Making The Master CD

[TheBSper]

Ok, so I just spent all this time polishing the mix to sound great, used the best conversion (Izotope 64 bit SRC in Audiofile Engineering's Sample Manager) to get a 44.1KHz/16 Bit AIFF file, how do I make sure that all of this work isn't destroyed when I burn it to a CD?

I know iTunes is not the way to go, but what is the best way to make sure the 1s and 0s that are on my computer are copied on to the CD perfectly (or as close to it as possible)? I just got a copy of Roxio Toast 8 Titanium for my PowerMac G5 running OS X 10.4.9. Let me know if this will do the trick or if I should take it back and pick up something that won't effect my audio quality.

Thanks for the help.

[thermos]

Toast/Jam are great if I'm not mistaken.

[Greg Reierson]

Some ME's will take your files and assemble them onto a proper deliver master for a small fee.


GR

[ed littman]

Originally Posted by TheBSper

Ok, so I just spent all this time polishing the mix to sound great, used the best conversion (Izotope 64 bit SRC in Audiofile Engineering's Sample Manager) to get a 44.1KHz/16 Bit AIFF file, how do I make sure that all of this work isn't destroyed when I burn it to a CD?

I know iTunes is not the way to go, but what is the best way to make sure the 1s and 0s that are on my computer are copied on to the CD perfectly (or as close to it as possible)? I just got a copy of Roxio Toast 8 Titanium for my PowerMac G5 running OS X 10.4.9. Let me know if this will do the trick or if I should take it back and pick up something that won't effect my audio quality.

Thanks for the help.

For quality control & creation of the master disc. I listen to the image file all the way through with headphones. I use Wavelab & Plextor drives. If all is OK with no glitches I burn two disc's & error check both using plextools. The lower rated disc will be ripped back in to the computer for a null test against the image that I listened to. If it nulls completely I'm assured of whats on the disc . This master disc is then taped shut hopefully until it gets to the plant. the other disc is labels copy.

I delivered a single to a client of mine via ftp. he burned it to disc with toast. a few weeks later he came back in the studio & out of curiosity i did a null test of his disc against the file i sent him... It did not null.
I raised his file 0.299 db, it almost nulled but it looked like he unintentionally added dither .... I'm still not sure what he did wrong. just look out....

whats the quality control of others...I'd like to know.
Ed

[Adebar]

Originally Posted by thermos

Toast/Jam are great if I'm not mistaken.

Jam is a good tool for Audio CDs if your files are finished. But for convenience and better workflow I use PreMaster CD now - better fade tools and I trust also the gain adjustments regarding proecessing.

In Jam I don´t know how they precess the fades withwhat kind of dithering. PQ editing also is far easier in PMCD.

I´d never burn a CD for replication in iTunes or Toast (without Jam).

On the PC side Wavelab is good if you don´t use apps like Sequioa or Pyramix where you can burn the CD direct out of the project.

[diamondjim]

Burn directly from Wavelab with Plextor drives and then use Plextools to check the master for errors, at least that is how I do it. Wavelab also has the ability to compare a disk image with the cd.

[TheBSper]

Originally Posted by ed littman

If all is OK with no glitches I burn two disc's & error check both using plextools. The lower rated disc will be ripped back in to the computer for a null test against the image that I listened to. If it nulls completely I'm assured of whats on the disc .

I delivered a single to a client of mine via ftp. he burned it to disc with toast. a few weeks later he came back in the studio & out of curiosity i did a null test of his disc against the file i sent him... It did not null.

Ed

I'm going to assume that there will be a way to run error checks on Toast as well? I understand the bit about the null test, I'm just wondering how you know for sure that the differences in the files came from the client's burn process and not your computer's import process? Obviously if I import and get a complete null everything is fine, I just want to have a some ideas about how to trouble shoot it if a problem arises. Since I did all my SRC and dithering previously I'll make sure that Toast is not dithering or otherwise processing the audio files.

I've seen some complaints about the cross fades in Toast causing a problem, luckily as of now none of the tracks I have need crossfades...anyone know if I could do the fades in ProTools, import the two songs faded together into Toast, and then just add a track marker where the fade is, so that way Toast doesn't mess something up when it's making the fade?

Thanks!

[ed littman]

Originally Posted by TheBSper

I'm just wondering how you know for sure that the differences in the files came from the client's burn process and not your computer's import process?
Thanks!

I've used this method with the same gear on hundreds of masters & the rip has been perfect every time. The only time I had problems were when i had a few bad discs & plextools caught the errors, the rip was exact as the file did not null in the same area as plextools had documented.
Every project gets this scrutiny for this very reason!
Ed

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by TheBSper

I'm going to assume that there will be a way to run error checks on Toast as well?

I'm afraid that there is no Mac software that will do the checks that Plextools (or Nero Drivespeed) can do.

The best that you can do on a Mac is to extract the audio, invert it and check that it nulls when pasted onto the original audio.

Cheers

James.

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by jamesp

The best that you can do on a Mac is to extract the audio, invert it and check that it nulls when pasted onto the original audio.

James.

Which is worth next to nothing. It says nothing about the physical condition of the disc that you are testing.

BK

[Adebar]

Isn´t a DDP Master with checksum more safe for replication?

On the other side, a serious replication plant will check a incoming master CD with systems like Clover or Stagetech offer them including the look at the HF stream what can´t be done with the plextools.