This audio hardware/software combo is from Digidesign, long the cock of the Mac walk. I found it powerful, and easier to learn and use than any other multitrack audio package I've seen.
Audiomedia III Audio Card With Session Software:
$649.95 from Mission Recording (missionrec.com)
799.95 With Session (PC) or Pro Tools (Mac) Software
Digidesign
3401-A Hillview Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1348
The Audiomedia III is a PCI audio card that will work with either a PC-compatible or a Mac. It has 2 channels of analog Input/Output, and 2 channels of digital I/O. Both can be used together for 4-channel record and playback capabilities. It has no MIDI converter. The card comes with an audio software package, Session for the PC or Pro Tools for the Mac. The card will work with any audio software, but the Session or Pro Tools software works only with Digidesign products.
July 21, 1997
The Audiomedia III is a small card that should fit in any box. The rear panel has 6 RCA jacks: left and right analog inputs and outputs (-10dBv unbalanced), S/PDIF digital in and out. Remember to use good-quality video-grade cables for the digital lines. Installation should be simple and straightforward. There is one glitch, however. Like all cards, the Audiomedia III needs a driver, which is included on a disk. The manual mentions nothing about installing the driver, but you'll figure it out.
It seems that the bad old days, when installing almost any card into a Windows system was a day-long nightmare, are just about over. PCI plug-n-pray cards usually don't have the IRQ and memory problems that annoy Pcers and amuse MacHeads. For those with both ISA and PCI cards in their systems, however, it may be necessary to go into your CMOS and "reserve" whatever IRQs the ISA devices are using.
Okay, enough acronyms. Let's start making music! I tested the Audiomedia III on a PC, with the included Session Software (a review of the Mac side of things is coming soon). This package is hip! For the first time, I had a "virtual mixer" that really works! Volume and EQ changes can be made in real time, and what you hear is what you get! The mixer can also be automated. Channels may be grouped and routed in a variety of ways, giving you a lot of flexibility. Session only does 8 tracks, but as we'll see, there are various ways to squeeze in more. It has no MIDI editing features, although it can sync to MIDI time code or SMPTE.
Session is a true non-destructive editing system, which is very powerful, but takes a little getting used to if you're used to Cakewalk and Sound Forge. A traditional destructive editing system works like a word processor. Once you snip a section out of a file, it's gone. When you save your finished soundfile, that's what you've got. All previous versions are history, on the cutting-room floor, purged from your hard drive, and out of your life (unless you saved some previous versions under separate file names). In a non-destructive system, edits don't change the original file, they just establish markers. If you delete a section, the program doesn't actually delete the information. It just places markers that tell the program not to play that information.
The only real advantage of a destructive system is that it doesn't waste disk space. You could also say that it's a little simpler and easier to visualize, since rejected parts are gone forever.
The advantages of non-destructive editing are many. The obvious one is that you can always go back later and change your mind about any edits you have made. Another huge benefit is that it's faster. With a destructive system, every time you make an edit you have to wait for data to be erased or written to the hard drive. With Session, edits happen instantly, because all you're really doing is dropping a marker.
Personally, I'm a convert to the non-destructive way, but I admit it seems a little weird at first. The workspace can become cluttered with alternate takes and silenced sections, so it's a good idea to name each snippett of sound carefully. Everyone has their own system of naming files, but make sure you're organized about it.
Users of other PC audio software will have a hard time just jumping into Session. Before you begin, you need to understand the distinctions among Session's "takes," "tracks," "playlists" and "regions." The manual is thick and well-written, and even includes some general digital audio advice, but there is no online Help system. A sample recording session will demonstrate most of the major features.
First go to the I/O Setup window. Here you select the sample rate and clock source for your project. An analog gain slider is a handy feature that you can use to compensate for a too-hot or too-meek board level. This window is where you set the I/O to specific channels. Session has 4 input channels (1,2,3,4) and 4 output channels (Main and Effects), and they can be assigned in pairs to either the analog or digital I/O. If channels 1 and 2 are set to analog, then channels 3 and 4 are automatically set to digital, and vice versa.
And now, introducing the star of the show: Session's Mix window. I rarely rave about software, but this "virtual mixer" blows away anything else in its class that I've seen. The sliders are big, easy to use, and responsive, and even the meters are pretty darn accurate. The EQ section and the grouping and bouncing options are powerful and intuitive. And that handy little Input/Return window!
Each channel has a solo and mute button, a record-enable button, and a separate button to enable the recording of mixer automation. Above these buttons is a space that displays the name of the playlist currently loaded into the channel (explained below). I'll say it again: The fader and the level meter that appear on each channel are both far smoother and more accurate than those in most other PC audio packages. Above the fader are a clip light, a pan fader, and 2 channel send pots that can be used for an effects send or whatever.
Now we come to another great feature. At the top of each channel is a little blank square. At the top of the screen are 8 EQ modules. You can drag one or more of the EQ modules to one of the little blank squares to apply EQ to that track. Just as in a real studio with 8 EQ units, you could have 1 band of EQ on each track, or up to 4 bands on one particular track. No patch bays or cords to fool with, though. Just drag n drop. Each EQ module has 12 dB of boost or cut, frequency selectable from 20 hZ to 20.5 kHz, and a choice of lowpass, highpass, narrow or wide bandwidth. The EQ can even be swept in real time, just like a real mixer!
Up to 4 groups can be assigned to the channel faders, pan and effects sends. Simply drag the yellow, red, blue or purple icon to each control that you want to be part of the group. The control changes to the chosen color, and whenever you change one of the group, the relative levels of the other group members change too. Handy for stereo pairs or doubled parts. A similar system is used to set up mixdowns or "bounces." Drag the "bounce to" icon to the track you wish to mix down to, and the "bounce from" icons to the tracks you wish to mix together. Hit record and away you go. In the no-generation-loss digital world, bouncing is a much more useful technique than it used to be. With Session, of course, the original sound files are still there if you want to go back and redo the bounce.
The non-destructive recording and editing process is very flexible. Let's look at a sample recording session. First let's say that I have convinced myself that my guitar sounds best with two stereo mikes, an ambient mike, and a little of the direct output from the pickup mixed in. Through my mixer (or mike preamps), I route the stereo mikes to the AMIII's analog inputs, and the other mike and the pickup to the digital inputs. I arm tracks 1-4 to record. Right above the record buttons, the window displays which input (1-4) is going to which track. Click on this window to route any input to any track(s). After setting levels, I record my part with no mistakes. I'm ready for the next track…but wait! At this point the guitar part I just recorded is only a "take" that has not been saved as a soundfile. To do anything with it, it must be given a name and saved. The advantage of this setup is that if I botched my part and wanted to redo it, I could instantly do so, without even writing the botched attempt to disk. Name your saved takes something sensible, for you will need to keep track of what's what.
Once a take is saved it becomes a playlist, which can be loaded into a particular track. In Session, you can load any playlist into any track. Another way to look at it is that you can have as many tracks (playlists) as you want, but only 8 can be active at a time. Let's say we now record a lead guitar on track 5, playing 3 alternate takes and saving each one. I can now load any one of those 3 alternate parts into track 5, but the other 2 are still around. In fact, I can keep as many alternate takes (playlists) as I want, then go back and decide which one is best. The playlists all remain synchronized, because they haven't had the silence at the beginning snipped.
Speaking of snipping, let's bop over to the Edit window. It's pretty much what you'd expect: waveform displays on the left, and a list of your soundfiles on the right. Grab the files you want to edit, and drag 'em to the workspace. Now, we already have 5 tracks recorded, so they automatically show up in the workspace. Let's do some snippin'. We drag the 3 alternate guitar takes into 3 tracks and start picking and choosing the best sections from each one. The editing tools are pretty much the same as in any high-end audio editor. Zoom, select, drop markers, etc. Instead of cutting and pasting, as in a destructive editor, we can just crop and copy. Let's say we like the beginning of take 1, the middle of take 2, and the end of take 3. We select take 1 and define it as a "region." Now we can grab a handle at the end of take 1 and move it forward until only the section that we want is showing, just like cropping a photo. We do the same for takes 2 and 3, then drag these 3 regions onto a track together, and define it as a playlist. This playlist is our finished guitar solo, and it will be loaded into a track. The original 3 alternate takes haven't been deleted, though. They're still hanging around. Confusing? A little, but very powerful.
By the time I've added 2 harmony parts to my lead, we're out of tracks. No big deal. We'll do a bounce. First I unload 2 of the lead guitar tracks. Now I mix the 4 rhythm guitar tracks just as I want them, then drag the "bounce from" icon to each one. I drag the "bounce to" icon to channels 7 and 8, now vacant. I hit the play button, and the 4 tracks are mixed down to a stereo pair. Now I unload the original 4 tracks, load the 2 harmony guitar parts back in, and proceed to bounce the 3 lead guitar parts down to track 6. I unload the 3 original lead parts, and I am left with 5 vacant tracks. As always, the original tracks are still out there, so the bounces can be redone if they don't come out right.
We add 2 vocals, a flute and a barking dog, and now we're ready to mix down. The stereo pair of rhythm guitar tracks can be grouped together for convenience. EQ can be applied to one or more tracks, as explained above. What about effects, such as reverb? Most people agree that it's best to record individual tracks fairly dry, adding reverb to the whole mix at mixdown. A traditional board has one or more effects loops so that varying amounts of effects can be added to each channel. In the Tapeless Studio, effects have always presented a bit of a problem.
Digital reverb is a very processor-intensive application, and you need a lot of PC to handle it, at least while simultaneously recording and playing back audio. Editing packages like Sound Forge allow you to add reverb, echo and other effects, but not in real time. This means that you have to mix your material, then add reverb, which takes a long time. If it doesn't sound right, you have to go back and wait through the whole process again. Not really acceptable, and some say that most software reverb doesn't sound that great, anyway.
Gotta have my reverb, and gotta be able to adjust it in real time as I mix. WhaddoIdo? Most tapeless types just run the outputs from the audio card into their analog mixer, and use their regular effects loop. To mix to a file, you must then run the mixer outputs back to the input of the audio card. This works, but obviously has a couple of drawbacks. Session has neatly solved this problem with the nifty little Input/Return window.
The Input/Return window has 4 channels, each with the same features as the main mixer channels (except the record and automation enable buttons). These channels are routed to the main and effects mixes, but not recorded to the hard drive. The most obvious use of this setup is as an effects loop. As explained, above, 2 of the cards outputs can be designated as effects sends. Route these outputs to the input of your effects device, and route the outputs of the effects device to one or more of the card's inputs. You now have a perfectly functional effects loop (or 2), and can apply just the right amount of reverb, chorus, backwards phase-shift or whatever tickles your fancy. But wait! You also get…2 more channels. If you use 2 input channels for a stereo effects loop, you can still use the other 2 to add live parts to your mix, to squeeze in yet more tracks.
There is one feature missing at mixdown time. When you create a final mix, the output is presented at the card's digital and analog output jacks. That's great for recording to an external device, such as a DAT recorder, or an analog recorder, or any gadget that can record S/PDIF digital. But if your final product is a CD-ROM, a homemade audio CD, or the Web, you'll want to mix directly to a file. Session provides no convenient way to do this. You have to dedicate 2 tracks to left and right mix, and bounce down to them. Then you have to take the 2 wave files into some other program to combine them, as Session makes no provision for stereo wave files. Indeed, Session doesn't make it particularly easy to exchange information with other packages. If you need to do format conversions or advanced editing, you'll need to have Sound Forge or some such, and transferring files between the two could be a lot smoother.
But, Session obviously didn't set out to be an all-inclusive package. No MIDI, not much editing, but a damn fine multitrack recording package. Session is the first system I've seen on the PC that actually made me feel comfortable tracking and mixing an entire song. A true tapeless studio. Of course, it would also shine combined with an ADAT or other recording gadgetry.
