Off The Record - Tips For Picking Recording Software

Need software to record your voice, streaming audio or musical instruments? There are dozens of great products on the market. Some cost up to five hundred dollars, but here are some of the low cost alternatives you might want to consider.

n-Track Studio

The program uses 24 bit (32 bit floats) resolution for mixing and effects processing. Various wave files formats are supported, mono & stereo tracks are can coexist in the same song and wave editing operations can be performed from within the program. MIDI tracks can be imported end exported to regular MIDI files, and edited using the built in piano-roll based MIDI editing. All the audio tracks are saved as standard wave files and mixed "on the fly" during playback. Volume and pan evolution can be programmed by drawing on the timeline window. When all the tracks have been recorded and all the settings are correct, it's possible to mix-down all the tracks to a single wave file for recording it to a compact disk using a CD recorder or for distributing it through the Internet (using the built-in mp3 encoder).

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/ntrackstudio.htm

Audio Record Wizard 3

Audio Record Wizard is a real-time sound recorder, offering professional recording features with full mp3 support. The sound recorder program is designed to work directly with your sound card, so can record almost all audio from your sound card at near-perfect quality. You can record sound from a microphone, line-in, and just about any other programs (such as winamp, realplay, windows media player and others). Direct to disk feature allows you to record sound without running out of memory. Audio Record Wizard can also record directly to the mp3 format if you choose, saving you valuable disk space. You can select the different mp3 recording modes as required.

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/audiorecordwizard.htm

Cybercorder 2000

Cybercorder provides VCR-like recording for radio shows or any audio input. Recordings are stored on disk as WAV or MP3 files with optional audio compression to save disk space. Recordings can easily be played back by selecting the recording from the list of completed recordings. The customizable playback window allows to easily advance the recording forward and reverse various step sizes.

The program has a variety of features and options:

# Uses your own radio or stereo receiver. Connect the radio headphone or output jacks to the computer sound card line-in jack. Set to your favorite radio station, adjust the Windows mixer settings, and Cybercorder 2000 does the rest.

# Real-time audio compression - you can utilize any of the audio compression codecs installed on your system to save disk space.

# Record MP3 - you can record MP3 files with the MP3 file extension.

# Programmed or manual recording - you can schedule as many recordings as you like or instantly start a recording for the specified amount of time. The scheduled recordings can be scheduled for a single time or for selected days of the week such as Mon-Fri 9AM. Program descriptions can be given to the scheduled recordings to later identify the recordings.

# Program Internet Recordings - you can automatically launch an Internet URL prior to recording. You can set up Cybercorder 2000 to automatically hang up a modem connection and/or close the streaming player once the recording is complete.

# Automatically Run External Applications - you can automatically launch an external application prior to and/or after recording.

# Mixer Profiles Cybercorder can automatically activate a mixer profile containing preset Windows mixer settings prior to and/or after a recording. This ensures the recording will occur with the correct mixer settings every time.

# Supports long recordings - you can program a recording to be as long as 24 hours.

# Recordings list - all recordings made are shown in a list, and any recording can be played from this list. Recordings can be removed from the list or from disk, and can also be added back to the list if present on disk. Cybercorder 2000 supports saving and retrieving recording lists containing WAV and MP3 files.

# Player - allows you to easily advance the recording forward and reverse various step sizes, along with the slider control. The 6 sets of forward/reverse buttons can be customized to advance the recording the desired number of minutes or seconds.

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/cybercorder.htm

John Deprice is a music aficionado. His website is http://www.deprice.com/audio.htm