newbie to mastering software help?

[Todd H.]

I'm looking take a number of live tracks I've recorded from different
dates. All are in 16-bit wav files.

I've cut them down in GoldWave audio editor, but I'd like some tool
that would allow me apply eq, volume normalization, and maybe a little
compression to the whole lot of them in preparation for burning to a
CD.

Are there any freeware editors out there that help with this notion?

Or what are the packages that are available to do this that are
relatively low cost (if so, about how much). I'm not opposed to
spending money on something that makes me more efficient (is CoolEdit
worth it for this purpose?)...and my needs for this are such that I
don't need a real mastering house of anything.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

Best Regards,
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Todd H
\ / | http://www.toddh.net/
X Promoting good netiquette | http://triplethreatband.com/
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[Arny Krueger]

"Todd H." <bmiawmb@toddh.net> wrote in message
news:m0y8xmpk5w.fsf@rcn.com

> I'm looking take a number of live tracks I've recorded from different
> dates. All are in 16-bit wav files.

> I've cut them down in GoldWave audio editor, but I'd like some tool
> that would allow me apply eq, volume normalization, and maybe a little
> compression to the whole lot of them in preparation for burning to a
> CD.

> Are there any freeware editors out there that help with this notion?

> Or what are the packages that are available to do this that are
> relatively low cost (if so, about how much). I'm not opposed to
> spending money on something that makes me more efficient (is CoolEdit
> worth it for this purpose?)...and my needs for this are such that I
> don't need a real mastering house of anything.

Speaking as a dyed-in-the wool CoolEdit bigot, it's the effects, including
dynamics modification and equalization, that separates the software that
many of us have happily paid for (today, a whopping $69-$169), from the
freebies. CE has a dynamite graphic equalizer (up to 12,000 bands and zero
phase shift), a parametric equalizer, and just about every kind of
traditional high-, low-, and bandpass filter that you've ever seen in a book
or a box.