Re: [ARSCLIST] Software suggestions?

[Scott Loiselle <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Brandon. Some ideas for you........

If you only need stereo editing, bias peak should be on your list. The
important thing is to get good dsp plugins. Peak with the waves package is a
lot of bang for the buck, their restoration set of plugins is amazingly good
for the $. You'd have to spend a *heck* of a lot more on cedar or pyramix to
get a noticeable increase in "clean up" quality. I have a partner with a
full, current sonic system and he's a bit dismayed by just how good the
waves stuff is, for under a grand! Their 'masters" bundle is also a must
have (well, at least for me) for multiband limiting, eq and level/resolution
maximizing.

The other big advantage of peak is the batch processor. You can configure
whatever you want (E.G. Take these 24 bit wav files, peak limit them,
denoise them, dither to 16 bit and save as aiff), drag any number of files
to the batch processor and it just goes. No transport running, walk away,
leave it overnight, whatever.  Very useable.

If you need multitrack editing, consider buying the same waves plugins and
run them on pro tools free. I know you said you're not enthralled with pt
but, hey, it's free! And the "rubber band" style automation is easy to use
and addictive. It'd run on your Mac's built-in audio system. For a few more
$, you could add a 001 or something.

If PT is a no-no, another option is motu 828 - gives you analog and dig I/o,
plugs right into the firewire and comes with multitrack editing software
that's essentially the audio portion (no midi) of dp 2.7

You could upgrade (now or later) to dp if you want all the fancy stuff.

There's lots of other options out there, these are just relatively cheap,
easy and will get the job done.

Just my $.02

Best, Scott


On 6/2/03 12:52 PM, "Brandon Burke" <bburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I am in the process of establishing a sound reformatting lab at the University
> of Texas-Austin, Digital Library Services Division.  I have a pretty good idea
> about hardware (tape machines, etc) but I'm curious to hear what sound editing
> software most of you use.  As it stands now, were weighing our options.  Many
> in
> the department are only luke warm on Pro Tools and have suggested Cubase.
> Others I have talked to use Sound Forge but we're running Macs and as far as I
> know SF is a PC program.  I'm getting the impression that in 2003 Pro Tools
> isn't the industry standard it was two or three years ago.  Regardless, I'd
> appreciate hearing what many of you think about the software you're
> running--things you like as well as things you wish you'd done differently.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Brandon Burke
> Digital Library Services Division
> University of Texas-Austin
> Austin, TX 78713
>