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Dr. Dobbs - trends in software development
Tape Op - recording for the rest of us, although biased against digital tech

For music, I like:
CMJ New Music Monthly - only for the included CD
Revolver - heavy music, sometimes misogynistic though
Bandoppler - for reviews of other music

I also like British magazines like Future Music and Sound On Sound. But they're too expensive for subscriptions in the USA. When I'm at the bookstore, I like to flip through Artforum and I.D.

Shit yeah. I'd buy the drum intros only, cut them up, and whack them straight into my S700. Instant drum n bass madness.

Look here for a review of a Line 6 amp simulator way back in October 2000.

No fee required there, btw.

Please, people, if you don't know what s/he's asking, keep your trap shut, m'kay? We're talking audio here, so signal-to-noise ratio counts, you see...

But, do you want to go the hardware or software recording route?

If you have a decent enough computer (G3 macs or PII upwards x86s will do the trick for about 16 tracks), you might consider getting a good soundcard.

I personally use a M-Audio Delta44, 4 inputs, 4 outputs, nothing more. Perfect for recording. They have nice break-out boxes, so you don't have to crouch behind your computer when plugging in your guitars, basses or mics, they work under Macs, PC's and have linux support via ALSA (yes, linux can do multitracking as well). When you need more tracks, you can just add more cards and get 8/8 or up to 16/16 in/out-system.

As for recording software, well... my delta came with a cut-down version of Logic Audio, which should be good enough for start. Most 'pro-sumer' soundcards come up with basic software, so you shouldn't need to cough up any more money for it in the beginning.

Other software: Cubase is nice, and there's nice 'lite'-versions for beginners (some soundcards come with this instead of logic). Cakewalk is quite popular as well.

If you just want audio recording (the aforementioned do MIDI as well), then there's Cool Edit Pro. For free, there's Audacity (audacity does Windows, Linux and Mac) which is proficient enough multitrack audio editor. SLab is a good linux multitrack recorder.

And mp3, well, you don't want to use mp3 for multitrack recording, but most modern software can import mp3-sounds, and output the result to mp3 (some of them [cool edit/audacity] can do ogg as well)

If you want a proper hardware recorder (which are nice, since you can take them to your rehersal space, summer cottage, ..., what have you), then there's plenty to choose from. Most of these are a couple of years old, so you can find them for reasonable prices used (or even new!)

Roland VS-8xx series, they're nice, compact, can do 4-track recording, and 8-track playback. Loads of features, and useful later on even if you grow out of this one. Earlier models had inbuilt harddrives, the later ones have ZIP-drives (if I remember correctly). If you can get one for cheap (and i think you should), then go for this one.

Korg D-8. A bit easier to operate, but quite useful nevertheless.

And i think Fostex had some as well, just keep your eyes open in the pawnshops.

I once saw one that used Sony Minidiscs and supported only four tracks. It looked like this or this.

The most relevant part of the articles to this thread is the descriptions of the problems Lehrman had with the Disklaviers, most significantly the time delays between MIDI input and sound production, and how Yamaha's compensation mechanisms got in the way, a bit. Probably not a problem here, since the competition is based on MIDI files, but still quite interesting. The antheil.org site has links to all sorts of related topics, including player piano music.

The most relevant part of the articles to this thread is the descriptions of the problems Lehrman had with the Disklaviers, most significantly the time delays between MIDI input and sound production, and how Yamaha's compensation mechanisms got in the way, a bit. Probably not a problem here, since the competition is based on MIDI files, but still quite interesting. The antheil.org site has links to all sorts of related topics, including player piano music.

The most relevant part of the articles to this thread is the descriptions of the problems Lehrman had with the Disklaviers, most significantly the time delays between MIDI input and sound production, and how Yamaha's compensation mechanisms got in the way, a bit. Probably not a problem here, since the competition is based on MIDI files, but still quite interesting. The antheil.org site has links to all sorts of related topics, including player piano music.

There has been many products like this over the past several years. One of the ones that I have had the opportunity to use was the Korg iH. It is based on the technology developed by IVL (a company from my home town of Victoria, BC, Canada. WOO!)

Anyway, way back when I was working at a music store in Victoria we got a few of these in. They never really sold very well, but were pretty amazing if you knew how to use them. Found a review of the iH on Google.

IVL does some very neat stuff. Check out their Web site.

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.ht ml

When baked, the tape will expand and become loose around the hub. For this reason, use flanges to protect the tape from coming apart. Cooking temperature is between 130F and 140F. Tapes wound on plastic reels with small hubs should be rewound onto large reels with NAB hubs. Be careful to thread the tape around the hub without any "folds." The goal is to minimize "mechanical distortions" that can be impressed upon subsequent layers causing dropouts. The "wind" must be smooth as if played!!!

I have received several e-mails regarding "cooking time" and temperature. Provided the wind is smooth, I am not afraid to bake a quarter inch tape at 135F -- for two hours -- flipping every half-hour. You will find that cooking time varies with tape width, type, brand, condition and the number of reels being baked. Ampex tape from the seventies might require twice as much time as 3M tape from the eighties (as reported by Wendy Carlos when restoring her masters from that time period). Table One below can be used as a guide.

Other links:

http://www.audio-restoration.com/baking.htm

which indicate that this may not be a permanent solution, but is intended for tapes manufactered from the mid 70's forward, which had a tendency to absorb mosture.

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/1996_articles/may96/s alvagearchives.html

is also good, and indicates that home ovens do not go low enough.

One thing that creative never seems to "get" is that their digital IO connections are terrible. They are extremly noisy and do not provide correct digital IO. Here is an article explaining the flaws of creative's digital IO. From what I understand, this is not improved under the Audigy. Because of this, I'm forced to have 2 sound cards, a live for my FPS and MP3 addiction and a DATport for digital IO.

This article explains the issue pretty well.

Acoustic noise (once generated) tends to be dampened only by high mass. So getting a computer case with thicker walls can really be a help. The down side is that the things that tend to dampen noise also tend to squelch air flow -- the energy has to go somewhere. But as anyone who's ever been in an anechoic chamber (like the ones used to test microphone frequency response patterns) can tell you -- truly dispersing the noise in completely random directions can often be almost equivalent to having no noise.

Sound on Sound magazine in the UK has several good articles on keeping down acoustic noise. And they're freaks about getting it right -- since it's a home recording and music technology magazine.

Although personally I think unless you have a perfectly silent machine you'll soon think the noise is unacceptable!

Baz

Although personally I think unless you have a perfectly silent machine you'll soon think the noise is unacceptable!

Baz

There's some really good info and ideas at:

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/jan00/articles/noise. htm

The article is aimed at studio use, where background noise is unacceptable.

And if any of you have heard "Kernkraft 400," by Zombie Nation, the original version was created mainly using a SIDStation. Great 8-bit sound according to an interview in this month's Sound On Sound.

Not only are the melody and the bass line both from the same sound source: they're also the same SidStation patch. "The bass sound is also a SidStation, it's the same thing through a filter."

Sound on Sound is here but you need a subscriber account to read the latest articles. There's a SidStation article here

Baz

Not only are the melody and the bass line both from the same sound source: they're also the same SidStation patch. "The bass sound is also a SidStation, it's the same thing through a filter."

Sound on Sound is here but you need a subscriber account to read the latest articles. There's a SidStation article here

Baz