Recommendations for completing beginner home recording system

[bufpilot]

The needs are:
1. Lay 4 voices on one sound track.
2. Have capability to lay MIDI tracks.
3. Be able to remaster about 100 old cassette tapes that my wife uses to perform with (Denoiser/declicker/dehiss/de-...) but are disintegrating due to age
4. Manage the mix to burn CDs
5. Ability to grow without having to redo it all over

I have an older TASCAM mixer board/cassette recorder, SPX-90, a new AMD6-2 (Socket 7), 380MHx, w/256k RAM, 8MB HDD,100MHz bus with built-in 16 bit sound chip with full duplex playback/recording. The sound card has SPDIF (?) in/outputs (What are those for?) up to 24-bit stereo 44KHz, a PCI Sound Pro application, and 3D sound capability which I don't think I'll be using. It also supports SB-16. I also have an HP 8200 CD Writer to burn the CDs.

I would imagine I'll disable the sound chip, but I'm swimming through the sound card/remastering/sound software, and, frankly, haven't seen how this will all fit together. This is because I'm a Humanities major flying jets for a living. Patch cords, gated EQ, ADAT, S/PDIF, and DTRS are mystical terms to me. Anyway, what are your recommendations for:
1. Software to remaster/denoise/dehiss/ declick/de... the old cassette tapes
2. Additional equipment needed to preamp/add to take 4 mike inputs (record a quartet)
3. Sound card that will work with the computer and software
4. Mics for home recording
5. Easy-to-use reverb/special effects black box. The SPX-90 has more bells and whistles and is a bit more complicated than what I'd like. Also, it's almost black magic to get the TASCAM to sound right or the same two times in a row. Anything simpler with same specs/capabilities? Or should I just hire a sound genie?

Budget: $1000-1500 for card/software; maybe $2000 if can get all we need and it's almost for sure to work for my entire life (another 40 years more hopefully--50 max.)

I was leaning toward Layla, but that seems to be a bit of overkill(8 in/out vs 4 in/??? out). I read the earlier comments that Event1 tech support made disclaimers about AMD processors and their Layla/Gina cards. It seems like there's a lot of promising to deliver with mediocre/lackluster results for software. What should I definitely stay away from? Got good urls for me to surf through?
Thanks!!!!!!!
Please send e-mails to address above and to:
kevin.reilly@email.edwards.af.mil

 

[chikdada]

The trick is to find software that you like then buy your soundcard to make sure it's compatable. As for me I use logic,Samplitude and Cakewalk. If you're not using midi I recommend Samplitude by far. The other programs need a separate program to burn cds. Samplitude you just record, edit, punch in your track numbers and burn. I would buy the program then call them to see what soundcards they recommend and if your cd burner is campatable. If the card you already have is compatable it has a spdif input. That is a digital imput. You can use a dat machine or a high end coverter with that. It's probably just stereo though.

 

[soileack]

I'm still learning about the live recording, but I can tell you what works for me. I do the same thing you are asking for with cassettes for my wife's ensemble. I use DART CD recorder 4 to clean things up. You can check out the software at www.dartpro.com. It has all you asked for plus normalize, equalize, and is fairly adjustable. I normally record straight into my Soundblaster MP3+ usb soundcard. $40 for the soundcard, and $40 for the DART software wasn't a bad investment. Also, the SB came with some utilities too. Same kind of stuff, but to me the DART stuff is better. The external soundcard is just quieter. It also has RCA inputs, so you really don't need any special cables. Just hook your cassette player or a tape out from your stereo system to it.