Software and Workflow

[rebop]

I play a lot with audio. Record a few live shows, download numerous torrents in all sorts of formats including 24/96. Transfer my old cassettes and dats to CD's. Make great waterproof Taiyo Yuden CD's and DVD-A's. On and on.

It occurs to me I have been accumulating a ton of software for all these processes.

Trader's Little Helper
CDWave
Nero
Bitpump
Sound Forge Lite
DVD Audio Solo
Exact Audio Copy
CD Label Print

So, just one workflow example is taking an exisitng DAT to CD.

I use Sound Forge to fade in and out of each set.
I use CD Wave to cut tracks on SBE's
I use Nero to burn
I use CD Label Print to design and print the discs

An awful lot of steps for what I would think should be more simple.

Even downloading has a ton of steps:

Bitpump
Trader's Little Helper for MD5's
TLH for decodes
Nero burn
CD Label Print

So, I thought I would check to see what else others use, particulalry if the programs are as good as what I am using now and save steps. I would think there would be something good to fade in and out, split to tracks and burn, for example, saving me using three separate programs. Something that included all of the above possibitlities would be fabulous save for CD Label Print which I have a huge library in and does a great job.

Is there anbything I should look at? If not, maybe this wil inspire someone to write a combination TLH, CD Wave, Burning app at least.

~Bob

[boojum]

Well, you can spend ~US$200 for Samplitude and do the edit, fades, tracks and burns from within that editor if you want.  The SE version does not allow burns and I find the tracking sucks and rely on CD Wave.   Maybe I am doing it wrong.  I use pretty much the same steps and do not mind the hassle.  I am used to the software each step of the way and it is an easy flow for me:

Edit in SAM8, soon SAM9 as soon as I learn it.
Track in CD Wave
Burn with Nero

The stuff I d/l I take as OK and do not screw with the MD5 checksums.  I rely on uTorrent to catch that.

L8R


edit: spelling

[John Kary]

Hmm... I do syncing/stretching to address clock issues in Sequoia, mix in Nuendo, master in WaveLab, cut in CDWav, burn in Nero.

Nope.  Best to use a tool for its best features and forget what it isn't so good at.

[rebop]

Interesting.

I would have thought someone would stop by with one program that they love that replaces 3 or 4 or 5 others. But seems not to be the case.

[Brian Skalinder]

Hmm... I do syncing/stretching to address clock issues in Sequoia, mix in Nuendo, master in WaveLab, cut in CDWav, burn in Nero.

Nope.  Best to use a tool for its best features and forget what it isn't so good at.

Not everyone has a massive s/w budget for this hobby, or likes to run cracked software, so some people like to do as much as possible within a single app.  And often times, IME, some all- or nearly-all-in-one software (or combination of just a couple apps) accomplishes the same goals / quality as others, but simply does so differently (ymmv).

At any rate, rebop, you probably won't find a single app that accomplishes everything you want, as they serve different purposes.  The farthest you'll probably get - drawing from kukyfrope's list of activities - is to find a single app that handles all your audio effforts:  syncing/stretching (if you do that kinda thing), mixing, mastering, tracking, and burning (audio).  Burning data, compressing to FLAC, BT seeding/leeching, printing CD labels, etc., all generally require different purpose-built apps.

The good news is there's quality, free (or nearly free) software to accomplish everything we generally want to do, so a limited budget won't prevent one from fully geeking out in this hobby of ours.