Links
Audio/Recording Links



These are links that may be of some use to you if you are interested in doing audio work on your computer. Most everything I've learned about this topic, I have learned online through some of these links. Many of the products listed here are ones I use myself. If you know me at all, you know I enjoy this stuff.
 
  • Antares - Makers of Antares Auto Tune (Hardware and DirectX Plugin). A must have... if you record people who have day jobs. See the RBC Audio link if you want something that does almost the same thing at a fraction of the price.
     
  • AudioForums - Discussion groups for recording & audio - PC/Mac hardware & software. This is where I started out learning in 1995 or 1996. Not as good as it used to be, but a lot of beginners hang out here. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of blind leading the blind going on here, so proceed with caution, or just have a good laugh.
     
  • Cakewalk - MIDI Sequencer / Audio Multi-track programs for the masses, such as SONAR, Cakewalk Pro Audio, Guitar Tracks Pro, Home Studio, etc. - "Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None" type products, but getting better all the time. Good all around programs for beginners that leave enough room to grow into. I recently upgraded to SONAR 4 - use it strictly for MIDI sequencing and have been using it since Cakewalk Pro Audio 6.01 in 1997. They came out with Project 5, which I have no interest in, not too long ago.
     
  • DSP/FX - Makers of the "Virtual Pack" of audio plugins - DirectX format as well as SAWPro/SAWPlus32. Great sound. Goofy interface.
     
  • Echo Digital Audio - Makers of Mia, Gina24, and Layla24 multi channel audio interfaces (sound cards). I use a Darla24 (2 in / 8 out) on my GigaStudio system. Sounds great, works flawlessly. Good drivers for these, too. They just came out with the new PCMCIA based Indigo audio interfaces (3 different Indigo flavors).
     
  • FASoft - Makers of N-Track Studio. Extremely affordable. I've played with the demo and it looked great for the price. I can't speak for reliability or performance, but it's probably a great place to start if you want to get into this and can't spend much on it. I've seen a lot of good comments about it, too.
     
  • Frontier Design Group - Makers of Montana, Sierra, and WaveCenter/PCI cards and the Tango24 converter. Nice hardware, historically lousy driver development for NT/W2K/XP and WDM. I do not own any of their products for this reason. They do seem to be trying hard to play catchup now though.
     
  • HomeRecording.com - Another place that tries to cover all the bases. Extensive discussion groups about a bunch of related topics. I don't go here very much. I'm not sure why. Maybe I need to change that.
     
  • iZotope - Makers of DirectX plugins Ozone and Vinyl. Vinyl will let you add a scratchy old record effect to your recording. It was still free the last time I looked.
     
  • JMS-Audioware - Jon Marshall Smith makes some nice plugins for SAW Pro/SAWPlus32 and SAWStudio/SAWStudioLite if you've gone that route.
     
  • Mackie - Great, affordable mixers and power amps. I use a Mackie 24.4 and a 1402 mixer at church, with a M1200i power amp. In the studio I also have a 1402 mixer, used primarily for the nice mic pre's. They also make Hard Disk Recorders, NearField Monitors, etc.
     
  • Microsoft Windows Media - Web based encoding, streaming, etc. of audio and video. Good, and nice, and free.. (included with Windows OS's). Much better than the Real products, in my opinion.
     
  • Midiman / MAudio - Makers of all sorts of MIDI and audio products and interfaces. I currently own a Delta 1010 (10 in / 10 out) for recording in the studio. It's rock solid and so much quieter than the Gadget Labs Wave8/24s. (Real world -109db, as opposed to -91db on the Wave8/24s.) I highly recommend them. The only thing I don't like about the 1010 is that the -10db/+4db toggles are on the back of the breakout box. Mine's rack mounted and my arms are just a bit too thick to squeeze through the single open rack space to feel around for the right buttons. I can do it, but it hurts. The Echo Darla24 and the Gadget Labs Wave8/24s let you do it through a control panel applet. Oh well, it's worth it. I also own a Midisport 8x8/s for a MIDI (8 in / 8 out + SMPTE) patchbay. They finally got the XP drivers working properly and now I'm satisfied with it, too.
     
  • Nemesys Music Technology - Now owned by TASCAM. Makers of GigaStudio and GigaSampler. Combined with a pro level audio interface (sound card), it allows your PC to out do any hardware based synth or sound module. I've used the Giga products since April, 2000. I consider it a "Change Your World" type of product.
     
  • PCRecording.com - James offers up some down to earth reviews of related products every so often. He's also got a handy sound card table that compares many different brands and models. It may be a bit out of date however.
     
  • ProcRec.com - Discussion groups, articles, classifieds, and industry news. Seems like a lot of the "greats" don't participate much anymore, so search the archives. This is actually the site that convinced me I could build my own systems. Search for articles about the "Roll Your Own" systems. It's old info but some of it may still be of use.
     
  • RBC Audio - Makers of the Voice Tweaker plugin (non-destructive pitch correction). Much more affordable than Antares Auto Tune.
     
  • Real - Makers of the Real One Player (Formerly Real Media Player / Real Audio Player). If you're anti-Microsoft then Real is the one for you. They seem to be very interested in getting your money, though. Just look how many times they want you to pay when you try to get their free player. I guess they have to since Microsoft's Windows Media Server, Encoder, and Player all outperform Real's stuff and it's included with the MS OS's.
     
  • RME Audio - Nice audio hardware. Expensive. Really serious? Try them out.
     
  • SAWStudio - In my opinion, the best, most reliable computer based multi-track program out there. Audio Only - No MIDI Sequencing. Bob Lentini continues to develop the SAWStudio and SAWStudio Lite products after closing IQS's doors in November, 2001 after 10 years in the business, providing virtually flawless code with each update. SAWStudio is a 72 stereo input (144 channel), 24 stereo output (48 i/o) mixer, with Input Source, Attenuator, Phase Reverse, Swap L/R, and Mono buttons, 5 Band Stereo EQ, Keying Gate and Compressor, Pre and Post FX patch points, six Stereo Aux Sends with Pan, 24 Stereo Output Assigns, 8-point XY Surround Pan with separate Sub and Center Chan, Solo, Mute, Stereo Pan, long throw Fader with a Stereo High-Resolution (-60 dB) Meter on each channel multi-track environment. Everything is fully automatable. All recordings on our site here have been recorded and mixed with the SAW line of products. I've been using the SAW line since March of 1996. I consider it a "Change Your World" type of product.
     
  • SAWStudio Newsgroup - An independent SAW Studio Newsgroup. Since IQS closed its doors in November of 2001, this one has sprung up.
     
  • SAWStudio Online User Forum - Another SAWStudio User Form. This is the official one that Bob Lentini hangs out on.
     
  • Sonic Foundry - (Bought Out By Sony) Makers of Vegas (Audio & Video), Acid (Loops), Sound Forge (Audio Editor), and a bunch of other applications, most of which can be replaced by freeware utilities. They do make the fine Noise Reduction DirectX plugin, however. I also own Vegas Video 3 and just recently upgraded to Vegas 4 + DVD (includes AC-3/Dolby Digital Encoding and DVD Authoring). I'm still disappointed that the program doesn't support analog devices, only firewire. Oh well, Adobe Premiere will handle that for me. As of May 2003, they've been bought out by Sony.
     
  • Studio Cat - A mail order place for hardware and software, but I've included them here because of the wonderful Purrrfect Drums drum samples for GigaStudio. 12GB of drum samples on 8 CDs. Jim took the time to do it right.
     
  • Syntrillium Software - (Bought Out By Adobe) Makers of Cool Edit Pro and Cool Edit 2000. I opted to not upgrade to Cool Edit Pro 2, however. I've owned Cool Edit Pro 1.2a and I only use a few editing features that aren't worth the upgrade price (for me). Lots of folks love this Syntrillium though. Fairly affordable. As of May 23, 2003, they've been bought out by Adobe.
     
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