Very Quick CD Duplication

[tms8707056]

I need suggestions on how to have several copies of a CD available within 5 minutes of the end of a church service. We have a studio setup and can track into Logic or we can use a CD recorder. Here are the details...

1. CD will be of sermon only. Music will be recorded (Logic), but not included in the CD.
   
2. There are only 5 minutes from the end of the sermon until the congregation is dismissed (10 min max if there are several who go to the alter).
   
3. We have 3 services (~800 people each service) and the schedule is very tight. Not much time between services and the order of service is not likely to change.
   
4. The CD needs to have music pre-roll.
   
5. It needs to sound professional.
   
6. The CD will have to be sent to a duplicator regardless if it comes out of the Mac or the CD recorder.

I'm thinking a digital model would work best so members could download when they got home. Alternatively, the CD recorder could record live and be finalized with enough time left to duplicate... but the pre-roll would have to be a separate track and/or fade completely out before the beginning of the sermon. It would sound more professional if the fade overlapped the start of the sermon.

Give me your best ideas on how to accomplish this task.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by tms8707056

I need suggestions on how to have several copies of a CD available within 5 minutes of the end of a church service. We have a studio setup and can track into Logic or we can use a CD recorder. Here are the details...

1. CD will be of sermon only. Music will be recorded (Logic), but not included in the CD.
   
2. There are only 5 minutes from the end of the sermon until the congregation is dismissed (10 min max if there are several who go to the alter).
   
3. We have 3 services (~800 people each service) and the schedule is very tight. Not much time between services and the order of service is not likely to change.
   
4. The CD needs to have music pre-roll.
   
5. It needs to sound professional.
   
6. The CD will have to be sent to a duplicator regardless if it comes out of the Mac or the CD recorder.

I'm thinking a digital model would work best so members could download when they got home. Alternatively, the CD recorder could record live and be finalized with enough time left to duplicate... but the pre-roll would have to be a separate track and/or fade completely out before the beginning of the sermon. It would sound more professional if the fade overlapped the start of the sermon.

Give me your best ideas on how to accomplish this task.

How about having everyone go down to the social hall, have a cup of coffee and afterward stop by and pick up their CDs? It is possible technology wise to do what you want to do but why break your back every Sunday? With a unrealistic time pressure there will always be the possibility of a big time error. It will also cost some money to do it so quickly. What is the hurry? They have just HEARD the sermon so they don't have to have an instant replay and if you had more time you could do the whole service which I think most people would rather have.

Best of Luck!

[locutus]

I have seen a lot of places do this sort of thing. Usually they end up having multiple "versions" of the CD. The proper version is done after all three services, selecting the best "take" of the sermon, editing and producing it to "normal" standard for the purpose. This is what most people end up getting, who are not impatient, and what goes in the archives, web server, etc.

A variation on this is to only give the speaker two "takes" to get it down, master and duplicate it during the 3rd service, so those people at least can get it immediately. Then you get to go home at a more normal time.

Now, for the impatient, you can give 2nd service people a copy of the 1st service. And 1st service people can get a copy from a real-time CD burner. Make sure you at least run it through a real-time comp/limiter since you won't get to normalize it later. You can either run multiple real-time burners or make them wait 5 min for the duplicator. For their impatience they get a rough copy with no pre-roll. The rough copy ends up getting tossed when the real one is done.

A better alternative is to suggest a sermon on patience. Even preachers can learn to say "No" sometimes.

[mdjice]

bravo duplicator?

[mixedupsteve]

If you had prerecorded music and you knew when the sermon was going to start then you could run the music through the mixer and crossfade into the sermon. All the while recording onto a CD recorder. Finalize then duplicate.

[Jonathan Starr]

Buy a 7 disk tower type duplicator with a USB or firewire input port. Discmakers and many other folks sell these. Configure it to act like a regular cd burner, times 5.

Have Toast or whatever you use to burn CD's up with the music preroll already set up. Pre-print the cd's with a Primera Bravo Pro or similar and load them in the duplicator.

As soon as the sermon ends, export the region to a file and import it to Toast and burn all 5 cd's simultaneously using the duplicator as your burner via USB or firewire.

You should have a minute or so to spare.

[tms8707056]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[GZsound]

I have a PC with an old version of Cool Edit 2000 on it and four Plextor CD burners installed. They were under a hundred dollars each.

I record the show into Cool Edit, simply highlight each portion of the recorded file and save it as an individual track and with Nero Burning software, can use multiple recorders to burn the copies.

I use it to record all my wife's band rehearsals and burn and verify four 50 minute CD's in about six minutes. That's 40 CD's an hour.

I use a simple USB interface and just take a stereo feed off the mixer.