FINALE. It's expensive, but it can definately do what you need, and it's used by professionals. IF you are a student, you can get a discount. Finale 2002 just came out.

If you need freeware, just look up NOTATION PROGRAMS under MUSIC SOFTWARE. Any decent notation program can TRANSPOSE.

I am a PC user but noticed this recorder has a mac version - you might want to check it out. If it works for you post to let others know...

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/macosx.html

JR

Try this one it works

LP-ripper

Iuse cdex - version 130 to move files back and forth wave to mp3 and a free one White Tiger Standard to normise sounds and set the same volume for all CD it is free and does one file at a time so if it is an occasional then works for you, If doing it every day the look at a more complete program ... Remeber amp to sound card for software to record it.

: Hello, Anyone know of any free, or at least really cheep, mastering software? Something with a compressor? I work with wav and mp3s files, and I have very lettle money to spend. Thanks for your help. -JM

I know where youre coming from, you want a nice 'fat' sound from your recordings/mixdowns without spending a lot of dosh. I can se 2 approaches to this problem. There are available 'cheap' mastering plugins for vst/directx and the like, but this is the problem, they are cheap, in terms of sound quality as well! My advice to you, as I give to students where I work is to avoid such things like the plague! Examples of inexpensive (avoid saying cheap for legality!) mastering plugins include Steinberg's "Loudness Maximiser" and Waves "Maxx Bass".
Stop me if I'm preaching to the converted, but I'll just detail in breif how mastering equipment works. When a mastering processor is used in a studio, it consists of several dynamics processors (compressor/limiters) which increase the energy contained within the sound signal whilst avoiding clipping levels. These dynamics processors are each set to work on a distinct band of frequencies so the relative levels of the mix can be adjusted at different frequencies (eg if your bass sounds too thin/warm you can add punch by compressing the range 100-400hz). Some mastering compressosrs also have a facility to increase the top-end harmonic content (an 'exciter').
Software plugins, however, generally work by compressing the entire frequency range the same amount, with a very high ratio, hence you can 'jack up' the input signal to increase the perceived loudness of the track without running into clipping. Some software works not to entirely prevent clipping, but to apply 'soft clipping' whereby the distortions applied to the waveforms are 'slewed' to richen even rather than odd harmonic content. This souns more pleasing to the ear, and is similar to the type of distortion acheived by overdriving valve/tube circuits or analog tape.
This is not, however condusive to accurate sound reproduction, ok it will sound 'louder', but at the cost of overall sound quality, and loss of detail/clarity/positional information. What's the soulution on a budget? There is no easy answer to this. I'm not sure if youre planning to master your own mixdowns or prerecorded material, so I'll offer advice relevant to both.

If your trying to master your own material--start by refining your mixing technique. Use a little compression at mixdown on things like bass guitar, vocals (not too much!). By using a little compression at mixdown, you can help avoid too many extreme transients in the finished product. Be careful not to squeeze your mix too much or youll loose all character. The secret is to maintain dynamic range but avoid extreme transients. Your mixdoen should fit as smoothly as possible into your system headroom. Once youve got a mix, have a look at it in a wave editor, if you can see any extreme deviation, go in manually (at a very close zoom) and limit these extreme peaks using a change gain function. You may then consider using a compression plugin, DONT USE A THRESHOLD BELOW -6dB SET RATIO TO AT LEAST 3.5:1 (presuming you record at -6 peaking to -3). This will help smooth out other lumps without squeezing too much, have a good listen, make sure your bass/hf doesnt 'pump'. After compression, NORMALIZE yur wave file and voila, a mastered mix without the need for plugins. If your doing a demo, its better to ahve a slightly 'quieter' mix than one thats distorted by a messy 'cheap' mastering plugin.

If your dealing with prerecorded material:

This has already been masterd!! (If its pop/rock/etc). There should be no need for you to apply mastering, just make sure you record it in at maximum volume before clipping, or MAYBE use a ripper (such as audiograbber)which turns CDDA into .wav. Also, NORMALIZE your wav's/mp3's.

Thats it!

Any further questions? Feel free to email me.

Sampling can be a very skillful art. You can get the sounds you want if you're willing to work at it with audio editors and EQ. Quite often tho' you can easily grab drum beats off records, bass intros and acapella vocals. In other instances though, you can re-create sounds with software. I've never really been much good at that myself.

: Can someone explain to me how sampling works if you can't segregate tracks of a song. Are you just supposed to replicate the part you want with a synth or by other means? Thanks for feedback.

Sampling the electronic version of a tape recorder. All a sampler does is record what is fed into it in electronic form. There is no way you can segregate tracks from a stereo mix. The only way, as you say, is to either play the track yourself, or find a version of the song in MIDI format.

Andy