Ok 1 more question. I need advise with this...

[beefjerkey]

What I have is a dell xp pro p4 with 2.4ghz, 80g hrd drive, 512ram. I am buying a motu 24I/O to dump and edit then mix through an analog console. I cant afford the nuendo so i am torn between cubase sx3 and sonar 4 producer. are both compatible with pro tools? is one easier than the other to learn? i have used pro tools and cool edit.
all i will realy be doing is some simple editing like taking out noise, simple automation, and some other crap like that. I will be mixing through a soundcraft 1600 analog console.
ok so the question is cubase sx3 or sonar 4 producer? helpme. B

[Phiz]

I have sonar 4 producer and am quite happy with it. I've tried cubase a little bit (not the most recent version though) and didn't like the interface. It was a whlie ago and I can't remember the details.

Sonar has some compatibility with protools - it can import and export OMF files. I've only tried to make use of this feature once. It was with OMF files that were generated by Logic (I think... something besides protools). I wasn't able to get Sonar to open the OMF files, but its hard to say if the fault was with Logic or Sonar. I think there have also been some OMF related patches since I tried that.

[Mr. Dipity]

What I have is a dell xp pro p4 with 2.4ghz, 80g hrd drive, 512ram. I am buying a motu 24I/O to dump and edit then mix through an analog console. I cant afford the nuendo so i am torn between cubase sx3 and sonar 4 producer. are both compatible with pro tools? is one easier than the other to learn? i have used pro tools and cool edit.
all i will realy be doing is some simple editing like taking out noise, simple automation, and some other crap like that. I will be mixing through a soundcraft 1600 analog console.
ok so the question is cubase sx3 or sonar 4 producer? helpme. B

Here's instant compatibility with protools for $20.

Denoising is best handled by a destructive application such as Sound Forge, and the requisite forensic plugins. I'm not familiar with Sonar's wave file editing abilities, but Cubase leaves quite a bit to be desired on this front: it's not meant to be an editor.

If you are going to be mixing, you are going to need to do more than just set the levels - you are going to need to run some compression too. In either case, I recomend you get your hands on as many freeware compressors and eqs (eq before compression is completley different from eq after compression) as you can. They will not all suck at everything.

[eh91311]

Save some money. try N-track , version 4, first. You can get it here: www.fasoft.com. Pay for the registration and you'll have up to 24/192k recording for under $100. All computer programs sound different, N-track sounds as good as any. Uses DirectX and VST plugins. Number of tracks are limited by CPU power only. It can be quirky, it's not perfect, but you can use it until you decide to invest in Cubase or Adobe Audition or Sonar 4.

You can use anything, as long as it will save tracks as .wav's you can import them into any software, including Pro Tools.