Home Studio Qand A

[4real]

Well, something basic should do that kind of thing, Audacity is pretty good for cleaning up stuff and is free and easy to use, reaper and such will also do the job.

Take the fostex (not sure exactly what this is) and run it through he sound card or with a cheap LXR USB interface perhaps and record things to separate tracks. Cut out and edit mistakes or noises, or put some global noise reduction to each track, EQ as desired and mix back in the computer, make as an MP3 or burn to a disc.

[lunaalta]

4real is absolutely right there. Audacity is more than adequate.

The noise reduction on Audacity is actually pretty good, but I tend to adjust the reduction to a minimum. You can end up with some pretty strange (sometimes interesting/nice) artifacts appearing if you get too heavy with it. Another thing you can do is crop out the noise from any silent parts, between words/notes, for instance. Makes quite a difference!

Some time ago, I started transferring tracks from my old Yamaha MT2X (these are hi-speed, 4 track cassette machines, 4real), and got some pretty good results, after noise reduction. Look out for speed anomalies, though.

If you are interested (I hope a liere is allowed), there is a very friendly and helpful forum, Two Track Music, here: www.twotrackmusic.com/
Lots of good advice and pointers for home recordists, along with a spattering of good natured of humour