adobe audition?

[ken25taylor]

so i've got very basic stuff, like the tascam mic and usb soundcard bundle for $200. and im using adobe's audition. now am i a fool for using this? it seems pretty easy and fast granted im using and external drive for it. but im curious to know if i'd get better results mastering with a different program.

also if im recording guitar with my martin, would it be better to record with the mic at high sensitivity and try to cancel out other noise, or to play louder with the mic input volume down?

most of you seem to know what you're doing and i appreciate all the help i can get.

thanks.

K.T.

[Charlie_M]

I' just recently demo'd audtiion and thought it was great. I still have about a week before my demo expires. I probably won't buy it because it doesn't recognize my 002 rack, and Reaper does so I'm going that direction. If Audition recognized my hardware I'd have looked harder at it as a replacement for PTLE.

I was able to import tracks however and get a feeling for the program. Sounded good to me. Stock plugins seemed decent enough. I dunno.... I hear people talk about different programs as sounding very different from each other. I guess if you don't have enough bit depth in the mixer that could be a limitation but other than that I don't quite hear what they're talking about. Seems to me that the quality of the plugins are a bigger factor (I think those are a huge deal).

I wouldn't look too hard at changing unless there's something you want it to do that it isn't doing. If you're using an old revision (latest is 3.0) they are offering a pretty sweet deal to get current for $99 no matter what old rev you have. That seemed like a good deal to me.

Seems like most people use a different package to master with than what they mix with. I haven't got that far yet. I did notice that Audition has a lot of tools for mastering that come with it (version 3 does anyway).

About the background noise, there is no mic gain setting that can give you a good sounding recording if there is noise mixed in there. It is a fundamental signal to noise problem that can't be addressed with gain. I have the same thing when I try to record acoustic guitar. There are only a few tiny little windows of time each week where I can do that and hope to have the background quiet enough. Basically the background noise has to be a lot quieter than the subtlest nuance you want to bring to the listener's attention. Also if you apply any compression to the acoustic gtr track or to the master, you will make this background noise issue worse. You simply need a nice quiet space to record acoustic guitar. Only exception I've hard of is that if the noise is confined to a defined range of frequencies (like a hum) there are tools for removing that but I've never used them.

Charlie

[brandondrury]

also if im recording guitar with my martin, would it be better to record with the mic at high sensitivity and try to cancel out other noise, or to play louder with the mic input volume down?

Neither. The best solution is to reduce or block the noise. A blanket on a mic stand can go a long way.

but im curious to know if i'd get better results mastering with a different program.

I'm sure you mean "mixing". Either way, In 99.9% of situations like yours the best way to improve quality is to improve the stuff before the microphone. That's where I would put the time and energy.


Brandon