Help With Audio Recording Software, audio recording software Options

[sreeves]

I am looking for advice on audio editing software. I play in open sessions where the music is traditional, acoustic (fiddles, flutes, accordions, guitar and bouzouki), sonically dynamic and spontaneous. The musicians I play with are very good (some professional) and the music usually sounds quite wonderful. I have recently taken to recording these sessions with the future idea of producing a compilation CD that highlights the traditional style of music we play as well capturing the different playing styles. Through trial and error I have worked out the recording equipment that is appropriate for these casual sessions (usually in a pub or home setting). I use a minidisc recorder with very good stereo mics and a preamp with gain control, which allows me to record through the line input of the minidisc recorder. The recorded music is distortion free and sonically very high quality. I also have a home minidisc deck that has a digital line out which allows me to get the digital music into my Mac laptop (G4). I do this using an optical to USB adaptor (Edirol UA-1D). I have tried several types of software to bring the digital session music into my computer. Most often I use the shareware Sound Studio. However, I have had problems with this software because I usually get what best can be described as hiccups in the music recorded to the computer. Sounds something like a skip on a vinyl record. This software also does not have a usable EQ (it studders during preview mode) that I like to use to emphasize or deemphasize certain instruments. It is somewhat bewildering to evaluate the commercially available software. I just tried the demo version of Metro 6 which seems to work well (nice EQ with 31 frequencies). Currently I am not interested in midi but just want a good Mac-based audio editing program (not necessarily shareware or freeware) that will record without hiccupping, have good EQ and parametric EQ effects and possibly other effects that would cleanup the music without changing its integrity. Any advice would be most appreciated!

Thanks,

Steve
sreeves@partners.org