Burning the masterdisk (mac)

[Jarp2600]

Dear Slutz,

I'm into mastering for some time now, (not as deep as most of you though :')), so this question will probably sound rather dumb. But it's really getting on my nerves, since I can't find a decent answer. Please help!

My studio is running on mac, using Cubase and ProTools as DAW (mainly Cubase, actually, since I don't like the Alsihad interface that much). For the sonical part of the mastering process, that doesn't really cause trouble, but when I need to add the PQ and ISRC's and want to burn the disk, this is causing me a problem. I can't find any software product that can assemble and burn just a simple redbook!
My solution until now is taking the mastered files home and import them in Wavelab on my private computer (pc), but I'm actually totally done with that by now. Can anyone here recommend some burning software for mac, that is able to create redbooks?

Since my business isn't that huge, and I ain't a millionaire either, I can't really afford some 2k $$ software, so I'm looking for some student-budget-friendly solution, if possible!

Thanks in advance!

Jip Postma

[Riccardo]

Roxio Toast
Audiofile Wave editor
Sonic Studio PMCD

[pmx]

hi jip,

wave editor sounds like the solution to me, or maybe apple's waveburner?

[Jarp2600]

Wave Editor indeed seems a nice solution, I will check that one out!
Thanks for the quick response Riccardo and PMX!

[Lagerfeldt]

Also, very important: get an external burner.

[staudio]

I have been using Peak Pro 6 for album assembly and Redbook CD burning. It works well and has some handy processing features.

[staudio]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

Also, very important: get an external burner.

Can you elaborate more? For reducing errors right?

[jdg]

just for getting a better drive then the one that most macs come with standard.

[studio57]

i have desktop XP on the mac and wavelab orginal drive and it works nicely, done tons of cd-masters to our CD- factory, never any errors, but i use good CD-R`s and 10X burn.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by staudio

Can you elaborate more? For reducing errors right?

Originally Posted by jdg

just for getting a better drive then the one that most macs come with standard.

The built-in drive is basically useless for burning professional Red Book CD's. That sounds like a cliché but in this case it's true. It will lead to faulty discs, faulty ISRC, freezing while burning, etc. Especially with the Sony drives.

[pmx]

i can see the use of an external burner (that's why i use one) but mainly for bler stuff. but...

faulty ISRC

how would that happen? if that is corrupt, there must be a whole lotta more corrupt data, right?

[Lagerfeldt]

Not necessarily, I've noticed that ISRC is a part of the PQ where certain burners/readers differ a lot. So the rest of the PQ seems intact.

You can see this on different out-of-the box Macs. Check the ISRC on any commercial Red Book with ISRC using the OS X Terminal in two different Macs, i.e. a G5 Late 2006 and another G5. You are likely to get different readings - and burning results.

Some internal drives in Macs will claim to be able to write ISRC (you can look this up or WaveBurner will report it) but trying to burn with ISRC will cause it to freeze. Turning off ISRC will burn the cd again.

Use a high quality external burner and all this goes away for good.