[Warning: I'm an opinionated semi-pro musician.  Opinions ahead.]

> From: Eddie Cottongim [mailto:cottonsqueak at earthlink.net]
> From: <John.Maloney at svjconnections.com>
> > I did notice that the background noise tends to build up as you add
> tracks.
> If anyone is trying this, there are a few things that will 
> help reduce the
> noise.
> -The sampling rate should be pretty high( >= 44 khz), at least in the
> original tracks, otherwise the aliasing effects above the 
> Nyquist frequency builds up very quickly.

Yes --- there's a reason why the newer kit operates at 96kHz.  Some people
(myself included) claim to be able to hear aliasing in a 44.1kHz signal
against a *good* analog recording of the same source.

> -I bought a pro microphone this weekend, and although 
> generally it does
> greatly reduce the "hiss", it also picks up background noise, 
> like my noisy
> computer fan. That can build up with multiple tracks too, 
> along with that
> darn 60hz line hum that sneaks in everywhere.

Good interconnect is very important here, as are correct signal levels.  If
you want to do anything serious with a mic, get an external mic preamp as
well and feed the line input into the sound card (you do *have* a line in as
well as a mic in, don't you? :-).

Mic preamps are relatively cheap, and prevent low-amplitude audio signals
being affected by crosstalk inside that electrically-noisy case.  The pro
gear goes one stage further and separates all the analog processing into its
own enclosure, with Firewire or USB connections to the PC.

By the way, at least one company in the UK (Carillon) is producing
specially-silenced PCs for pro and semi-pro studios.  These include things
like multiple, slow-moving fans and damped housings for HDDs so that the
sound of the heads seeking is reduced.

> -The current 16 bit sound in/out is good enough for me; if 
> you really need
> more than this, you'll probably be using more specialized IO anyway.

16 bits (assuming linear) gives you a little under 100dB dynamic range.  In
anything other than a whisper-quiet pro studio, the background noise will
only be 40-60dB below the signal.  Also, I'm willing to bet that the ADCs
and DACs on the low-end cards have >=1 LSB error on them anyway, so your
original will only have 15-16 useful bits.

More than 16 bits is only useful if you want plenty of headroom but still
want good reproduction of much lower-amplitude signals.  Relevant during
mixdown (but you're operating entirely digitally there); irrelevant for I/O
if your levels are set correctly.

		- Peter