With personal computers getting
more and more powerful and going ever lower in price, it's now quite feasible to use a
computer to store audio in digital format and perform editing feats that used to require
incredible 'chops' with analog tape. With the right software, it's easy to record multiple
tracks of audio on a computer, in effect making the computer a digital multitrack
recorder. This doesn't necessarily require a multitrack soundcard in the computer, unless
you need to record more than two tracks at a single time (two track stereo recording is
the limit of a PowerMac's or typical PC soundcard's audio hardware).
It's now
commonplace for studio engineers to record a session to their favorite multitrack storage
medium, be it analog or digital, tape or hard drives, and transfer the resulting tracks
into a computer based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
for editing and final mixing. There are so many advantages to editing audio in the digital
domain that DAW's have almost completely replaced analog tape editing suites in mainstream
audio post-production facilities. Fortunately for musicians, CD quality digital audio
technology has become incredibly affordable, and even 24-bit 96kHz sampling rate equipment
is surprisingly low-priced. I honestly believe that the power of today's personal
computers and digital audio hardware has opened the doors wide to high quality audio
recording for the working musician on a tight budget.
Ron Gonzalez
|
And Along
Came Digital...
