Editing audio tracks on a PC...?

[Tard]

Have a reason for asking, but not really up for telling the whole story right now. In a nutshell; made a LOT of recordings in the early/mid 90's. A college buddy currently works in a TV FX studio in LA, and copied hours of those old 8-tracks to CDs. The audio quality is pretty bad.

Rather than re-recording all that material again, is there a computer program anyone would recommend for clean-up?

The CD's have been copied to this PC as both .WAV and .MP3 files, I just need an audio-editing program to tweak the volume (recording volume was low, so need to boost volume with a noise-gate to reduce hiss), quality (definitely needs a good equalizer, possible with a stereo-emulator (some of the stereo-tracks sound awfully mono now)), and many different tracks were copied together (in one instance, 6 tracks were recorded back-to-back as a single 487Mb track, one giant 48-minute song(!!!) Totally unmanagable size).

Is there anything available (program-wise) for a desktop computer that the professional musicians here would recommend?

[Tard]

Hahaa! Just skimmed over the above post, and LOL'd at what you may think a mistake. [img]wink.gif[/img]

When saying "8-tracks" above, meant 1/2" reel-to-reel 8-track tape, NOT the decades-obsolete "8-Track Cassettes" (predecessor to cassette-tape). [img]redface.gif[/img]

[DAVID HESS]

Hey Reved,
Try Cubase...It's got everything you need as long as the copies you made are digital. Or Performer Pro. I prefer cubase as it's seems to be more intuitive. If you really want to get fancy find a bud with a Protools rig and you'll be able to do anything and it's much faster. The problem is how cost effective will it be? If someone you know will give you time, then that's really the ultimate way to do it. As far a voice goes. The Antares add on, it's software, is big time help. It does everything but put it's own voice/version down. If you have anymore questions ask Rocketmaster, he'd probably be able to give you some good pointers. I don't think there's a problem as long as the source material is in any kind of fair shape.
David

[Tard]

I'll try Cubase, or look into it. We just recorded on half-inch reel-to-reel magnetic tape thru an 8-track mixing-board. "Digital" & DAT was a pie in the sky wet-dream out of our reach in the college days.

Luckily, one of my old buddies (we'd always drop blotto together) somehow found an old box of reels, and burned them to CD.

The source material could be in better shape, but I'm still happy to find it still exists! My "Industrial/Noise" played on a couple East-Coast alternative radio-stations, but thought it was lost forever! [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

[Tard]

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/AUDIO_EDITORS/

I'm hunting thru the above for trial-versions that MIGHT get me thru the 9 or 10 hours of material. Each CD is about 90-minutes each. Only ONE of the CD's has been broken-up into the proper song-list (all the others are just chunks, whole albums recorded as one gigantic track). [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img]

OH, note from a different messageboard. David, SanDeano from the ezboard Film&TV Lounge asked that your female cousin return (he didn't give her name, if she even exists), at least to say HI. Dunno if he was just making stuff up, but no harm in asking, eh?

EDIT - Goody-Goody! Found a friend with the full install version of Cubase (not just the demo version that doesn't save). Says he'll upload it to his website this weekend. [img]cool.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rainbow.gif[/img]

<font color="#007FFF" size="1">[ December 02, 2004 02:20 PM: Message edited by: reved ]</font>

[Tard]

Gawd-Damn! [img]rolleyes.gif[/img] The free demo of Cubase is only about 10Mb, so was figuring there would only be a bit of altered code in my friends crack, not much size difference. Suprise, Suprise! His fully-functional version is 112Mb!!! That's a little large for a single CD-ROM, and would take forever to download off a 56k.... I'll ask if he can possibly zip the file, decrease its size for a managable transfer.

But before trying to download & install the program...
David, you mentioned Cubase first, before even knowing about the program myself, so suspect you own a copy. My friends Cubase crack doesn't include the tutorial files, so would be working blind from the get-go. Would you or Rocketmaster somehow be able to email or somehow send me just the tutorial? (Hehee, I'll send a few more pipes in gratitude, as they're not going anywhere on eBay)

Thanks for any & all help offered.

[rocketmaster]

Hey Reved,
I really don't think you want Cubase. It's my understanding that it is Composer software, and you just want Mastering software. (David, doesn't Cubase require a piano controller?)

Pro Tools is what you should be after, Reved...or something similar to that. I answered your other post on Cherie's board, that you can find all sorts of free mastering programs by doing a Google search.

Cheers,
Rocky

[Tard]

I saved ProToolsFREE to disc, but that program is a little too beefy for this 'puter. So saved it to download on my next rig, which I'll make sure has all the speed & capabilities needed.

Was itchy for a multitrack studio, because been interested in splitting the stereo recordings into several more tracks (2 - 4 per channel, instead of only 1), so might try tweaking high & low ends several different ways, reducing noise & boosting recording volume, experimenting with effects our processors didn't have in 1988, finding the RIGHT mix, then saving a 'FINAL mix'.

AAH!! I wasn't told Cubase needed a keyboard! [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Tard]

I reused the title of one of the old tapes. This is a tiny version of the back cover/sleeve. The original's same size, but saved at 300dpi.



It's an early attempt though, so the track-lengths are sometimes off a little bit. 'Poised To Replace' turned-out being 4:35. 'Independent School Failure' ended-up being only :35 seconds. And 'Threshold' finally came to 4:47. It'll need to be cleared-up if ever deciding to try making a release. They're also very crappy transfers to .mp3's - the .WAVs sound so much better.

01-City Limits.mp3

02-Lost Kallisti.mp3

03-Semblance.mp3

04-O-446-DD.mp3

05-Sunny & Breezy.mp3

06-Poised To Replace.mp3

07-Rapid Acceleration.mp3

08-Prestidigitator.mp3

09-Kitty Unleashed.mp3

10-Independent School Failure.mp3

(I'll probably toss up the last 4 tracks in a day or two.) Right-Click & Save Target As... Hehee, it's drug/zoning noise, nothing you'd tap your toe too, and likely more fun mixing together than it is to listen to. Still, find it interesting 'Noise' made when Industrial was still a completely unknown musical style.

[Kathartic]

It's probably a little late in the game to throw you another alternative, but you may want to check out Adobe Audition. It's pretty easy to use and has some pretty powerful noise reduction and other signal processing features built in.

Also, the fully functional trial can be cracked quite easily.