Just an observation.

It is definitely possible to produce a commercial quality CD without shucking out vast quantities of money to a professional recording studio. In fact, considering the surprisingly inexpensive technology now available, one could make a case that taking a wheelbarrow full of money to a recording studio in order to pay for something that you can do yourself for a fraction of the cost verges on the not-too-bright. Especially considering that you still have the equipment yourself, and can keep right on going and record a whole library of CDs if you want.

Get thee a copy of Roger McGuinn's Guide to Home Recording on a Computer.

This is one very enlightening DVD, packed with good information, complete with demonstrations. McGuinn has produced his most recent commercial quality CDs using a couple of good microphones and an analog-to-digital converter plugged into a laptop computer, upon which his has a copy of Cool-Edit, with which he can clean up and edit what he has recorded. With this kind of desktop equipment you can record at bit depth and sample rates that actually exceed the capability of the commercial CD medium (limited to 16 bit, 44.1 mHz), then convert the WAV files to CDA (commercial CD format) all ready to burn a master disk, and to MP3 if you also want to put them on a web site. Free format conversion programs are available for download on the internet, as is Audacity (as an alternate to the fairly pricey Cool-Edit, which is now Adobe Audition).

I know several people who are doing exactly this, with excellent results. After watching McGuinn's DVD, taking a bit of advice from people, and doing some research of my own, I have recently bought a couple good mics (Marshall MXL "Pro Pack Plus") and a Lexicon Omega "Desktop Studio," which connects to my computer, along with a very good set of Audio-Technica monitor earphones, all for not much more that $600, then bought a Zoom H2 to do some practice recording with, and to take to songfests and such. I bought most of this stuff through Amazon, and got it for well under the manufacturer's suggested retail price. Now, I'm busily lining up and practicing the program of songs I want to do for the first CD of what I hope will be a whole series.

You may want to make use of a professional outfit to package the CD when it's done (make copies with jewel cases, inserts, shrink-wrap, etc.). That could run a few bucks, but there are lots of outfits around that do this.

Don Firth