From: mchen@groucho.cs.psu.edu (Michael Chen)
Subject: Re: Semi-professional advice needed...
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 20:16:25 GMT

In article <1992Oct6.171549.16944@cs.umb.edu> shadow@trantor.cc.umb.edu (Jim Belfiore) writes:

	I've recently done some professional editing and production work
   with a package called ProTools on a Mac IIfx.  With it, I was able to
   take digital sources (DAT, CD, etc..) in at 44.1khz, display them as
   indivdual waveforms, cut/paste/shape those waveforms in parallel tracks
   (SMPTE coded and matched), and mix/bounce them to a stereo or mono
   master.  With this system (and a 6-Gbyte optical disk farm) I was able
   to produce a DDD 90-minute soundtrack.
	...
	I don't have the tens of kilobucks it cost the owner of that studio
   to build one of my own.  I am trying to determine if there is a PC
   equivalent (for much less $$ obviously) that would allow me to go
	...
	Yesterday, I upgraded my 386 system with a 100mb hard drive card.
   I took a long hard look at the Pro-Audio Spectrum 16, and bought it for
   the 14 day test period my local computer store allows.  I managed to
	...
	What I need to know without crawling through countless issues of
   the major PC magazines out there is: Is the PAS-16 sound card one that
   will support (perhaps in future application software developed for it or
   that might exist now) a basic multi-track digital editing environment?

No. Pretty much any card (like the PAS-16) that makes the CPU do all of the 
work when doing digital recording and playback isn't going to cut it anymore
when you tack on more tracks.
 
       Any insights (especially from people with digital sound post-prod.
   experience with 386/consumer systems) would help me tremendously.

I don't have experience, but I have been following the topic fairly closely
since I intend to jump into it as soon as I can afford it.

Apparently, there are systems (Turtle Beach's 56K, something from Spectral
Synthesis, I think... anyone know of more?) which do more than two tracks.
From what I have seen, though, they aren't any cheaper than Audiomedia/Pro
Tools/Deck on the Mac side.  And since there is no de facto standard like the
former in the PC world, products such as Studio Vision and Passport Performer
(I think... the new thing) that synchronize MIDI with digital audio don't
exist.

New soundcards are coming out.  The one I'm waiting for is by Ensoniq.  The
board appears to be the guts of their SQ-R PLUS sound module, with the added
ability to do simultaneous recording and playback at CD rates (44.1 kHz).
Early descriptions of the cards said that it worked in dual stereo --- that's
4 tracks to the rest of us!  The quoted price in Keyboard magazine (when it is
released) was $349.  That's a REALLY good deal to my ears.

And since Ensoniq makes all sorts of pro gear now, maybe they (or some other
ambitious company) will make the equivalent of Pro Tools and Deck for the PC
platforms.

And hey, I'd love to help them!  (It'd be nice if they paid me to...)

--
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| Michael Chen			| From the depths of our most lucid horrors |
|				| spring our fond hopes and pure desires... |
| mchen@groucho.cs.psu.edu	| except what comes from HELL! :-) 7/23/92  |
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard