re wow/flutter - hiss ridden copies - I was actually referring to cassette tapes - and no matter how good the equipment you use you cannot improve on the basic lack of quality inherent with the system used to record onto in the first place.


Absolutely true!

You can't polish a turd, as they used to say.

For my needs, I like the standalone, but if you're really into the editing mode a PC is the clear choice. I also find that, after a minimum 8 hour day at the computer, I really don't want to be on the computer at home... so that may be part of my preference, too. (Kind of part of the reason I prefer a portable digital recorder for the actual "taping" part of my songs, I suppose, now that I think about it!) Oh yeah, and throw in that I have my component stereo setup in a comfortable listening environment and our main computer in a different room.. yet another choice for me personally!

And yes, the discs are somewhat cheaper. I normally dub discs at home at 4x speed; actually even here at work (ad agency and magazine publishing) we seldom use faster than 8x dubbing- we have good equipment, but just have more consistent results with the slower speed. Now something worth noting- I'm not aware of any standalones that let you record an analog source at anything other than real time... which seems to take forever when you've gotten used to digital transfer speeds!

Re: warmth being added, on even a semi-pro or demo level adding an analog step is pretty common, but is there an inexpensive, authentic-sounding plug in or program that allows you to do that on the PC? (That's not looking for an argument, just a question!)

-jim