minstrel: Computer recording?

[Chris Gregory]

Sorry, I sent this to one person instead of the entire list.  And milord
Falcone, I'm sorry that you'll recieve this twice.

> It appears I have all 5 volumes of the Child ballads on the way, thanks to
> my local librarian and her computer contacts. My next step is to replace
> this old and increasingly cranky computer I have. I have made my living for
> many years doing computer stuff, but of a fairly obscure nature. I just have
> not been paying attention to audio issues. The end product I want would be a
> combination of probably HTML files with good audio as well. I would also
> like to be able to produce some high quality CD's to be played just on
> standard audio CD players (or should I skip that and go to DVD? Told you I
> have not been paying attention.....). The ability to also edit video would
> be useful for another project I am thinking about. I figure there are
> probably a number of folks on this list who are already doing this kind of
> thing. Any recommendations as to hardware and software would be greatly
> appreciated.
> 
> David Falcone

You figured correct, sir. I'm going for a PhD in music, with
specializations in both Early Music and Music Production.  If you want
to do audio, video, and burn CDs, I'd say you should go with a Mac,
since it comes with iMovie, a DVD and CD burner, and fairly high-quality
audio built-in.  I'd stay away from iMacs though, since they don't have
analog audio in.  If you are loth to leave the Windows world, or have
lots of PC-specific applications, your other option would be getting a
Sony Vaio, since it's one of the few computers I can think of designed
specifically for multimedia; it has firewire as well, so you could hook
up a digital video camera and edit.  As far as upgrades are concerned,
PCs are generally easier to find upgrades for, but hardware and software
are not always compatible, so you could have issues there.  Macs
generally don't need to be upgraded as much, and when you do upgrade
them, it's usually a quick process.  It all depends on what you want.

As far as software is concerned, it depends on whether or not you're
wanting to record one stereo track and master it, or multitrack and
apply effects and have MIDI tracks and whatnot.  For single tracks, I'd
recommend Peak (BIAS Software) or Spark (TC Electronics) for Mac, or
Cool Edit (I can't remember) or Sound Forge (Sonic Foundry) for Windows.
 Multitracking, you could go with Cubase (Steinberg) or Pro Tools
(Digidesign) for both Mac and PC, as well as Logic (Emagic) and Digital
Performer (Mark of the Unicorn) for Mac only.  Price range for single
tracks of stereo, along with tons of effects and stuff will be around
$100-$300, while multitrackers range from $400-$800.  A Pro-Tools system
can go as high as several thousand, but I doubt you'd need that unless
you were opening a recording studio.

For the CDs that you'd want to make, I would say that you could use a
regular CD-R for the data, especially if you encode all the audio in MP3
format.  DVD is not yet ubiquitous enough, but if you absolutely /must/
have 8 hours of full-quality uncompressed audio, that's the only way to
go short of releasing a boxed set.  You can make HTML files as the
directory listings, and link to the MP3 files in their own directories,
since they'll play in most modern browsers.  DVD-audio is in its
infancy, so I don't think that would be much of an issue yet (but ask me
4 years from now, and I'll probably laugh at my short-sightedness.)

So there you go.  If you have any questions about digital audio,
http://www.computermusic.co.uk is probably the best resource I know of;
they have mad tutorials that will make your head spin.  And you can
e-mail me if you have any immediate concerns about audio, especially Mac audio.

So there you go!
Kinoshita/Chris