Reliable recording software recommendations

[Owy]

Hi there,
:wave:

I am transferring quite a quantity of FM master cassettes onto PC- a number of which I have posted here. I have been using Audacity, which seemed ok at first, but is proving to be somewhat unreliable (recording with unexplained noises/clicks on the recording, recording sounding distorted, crashing, etc).
:(

Could anyone recommend a more reliable software for this? I'd be willing to shell out for something if I knew it would work more smoothly.

My setup as stated on the control panel properties is:

Packard Bell ixtreme M3720
Rating 4.8 Windows Experience Index (whatever that means!)
Processor: Intel (R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @2.50Ghz 2.0GHz
4.00 GB RAM
64 bit operating system
Running Windows Vista

Thanks for any comments anyonbe can make
:thumbsup;)

Owy

[AAR.oner]

a lot of the PC folks seems to like Audition...

i used Cakewalk and Sonar years ago, both are excellent

[Thulani]

What version of Audacity are you using?

[Owy]

What version of Audacity are you using?

Hiya,

1.3, I think- the latest version.

[Thulani]

Don't know what the problem can be. Audition or Audacity, both should have same results. It's all in the hardware when you make transfers. Frankly, I listened yours and didn't find anything distorted or bad.

You can try Wavosaur (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Wavosaur.shtml) or Free Audio Recorder (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Free-Audio-Editor.shtml)

[Owy]

Don't know what the problem can be. Audition or Audacity, both should have same results. It's all in the hardware when you make transfers. Frankly, I listened yours and didn't find anything distorted or bad.

...The stuff that I've uploaded is fine- it's the stuff I'm trying to transfer at the moment that I'm having trouble with.

Looking at the Audacity Wiki and puttering about forums, etc I think it might be insufficient RAM on my machine for reliability, but I'm not sure.

You can try Wavosaur (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Wavosaur.shtml) or Free Audio Recorder (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Free-Audio-Editor.shtml)

...thanks for the recommendations, I might try them.

Cheers

[lordsmurf]

I only use Sound Forge (http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dsound%2520forge%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=thdifa-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957) for converting tapes and records. It's good for restoring, fixing and filtering audio (http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/restore-audio-soundforge.htm), too!

Honestly, the audio card is more important than the software. Pro software with a crap audio cards yields crappy audio. If your audio card is part of your motherboard, for example, you're not getting the most out of your tapes/vinyls. Dedicated audio cards tend to work better, with much better SNR. It doesn't have to be expensive either, any decent $25-75 range SoundBlaster (http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dsound%2520blaster%2520pci%2520-express%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=thdifa-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957) or Turtle Beach (http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dturtle%2520beach%2520pci%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=thdifa-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957) card is great.

EDIT: I see you're in UK, so here some UK links: Sound Forge (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26fie ld-keywords%3Dsound%2520forge%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=thdifa-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=19450) and SoundBlaster (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26redirect%3Dtrue%26ref_%3Dsr%5Fnr%5Fi%5F0%26 keywords%3Dsound%2520blaster%2520pci%2520-express%26qid%3D1270711456%26rh%3Di%253Aelectronics%252Ck%253Asound%2520blaster%2520pci%2520-express&tag=thdifa-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=19450)

[Owy]

Honestly, the audio card is more important than the software. Pro software with a crap audio cards yields crappy audio. If your audio card is part of your motherboard, for example, you're not getting the most out of your tapes/vinyls. Dedicated audio cards tend to work better, with much better SNR.

Hmmm... that's interesting- I think I do have an integral audio card- so that could be a problem. The sound quality when the system works, however, doesn't appear problematic. It just seems unreliable in working smoothly- which leads me to believe that it might be insufficient RAM.
However, thsnks for the advice- something else for me to consider!

cheers,
:)

[Owy]

[I]EDIT: I see you're in UK, so here some UK links:

Thanks!
Appreciated.

:thumbsup

[Fried Chicken Boy]

4GB of RAM should be fine for your OS to record audio. You might try a Beta release of Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_windows). In the notes on the website, the developers are saying that the stable release can be buggy in Vista and 7. As it's free, can't hurt to give it a try. Just make sure you do a clean install.

I would also recommend Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm/); very solid but also more complex (read: bells and whistles). Completely free and uncrippled to try, US$60 to buy a non-commercial license. If you don't mind a nag-screen, I think you can keep using it beyond the trial period for free.

Regarding soundcards, I don't know what you're budget is and Turtle Beach and SoundBlaster are certainly good cards but I would recommend the M-Audio 2496 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/M-Audio-Audiophile-2496-Audio-Soundcard/dp/B00006I5H5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270755563&sr=8-1). It's an entry-level pro audio card and the sound quality is superior to virtually anything close to that price range (right now about US$90; not sure what that transfers to in GBP). Only drawback is that it's strictly stereo if that matters to you; no 5.1 or 7.1 surround with this thing.

Btw, +1 for Adobe Audition. I've been using it since it was Cool Edit Pro (some 10+ years ago) and still get great results but you're gonna pay for it (US$300-350). There were a couple bugs with it in Vista and 7 but Adobe released a patch not long ago that seemed to take care of most of the issues.

[Owy]

[QUOTE=Fried Chicken Boy;1397444]4GB of RAM should be fine for your OS to record audio. You might try a Beta release of Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_windows). In the notes on the website, the developers are saying that the stable release can be buggy in Vista and 7. As it's free, can't hurt to give it a try. Just make sure you do a clean install.

Yes, I'm using the beta version. A lot of the time it's fine, but I am getting unexplained clicks and stuff. I went to PC World today, and they advised that 4gig of ram should be ok too. Looks like a soundcard is probably the way to go though.

Many thanks for your comments. Really useful.

Cheers.
:thumbsup