[geeks] Audio Recording

[Sheldon T. Hall]

Folks-

I have a large box of old analog tape recordings I'd like to transfer to a
digital medium.  I have appropriate tape players, but I could use some
advice on the digital end.

In particular, I'd like some opinions (and other braindumps) on the
hardware/OS/application end of things.  I'd like to produce either
non-compressed files (WAV or similar) or very-high-quality compressed ones
(MP3 or equivalent.)  Many of the tapes are amateur recordings of live
performances, so additional quality degradation would be undesirable.  All
the tapes are pretty fragile, so I'd like to minimize the number of
head-passes required.

I have done digital recordings from LP records and analog tapes before, so I
know, generally, how to do it.  I just want to do it as well as possible on
the first go, because the volume of material would seem to exclude more than
one attempt.

At hand, I have a number of computers, though nothing especially configured
for this task.  Among them are ...

Various PC laptops running Windows XP.  None of these have hardware
"line-in" connections, though my main laptop gives one the option of making
the microphone jack a "line-in" connection through software.  The only
recording software I have is the default Windows "sound recorder", which is
clearly inadequate.

Various PC desktops running recent Ubuntu Linux.  None of these machines are
in any sort of "production" so I could certainly install a specific Linux
distribution for this purpose.  All have audio hardware whose quality is
unknown.

Various SGI desktops, including an O2 with A/V module and an Octane.  Both
have Irix and the default sound recording and manipulation applications.

Pointers, warstories, and anatomically-posible suggestions solicited.

Thanks.

-Shel