Recording Handbook - Hol.gr

Several powerful digital editing programs are available now including "SAW Plus" and "Sound Forge".
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8. Recording With Your PC
The explosion of recording hardware and software has finally collided with low prices and now everybody
wants to use their computer to make music. More than 1/2 the questions I get at 'Ask the Doctor' are now
computer recording related. The amount of sound power being offered from inside a PC today is
incredible.
The main problem is that it's too often a complicated process to get the hardware and software installed
properly and working correctly. However, once these "configuration" issues are solved, the PC recording
enviornment can be a lot of fun to use and can produce very high quality recordings.
to Mac users: I have no particular bone to pick with the Mac vs. the PC. I used Macs when I first started
working at Calliope Studios in NYC in 1986. Back then, for my own projects, the Atari was a lot cheaper
and did what I needed, so I used it. PC's and Mac's both crash from time to time and both have their
devotees. Use what you're comfortable with. The sound that comes out is only as good as the operator who
puts it in. "ProTools this and plugin-X" no more guarantees a hit song than using a "Strat through a
Marshall stack" means you'll sound just like Jimi Hendrix.
Remember, grasshopper, As you search for meaning in the musical universe, the computer is a tool that is
only as useful as he/she who uses it ...
THE SOFTWARE:
For starters, figure out what it is you want to do. Do you already have a demo setup, but need to edit and
compile your stereo mixes from DAT? or don't have a DAT and want to record your mixes directly into
the computer? or want to do multi-track recording into the computer, i.e. record a drummer, bass player
and guitarist all at the same time and mix on the computer? or you want to lock the computer to your
ADAT and use them both to record on? or you don't have any other equipment and want to do it all on the
computer?
Okay, you see that there are a lot of questions to answer before you buy the "box"! All of these software
companies have websites. Look at the software you might want to use and find out what the different
packages do. IMPORTANT!!! Every one of these software manufacturers lists the capabilities of each
piece of software as well as minimum PC capabilities required to run that software. I can guarantee you
that in the long run, you won't be happy with the way any music software runs on the "minimum machine"
listed in the software specs. Talk to a rep and make them tell you what it really needs to run on.
Recording Software comes in several flavors. There are 2-track stereo programs like Sonic Foundry's
Sound Forge. It's a very powerful 2-track editing package but mainly designed to work on one stereo song
at a time. With a Multi-track Recording program you could work on several songs at once, do cross fades
and overlap endings and beginnings, etc. or actually record and overdub parts as you would with any
multi-track recorder. There are lots of multi-track programs out there like Syntrillium's Cool Edit Pro, IQS
Saw Plus and SEK'd Samplitude, to name a few.
There are also powerful MIDI Sequencing programs with Digital Audio capabilities available like MOTU
Digital Performer, E-Magic Logic Audio and Opcode Vision DSP. With these you can build MIDI
sequences and record your audio and place the digital audio right onto the sequences. The audio becomes
another sound that is triggered along with the rest of the MIDI sequence.
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