My tool of choice has to be Adobe Audition. I've been using it since 
Cool Edit 96 and I am totally happy with the functionality, the 
interface and reliability,. However, Samplitude looks pretty cool, so on 
Richard's recommendation I have downloaded a demo to have a bit play 
with. I'll let you know what I think.

Richard L. Hess wrote:
> Hi, Sam, and Tom, and the original poster,
> 
> I will admit to being a happy Magix/Samplitude user for ten years now. I 
> think there are several packages in this line that offer substantial value.
> 
> (1) Magix Audio Cleaning Lab - definitely an amateur product, but it has 
> some cut-down versions of the high-end stuff and is available for 
> download for $35 and a free trial is available. May be limited to 
> CD-rate only.
> http://www.magix.com/us/audio-cleaning-lab/
> 
> (2) For INGEST only (won't burn CDs, but will make WAV files, very 
> limited processing compared to (1) and (3) but is a peek into the 
> beginning of the "real deal" Samplitude -- version 9 SE
> http://www.samplitude.com/eng/sam/se.html  $50 Euros for download
> 
> (3) A very competent mastering (stereo) solution with the restoration 
> tools built in. Samplitude V10 Master, 
> http://www.samplitude.com/eng/sam/master.html for 249 Euros, but may 
> still be available for $299 US (see OrangeHill link, below).
> There is a generic version (w/o restoration tools) for 30-day free trial 
> available here:
> http://www.samplitude.com/eng/seq/shop.html
> 
> The Samplitude US pricing is available here from OrangeHill Audio:
>  http://www.orangehillaudio.com/pricelist.html
> 
> I am currently using Samplitude version 10.1 PRO and the restoration 
> suite which is included in MASTER but an option in PRO plus the 
> Algorithmix Noise Free Pro plug-in. At MAP on the OrangeHill site, 
> that's $2599 worth of software if you bought it today.
> Version differences are here:
> http://www.samplitude.com/eng/seq/vers_unt.html
> 
> However, I think that a reasonable suite could be made from:
>   Samplitude 9 SE for ingest (four stereo programs at a time)
>   Samplitude 10 master for cleanup (one at a time)
> The ideal arrangement, as I see it, would be an ingest PC running SE and 
> four playback decks, recording to its hard drive. An auto-run ViceVersa 
> Pro instance pushing those ingests to a server system (or at least a 
> pair of NAS boxes) and then the cleanup workstation(s) work directly off 
> the server/NAS over Gigabit Ethernet. I'm doing something somewhat 
> similar in my workflow and it works. That's less than $400 worth of 
> software and it's very competent. With competent used Dell Optiplexes 
> available in this neck of the woods for ~$500 tricked out as you'd need 
> for audio (3 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 250 GB D: drive for data) you 
> can set up a useable "factory" for $1400 plus your monitor speakers 
> (another $1400 or so - Mackie HR824s are a good choice and if  you can 
> get the original version used, that would be great) and then a good 
> audio interface (I like the RME Multiface II a lot - it has switchable 
> gain so it can work with IHF levels directly). That's another $1000 or 
> so. This means a very competent setup for multi-ingest and 
> single-processing (in parallel) could be set up for approximately $4000 
> which, while not peanuts, is far less than the cost of another person 
> and would allow substantial throughput -- perhaps as much as four people 
> doing single-element transfers.
> 
> The multiple ingest model only works if you scan all of the files for 
> defects during a post session. This model permits that, but you can do 
> that quickly and then render the MP3 access file and move on.
> 
> I use an earlier version of Samplitude SE to do 8-channel ingest in 
> parallel with the 16-channel ingest I can do with my setup under 
> Samplitude PRO. These run on two workstations as I have an 8-channel 
> interface on my aux workstation and a 16-channel interface on my main 
> one...but I don't have any 24-track playback capabilities (i.e. from one 
> tape).
> 
> I will be the first to admit that the learning curve of Samplitude is 
> steep, but no steeper than Audacity--at least for me. There are videos 
> on their website that might help. However, if you could get an hour on 
> the phone with someone after you've run through the tutorials it would 
> help.
> 
> So, here's the software I'm currently using on a regular day in/day out 
> basis:
>   Samplitude 10.1 Pro
>   Samplitude Restoration Plug-ins (most notably the de-clicker/de-crackler
>      and not just on grooved-media-derived files (which I don't 
> officially do))
>   Algorithmix Noise-Free Pro
>   RME Total Mix
>   RME DigiCheck analyzer and stereo scope display
>   FastSum MD5 generator
> Here's the software I use perhaps once every month or two:
>   WaveLab
>   GoldWave
> Here's the software loaded on my machine that I don't think I've used 
> for six months or more:
>   Diamond Cut (DC6--I didn't bother to upgrade to 7)
>   Audacity
> 
> Sorry this got long, but I wanted to provide specific models.
> 
> Please don't cheap out, even on oral histories -- if your oral histories 
> are anything like the ones I'm doing, they need all the help they can get.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Richard
> 
> At 09:32 AM 2008-08-15, Sam Brylawski wrote:
>> Sorry for the mistyping on Soundforge, Tom . I didn't mean to imply
>> that I thought that Audacity was in a league with Soundforge and any
>> other professional applications.
> 
> Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask]
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
> 

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