The Web Developer's Journal Audio discussion group is busy place. Right now there are around 300 messages on the forum. Of course one of the big problems with forums is that they tend to be full of questions and far fewer answers. But not the WDJ Web Audio forum.
Our thanks go out to professional sound designer Vance Dylan, who started a thread called "Ask Me Anything", now responsible for around half the forum traffic. Vance has his own audio company, Sonic Valley Productions, and along with another audio fanatic, Douglas Giesel, he's created one very long thread of audio questions and answers.
Here's the complete thread.
And here's the rest of the Web Audio forum.
Below are some of the early questions and answers that got the thread going, mainly on the subject of setting up your PC for good audio recording.
Question from Raja Dash
I am working in a CD replication plant and I handle the Input Media Dept. I am working on Sonic Solution and also mastering on Wave Lab. Though I do not meddle with the media sent from the customer, I do convert from DAT to CDR. I am also a musician and I compose music in POP style. I would like to know from you as an expert what is the best PC-based mastering setup, as I want to get one for my personal use in my house.
Vance Dylan replies:
I have used quite a few mastering tools throughout the years from Pro Tools to Sadie. I have just set up a company from my home where we do mastering as well as audio for the web, audio for CD-ROMs and video games. I was lucky enough to be able to put together my favorite programs. My first choice is Sound Forge 4.0 or 4.5 with CD Architect for burning. These are great programs and they are very fast and can handle any job. The 3rd party plug in support is amazing. My second choice would be Wave Lab. It's also a really nice program. You'll also need a bit of out board gear. You'll need a small mixer, digital sound cards to interface with DAT and I would suggest getting another AD-DA converter. I have an Apogee converter that is installed before my DAT as the converters are better than the DAT converters. Question from Rafe Sampson
This one's got me baffled. There are four of us (voice-over talents/engineers) recording industrial-type scripts. We record at 22khz/16bits and then convert the files to Real Audio 2.0/14.4 (the lowest quality, but that's a bandwidth issue out of our control). One of our guys gets a recurring, annoying clicking and popping on many of his converted .ra files on the letter "r". Not in every instance that there's an "r" in a word, but in 20 to 30% of them. We have had him record the files on each of our machines (they're all different) and I've tried every filter and processing tool on Sound Forge, but I can't get rid of the clicks. Real Audio and Sound forge people are unable to help. Is there something I'm missing?
Vance Dylan replies:
It is a good one. I copied your question down and duplicated your process using Sound Forge 4.5 and encoding it to RA. I had the same problem at least half of the time. The answer lies in the codec for Real Audio 2 . It's severely outdated. I use Cool Edit Pro 1.2, which can save in Real audio 2 right up to 5.0 with a shitload of codec options for each. I suggest you try encoding to 28.8 mono full response (available in Real Audio 3 Codecs) as a minimum. Internet speed and bandwidth have come a ways since Real Audio 2 (there are codecs for Real Audio 5 now) so maybe you should encode using Real Audio 3. I use 28.8 full response mono and sometimes stereo as a minimum and sometimes if the piece is short enough then I'll encode a bit higher to get a better sound. Hope this helps you out a bit. Cheers!
Question from Billy Cunningham
My first question is, I have a 'stock' sound card with my computer, nothing fancy, and I'm making decent recordings. I feel I'm really close to having the quality I need to produce CDs. How much of a difference would a 300-400 dollar sound card do? Also I'm plugging mics right into a mixer, into the computer, with no compression. Would purchasing a compression processor help as much as I've heard it will? And can I get good results with the <100 Alesis ones or should I go off and spend 300 on a big time pro compressor?
Vance Dylan replies:
Yes, soundcards do make a difference. With all things remember the golden rule. You get what you pay for. It's a good thing you're getting close to high quality recordings. This means you don't need a whole lot more to start doing CDs. Spending the extra few bucks is worth it. I found out the hard way. I have a few cards of different quality installed in my comp. I've got a Turtle Beach digital card that interfaces from Apogee converters to my DAT, and a Tahiti analog card that takes input from my mixer and four AW37 that are set up in mono for multitrack recording, allowing me to record 8 separate inputs at once. I don't use these cards much as they're not the greatest. They really don't sync properly and I don't have too many bands tromping in here doing recording. Most standard cards are not really clocked properly and have a limited frequency response. They just aren't as exact as a higher quality one. The internal clock is supposed to be at 44.1 and they are usually off. Getting a good card means getting 20-20 or better freq response and you'll be guaranteed to get 44.1. On the issue of a compressor, I would highly recommend it. I like the Alesis 3630. It's inexpensive and is discreet and does a great job. Hope this helps ya out. Cheers.
Question from Joe Martin
I'm a basement musician looking to use my PC for doing some recording. My PC is midi equipped but I'm not interested in using midi devices. Ultimately, I'd like my PC to simulate a multi-track recorder - I plug in my mic, guitar, etc. and lay down the tracks. How do I do it? Do I need an A/D converter? Are they cheap? How much should I pay for one? Can you recommend some software that can get me started?
Vance Dylan replies:
Using your computer for recording can be a lot of fun and it can be a pain in the butt sometimes. All you'll need is a full duplex sound card meaning you can monitor the input and output at the same time. Most newer cards are full duplex. You'll need a card with stereo inputs and outputs. You'll need some sort of mixer to feed signals into the card. You can use any LINE output to feed your sound card. Be it a mixer or a LINE output of a home stereo receiver. You will need some software. You will have to decide what you are looking for. I suggest Cool Edit Pro for you. I use it all the time and it's awesome. You can check this out at http://www.syntrillium.com . You can get some free demos from WDJ at http://webdevelopersjournal.com/software/multimedia_goodies.html or from CNET at http://www.cnet.com and try several programs. Like anything, you can put a lot of money into it or enough to get you by. That's entirely up to you. You'll need some speakers as well. I suggest you visit some sites of people using comps for recording and see what they have. Here's a list of a few hundred home studio owners that might help you see what everyone else is using. You can see the list at http://www.guitar9.com/hsregistry.html (I'm in there as well...shameless plug) Welcome to the wonderful world of PC Recording. Cheers.
Please post your audio questions to the forum. Following the Ask Me Anything thread.
You can mail Vance with queries about Sonic Valley Productions or visit his company site at www.sonicvalley.com.
| 
