it. Depending on how much you want out of this recording it would of course mean going to a dedicated mastering
house. Which by the way in most cases will have the ultimate in
A/D and D/A ,EQ, Compressiors, etc.
Here's a suggestion. Take your wave files and put them on a CD
and go to a studio that can load them directly into the Digital Multitracking Software. From there do all the mxing through an
analog console using outboards effects. This is where you would
particularly benefit from the analog gear. This will also be a better option if the initial wave files were 16 bit. Again, mixing down to 1/2" or DAT ,CDR. Then off to mastering.
If you were already aware of these processes then theres no problem. I will give you instructions on how to slave cakewalk to
a tape machine if you still want it but I gotta go break out my notes. As for my reward (when and if I earned it) you can simply
buy this brand new 2" Tape that I have no longer have use for
Hope this helps!