Dave,

> I want to be able to cut and paste audio ... like sound forge ... I am under the impression I need a sound card with dsp processing built in <

Not at all! Get Sonar 3 and you'll be all set. No need for hardware DSP either - you can do it all withplug-ins

--Ethan

Since you need midi, Sonar 3 is probably your best bet. Otherwise, NOTHING compares to Vegas in terms of ease, speed and power for the kind of editing your interested in. When ProTools, Cubase or Logic users watch me do some editing in Vegas, I always get that eyes bulging, jaw dropping look.

drbam

samplitude pro at http://

all of the power of Nuendo plus Wavelab... without the bugs... and a few additional features. (and lack of a few features... such as nuendo and sx start-up and shut-down times.)

7.2 will be out soon and will be a free upgrade. this will provide much improved midi/vsti handling as well as mackie xt support (the regular mackie is already supported to a much higher degree than most applications. Light years beyond Nuendo's implementation).

The nativeplug-insare also leagues beyond what comes with Sonar. As a matter of fact the masteringplug-inswould be much more comparable to waves which would cost you as much or more than any of the applications just for the mastering plugs.

also... if you are exchanging projects with studios with different apps edltranslate is available for free...

If going the professional studio route I reccommend spending some cash on edlconvertpro which will solve all interchanging problems.

for those that are interested check out http://www.edlconvertpro.com

even those that have apps such as nuendo can benefit from this as omfi integration in nuendo has always been iffy at best. especially for those transferring to avid and back.

cheers,
Brock

oh yeah...

and yes. you will need a soundcard. The RME multiface is probably your best bet...

You will also probably need a midi interface depending on your midi set-up.

You should also consider a stand-alone mixing board for tracking and monitoring (if you don't own a mic pre(s)) as this totally bypasses the whole latency when monitoring game... This will allow you to achieve lower latencies when recording midi as well. If this sounds a bit contradictory or is confusing ask more questions and I will be glad to help.

sorry...

one more thing...

cubase and nuendo are basically one and the same. so anyplace above where I have typed "Nuendo" you can freely interchange "cubase sx"...

thank you very much for the helpful suggestions. I currently am using an o2r/dat setup with an array of mic pres, and have been sequencing my midi gear from my old pc (windows 95). syncs fine and works like a charm but the editing agility I am craving isn't avialable with all this. Am also interested in the ability to edit/ mix audio for film (a couple of opportunities are starting to arise) Can sonar or samplitude tackle this task? also the word on the street is to minimize your video cards involvement to eliminate interference with the audio path (i still don't understand how that works but it makes a big difference I am told). Do you need to use a different machine for the video portion of the project synched to the audio computer?

You have a pretty smoking machine there. As long as you aren't going to be editing video while scoring I think you will be fine. I'm assuming you will have digitized, finished video you will be scoring to.

Almost any application is going to have the ability to handle this without more than the usual hassles of video and audio. You should look into a dual head video card with two monitors in order to make your life easier. Most of these cards allow you to have the second monitor output to tv and that might be the way to go if you are going to get into heavy video editing. If you already are using the yamaha you might opt for the digiface instead of the multiface as you will already be using the conversion in the yamaha when recording analog sources.

The thing with the video cards is that in the past certain motherboards would rob the pci bus in order to give priority to graphics (agp). This shouldn't be a problem for you, and the truth is that you don't need a card with a ton of ram as you won't use much of it for audio applications anyways. In your particular case you might check out the matrox parhelia as it will allow you to have two monitors for audio and a third output to a monitor or tv for your video.

You should seriously consider (meaning "you need") an external clock to sync everything together as well. This would make the yamaha, dat, rme and whatever other digital equipment shows up down the road (like a rented VTR when you end up with a video job that shows up in that format) slave to the external clock and will allow better definition in your converters (read as "improved audio") as well as trouble free operation from all of those different clock sources trying to talk to each other.

If you run into trouble streaming the video get yourself a third hard drive and use that for video (and possibly samples if you will be triggering a software sampler at all). This will improve things quite a bit.

Samplitude Pro is probably going to be your best bet if you are going to be doing post production for video... Not only is it a great app for such a task, but the room simulator could become your best friend in that situation.

Cheers,
Brock

Now go eat some turkey!

thanks a bunch, have a great holiday!