In the case of Audio CD premasters...

[Mark Wheaton]

Since many people use Audio CDs as premasters I am curious if we can clarify a few things.
When the manufacturer receives your Audio CD premaster; do they transfer it by playing it in real time? And do they play it out digital or analog? Or do they do some kind of disc duplication?
What is the difference as far as the facility is concerned between a CD premastered using Jam or Waveburner and one created in Toast or iTunes?
Don't get me wrong, I have always used either Masterlist CD, Waveburner or Jam and am currently converting to Premaster CD. but I get these questions:
"If I have a master created by the mastering guy in Jam, can I copy it in Toast and if necessary send that copy as a back up to the manufacturer?"
So I am trying to be accurate in terms of my understanding of what the differences are. Any info on what is the technical difference between a CD created in Jam, for instance, and one created in Toast or iTunes. By the way I am not looking for a response that tells me this one sounds better than that, I am looking for what technically is different about these methods.
thanks.

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by Mark Wheaton

Since many people use Audio CDs as premasters I am curious if we can clarify a few things.
When the manufacturer receives your Audio CD premaster; do they transfer it by playing it in real time? And do they play it out digital or analog? Or do they do some kind of disc duplication?

99% of the time these days it's a high speed transfer to a file on hard disc on their server. It probably gets converted to "ddpi format", which is really a fancy way of saying a PCM (wav I think) file with a few ancillary files attached for the track marks, CD text if used, and other PQ codes . The Eclipse software takes care of this, some plant person could elaborate on it.

What is the difference as far as the facility is concerned between a CD premastered using Jam or Waveburner and one created in Toast or iTunes?

Some of the above do not support index 0 pauses, so it's a very primitive CD. I like to incorporate all the features, and the last time I checked a CD in Toast all the index 0's were set to 0 seconds. Itunes doesn't know about index 0 either.

Don't get me wrong, I have always used either Masterlist CD, Waveburner or Jam and am currently converting to Premaster CD. but I get these questions:
"If I have a master created by the mastering guy in Jam, can I copy it in Toast and if necessary send that copy as a back up to the manufacturer?"

Toast and Jam are grown up "consumer level" programs. Toast is a great CD ROM making program but has rather primitive audio features. I feel a lot more comfortable with a DAW that is designed to produce a professional PQ list marked in CD frames or SMPTE time and that allows you to set Index 0 anywhere you want it, and at least see the copy/no copy and emphasis bits, though we don't fiddle with those much at all anymore. So, basically I would not recommend using Toast or Jam as your primary master-cutting programs, though they make good reference CDs, and I'm sure a plant would accept Toast or Jam output.

BK