Editing And Mastering Original Recordings, Beginner Basics Options

[horvath]

I just finished recording a new CD of original songs using a Roland VS-1880 Digital Recorder. Now I want to take those tracks, edit them and master them on my Mac G4 (OS X) and I'm educating myself on the processes involved.

Is the editing process where I would equalize the volumes of each song, so each is at the same level? Or is that part done in the mastering process?

Also, one song has some background noise (a car passing by - lol!) that is audible at the ending of the song, as it fades to 0db. Agian, is the editing process where I would remove that? Or would I best eliminate that in the mastering process?

Any knowledge shared about all this is greatly appreciated - I presently have ZERO understanding about editing and mastering.

Thanks.

[Synthetic]

editing... mastering... really in a sense its all the same unless you are taking your audio to a studio and are asking for certain services

but really... mastering is the process of equalizing volume levels and final EQ and such for a final finsihed product

editing involves more than mastering... such as overdubs, fades, and any general "ediitng" and is normally done during mixing or previous to mixing in big studios.

I wouldn't concern yourself over what the details of the 2... just remember mastering is the final step before final CD creation and everything else should be done before going to this stage

the track with traffic noise... just try to open that track in some audio editor and see if you can fade it out quicker to maybe get rid of the noise