Subject:Need some recommendations

Posted by: Carl_Marcinik

Date:8/17/1999 2:12:00 PM

(Hi, I originally posted this on the Vegas Pro list and
don't know how to cross-post to other lists, but don't
want to miss out on any fabulous advice)

Hi Folks,
I am basically brand new to digital audio editing,
production, etc. (my background is primarily in
software design and development in computer networking
and real-time environments so I have somewhat of a technical
background that I hope to leverage). Anyway, I am assisting
some folks with trying to put together a decent audio
production environment for producing programs for radio
broadcast. Basically, the programs (at least initially)
will be produced from pre-recorded casette audio tapes
(of various quality, etc.) with background music and an
announcer to open and close the program. The program itself
is strictly discussion (no music). From what I have been
able to determine so far (which I admit is not much), we
need to record the tapes into digital format (e.g., .wav
files), edit and "noise reduce" the tapes, and then
produce the program using some kind of multi-track audio
production tool. All this leads me to a few questions.

If we were to go with tools from Sonic Foundry it seems
that we would need "Sound Forge 4.5", the "Noise Reduction"
plug-in, and "Vegas Pro" to do the job. Does this sound
right? Or is their another SF package or bundle that would
do it? (I should also mention that later--maybe
6 months to a year down the road--we also want to start
playing with video production). How would this combination
compare with somehting like "Cool Edit Pro 1.2" which seems
like it might be able to do all this in one package for
a lot less money? (On the other hand I am not sure
Syntrillium is a "for-real" commercial company yet). Are
there other tools or companies that I should be
considering that come in under $1500-$2000 and can do the
job adequately? (or even well?). Any and all opinions (and
especially those gained from actual experience in this
arena) would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Carl

Subject:Re: Need some recommendations

Reply by: NotWithStupid

Date:8/24/1999 3:49:00 PM

The least expensive solution would be to get a small mixer, small
compressor, small noise reduction unit, and do it "live" and not in
the computer. The biggest time drain will be getting your source
material into the computer, especially with lengthy source material.
There's also the issue of how much disk space is needed (10 megs per
minute of source material) and archiving (need a cd-rom burner).

If you must do this in a computer, make sure it is plenty fast and
get a quality sound card (not a Sound Blaster or clone). The
software you need to do the multi-track mixing (background music,
narration, etc.) would be Vegas. To record the source material into
the computer and perform processing on it (noise reduction and
compression, lots of compression!), I recommend Sound Forge and the
Noise Reduction plug-in. The compression built in to Sound Forge is
quite good and sufficient for the application your talking about.

You will also want a pretty decent cassette recorder to record the
masters on (if you're doing cassette duping) or a cd-rom burner to
create a master cd for cd reproduction.

You may want to consider how much studio time this investment would
buy you at a local studio with a decent editing suite. Depending on
how often you will do this, it may be worthwhile. Also, once you
start getting into video production, the cost of buying the equipment
yourself escalates so quickly that it becomes almost a requirement to
go to a video production facility.

Then there's the issue of having qualified engineering staff to
actually pull it all off and make it sound professional...

Good luck!