editing/mastering a Wav file from a Portable digital recorder

[zuul]

I am currently using a Zoom H4 to record my bands practise sessions. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a programme to master/edit/cleanup.... the resulting wav. files.

I am using WavePad Sound Editor at the mo. which is handy with the built in wav. to Mp3 converter. I have read that audacity is also good?

Also as a side note, what should I be doing to improve the quality of these recordings at a post production level? I'm not looking for exceptional sounding stuff, these recordings are really just to listen to between sessions to work out parts and structure songs, but any advice would be mucho appreciated.

Zuul

 

[Massive Master]

If you're looking for the ultra-mega-cheap route, Audacity, Reaper, etc. will do the job.

Making the recordings sound better on the other hand...

I've heard the H4. It doesn't kick ass, but it does a reasonable job of picking up what's happening in the room. If the room sounds like crap (around 99.7% of rooms do), the recording will follow that line of crapulence. The only reasonable way to attack the problem is to attack the room.

 

[zuul]

Thanks for your reply dude,

The reason I choose the H4 is due to it's portability: We don't have a dedicated practise room. Instead we rehearese in a complex that has about 6 different rooms, and we can't leave recording/band equipment in there between sessions. If we had our own space for sure I would sling up a few mics, mixer, usb interface that kinda deal.

The rooms are all ex-studio type and treated for live playing.

What would you suggest to do to the room, or positioning the H4?

Is there any difference in Audacity, Reaper, WavePad?

What do the high end products (I don't know what they are for editing Wav. files really, Pro-tools, Cubase? ) offer that these don't for this kind of situation?

Zuul

 

[TyphoidHippo]

Is there any difference in Audacity, Reaper, WavePad?

Last I checked, Audacity was a 2-track editor for single stereo files (2 tracks in one stereo file)...along the same lines as Wavelab and SoundForge.

Reaper is a multi-track DAW environment. There's no rule saying you can't use a multi-track application for 2-track editing - it's just generally accepted that 2-track editors allow one to do that job more efficiently - they have tools, hotkeys, etc. laid out for quick editing of one file.

What do the high end products (I don't know what they are for editing Wav. files really, Pro-tools, Cubase? ) offer that these don't for this kind of situation?
Zuul

Pro-tools and Cubase are "high end" multi-track DAW products (although many reputable users of Reaper report consistently that it is not inferior in any way to these much-more-expensive products...). Again, this is not really what you need right now.

The "high end" 2-track editors were Wavelab and SoundForge the last time I looked into them - they offer the same basic functionality as Audacity. The main difference is the support system, which you can call 24 hours a day, whereas with Audacity you get help from the user community on the forums, mailing lists... things like that. To a casual user/hobbyist, this is fine. You can generally get excellent help on forums and mailing lists, but you may have to wait a few hours, days or even weeks on rare occasions. People who rely on this software to pay their bills sometimes feel that a 24 hour support line is worth shelling out money for.

If you want to know the difference beyond that basic info, download the demo versions of Wavelab and Soundforge and check them out side-by-side with Audacity for yourself... A lot of people feel the "High End" software is better laid out, easier to use, easier on the eyes, and an endless list of other subjective opinions. As far as I know, they are not superior in any objective, technical way. Believe it or not, well-established open-source projects (like Audacity) are very often of extremely high-quality - often performing even better than their proprietary counterparts in benchmark tests. They're also often perceived as ugly/plain, hard to use, and non-professional (although professional results can be attained, this is just the perception I have seen over and over again...)

 

[mcmetal]

i've used audacity & found it easyto work with.i recorded with a korg d-8 multitracker and mixed it down in audacity.just send your line out from your zoom into the computer,hit record in audacity and mix whatever down.you can then go to the effects and use compression,eq or whatever.you can't record your tracks with effects on in audacity,only add them later.you can always undo things.save the sound file & burn.there's better stuff out there but if just looking for something that's helpful for songwriting it'll work til your band is ready to record a serious project.