Digital Recording Capabilities. It goes without saying that most of us will be able to digitize audio signals into a PC-based workstation, either as stereo pairs or as multichannel elements. The majority of these systems come with some form of basic editing capabilities, normally two-channel, that enable digital sound files to be trimmed and combined, etc., but with very primitive crossfade functions. While these represent a great start – and I would not diminish their application in sequencing a final music project, for example, or for trimming basic music cues intended for inclusion within a multimedia presentation – for serious, sample-accurate editing we need purpose-built editing software.

Of equal importance is the portability of digital audio sound files. While this relatively complex subject will be covered in full within a later article in this series, just make sure that the digital recorder (both tape- and PC-based) plus companion editor can create .WAV, .AIF and similar-format digitized audio files (or can cross-translate into these formats from a native or proprietary format), and you should be able to access this data from within more powerful editing environments.

Signal Processing Capabilities. Again, most simple hard-disk recorders ship with basic DSP functions, such as time-compression and -expansion, plus maybe normalization and/or level adjustment, but lack what most of us look for in a full-on workstation, including equalization, compression/limiting, expansion/gating plus reverb and related ambience generation. Again, just so long as the files we are creating in a two-channel or multitrack disk-based recorder can be loaded into a more powerful system in industry-standard file formats, we can at least take a second hit at the material at a later date. (Or upload the data into a desktop system, for instance, having used a portable system for multi-channel recording on a remote date.)

Multichannel Mixing Capabilities. Because mixing of digital audio bit streams takes a fair amount of dedicated DSP, this capability is normally not offered on basic hard disk recording software. However, do not overlook that old analog board that is probably gathering dust in a corner. Hooked up to a PC via line-level ins and outs, it can be a lifesaver. (Again, securing access to multichannel outputs normally requires a PCI card and breakout box, or extra cables for a dedicated hard-disk recorder but at a cost that should not break the bank.)

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