Re: [ARSCLIST] Seeking recommendations for oral history digitization equipment

[Jim Sam <sam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:37 PM 8/15/2008, Eric Jacobs wrote:
> In my opinion, the short list of commercial software on a PC
> should include:
>
> Steinberg Wavelab
> Adobe Audition
> Sony Soundforge

Those three programs are also top in my opinion, although I have 
reservations about recommending Wavelab to someone on a 
budget.  Especially for someone that's not a professional recordist 
and might not be able to unlock all its features.  SoundForge always 
seemed the most intuitive interface for me, especially the keyboard shortcuts.

> Wavelab also has very good BWF metadata editing built into it.
> The last time I checked Soundforge, BWF metadata was not
> supported.  BWF is an important preservation format and
> standard, and should be a consideration.

SoundForge does have some metadata capabilities, but it's been a 
couple years since I've used it (version 7).


At 09:20 AM 8/13/2008, Schooley, John wrote:
> Of course, Protools is kind of the industry standard, and is less 
> expensive than it
> used to be.  But I have little experience with it and I understand that
> it is difficult to master.  I would think more of an editing or
> mastering program would be more appropriate, like Wavelab.  I am a
> musician, and I have some studio experience from recording my own music,
> but I am not an audio engineer by any stretch of the imagination, and my
> co-workers generally have less audio background than I do.  So
> user-friendliness is a big consideration.

I'm not sure it's the standard for preservation work.  I would think 
Wavelab is far more common as it's the one program of the above three 
that really grew out of mastering.  It's certainly in use here, but 
we also have different needs and constraints.  ProTools is 
questionable for most preservation work due to the way it routes 
digital audio.  There are ways to get around a lot of it, but it's a 
pain to work that way.  And yes, there is a decent learning curve.

(taking off my professional hat and writing as someone that bought an 
mbox for use with his rock band)

But the thing that gets me with ProTools is you do it their way or 
not at all.  One has to use their hardware to use ProTools.  While 
Digidesign products aren't terrible, they're never known for being 
the best sounding, either.  Moreover, I emailed Digidesign customer 
support about conflicts of plug-ins with Kapersky security 
software.  Their response was to buy Norton products.  To me that 
wasn't an answer.

Jim