Red Book Audio vs. Burn Speed?

MoonicaDeenus wrote on 11/17/2002, 10:21 AM
About half way through production of a compilation CD, I am wondering...what is the advantage to using CD Architect for mastering my .wav files prior to replication? (meaning on a comparative basis...such as; CD Architect vs. Nero or Roxio.) I am using SoundForge at present; & aside from PQ coding, are there any special audio advantages that would make the music sound better?

Also: I have heard mastering engineers mention the advantage of slow burn speeds for mastering. Right now I am using a TDK, the slowest speed of which is 4x. Can specialty burners that use speeds as low as 2x or 1x be had? Can the software (CD Architect) dictate the burn speed?

Thanks in advance.

mark4man

Comments

SonyDennis wrote on 11/17/2002, 11:25 AM
I'll stay out of the burn speed argument, but the basic discussion there is that slower burn speeds produce less jitter, and therefore less errors, so there might be something to be said there.

If your source audio is 16-bit, 44.1kHz, and you don't apply fade-ins, fade-outs, crossfades, have audio mixed on two layers, normalize, do level changes, or apply FX, it's a straight pass-through. In that case, CD Architect (and hopefully the other programs you mention as well) don't color (improve or degrade) the audio in any way.

Once you do fade-ins or fade-outs, crossfades, mixing, normalize, level changes, apply FX, OR if your source audio is not 16/44 (perhaps it's 24-bit 96kHz), then CD Architect performs resampling and dithering as needed. Each of these processes is adjustable as well. At this point, each program is going to handle this differently, and you should do blind A/B testing to determine which you prefer.

///d@
Geoff_Wood wrote on 11/17/2002, 3:07 PM
Burn speed is not an issue at all. Whatever is the best speed for your burner/media is, um, best.. A replicator will reject production master discs with too high an error rate. Maybe wert burn speed send them a range of disc and ask them to report back what speed is 'best'. PC-based CD-error rate appications only reprt C2 error, which are equiv to huge glitcheds or blemished - not the inherent error rate in all discs.

However, they also should not accept discs burned Disc-At-Once, which is the only way SForge can do them !

In SF you also cannot do anything other than standard track gaps - nor crossfades, indexes, multipe files per track, multiple tracks per file, etc.

geoff
Chienworks wrote on 11/17/2002, 6:37 PM
Geoff: I think you mean that they shouldn't accept track-at-once.

While it's true that SoundForge is quite limited in it's CD burning, CD Architect handles everything you mention very easily.

As far as burning speed is concerned, i have no technical data. However, when i burn discs at 4x they play in every CD player i own (quite a few), and in every player of everyone i've given the discs to. If i burn at 8x, then the Cds don't play in about half of my players (the cheaper ones, go figger), and about 1/3 of the people i give them to complain of skipping or not playing. If i burn at 16x then the discs don't play in most of my players and almost everyone reports that they don't play in their players either. Most of the 16x discs cause a "no disc" error on the player. True, this is hardly scientific testing. But it's enough evidence for me that burning at 4x is a good idea and burning faster is bad.
brokenrecords wrote on 11/17/2002, 6:44 PM
Good discussion..
Ive been burning at 40X with no problems whatsoever. Ive had projects duplicated with no problems at all.
Now you all have me thinking!
Chienworks wrote on 11/17/2002, 7:17 PM
I should probably mention, before anyone asks ... yes, i've had the same results with four different burners, all different brands. So it's probably not due to a particular burner problem ;)
Cold wrote on 11/17/2002, 7:37 PM
Some burners actually perform worse at lower speeds because their lasers are set up for 40x or more. Test your burner at all speeds for compatability. Personally I use around 8x for anything going to a dup house.
drbam wrote on 11/17/2002, 10:02 PM
<<I should probably mention, before anyone asks ... yes, i've had the same results with four different burners, all different brands. So it's probably not due to a particular burner problem ;) >>

Chienworks: You didn't comment on what media you're using which obviously factors into this issue. I'm curious about what you're using (and others here as well).

Thanks,

drbam
Chienworks wrote on 11/18/2002, 4:33 AM
Sadly, my choice of media is often determined by what the purchasing department obtains. I've used Memorex, Maxell, Teon, TDK, SONY, and several generic brands. So far the results have been consistent across all types.
Geoff_Wood wrote on 11/18/2002, 5:16 AM
None of those brands are actually made by those companies - they get media from generic (and sometimes 'name') companies and stick their logos on. Traditionally Mitsui and Taiyo Yuden have been known for best player compatibility. They actually manufacture discs. Some Sony discs are T.Y.(=good), but some Sonys are CMC (=crap).

There is a freeware called CDR-Identifier which tells you the manufacture info from the ATIP data on the CD-R.

Often the best solution is a combination of a particular media on a particilar model writer. If you have things not playing on half your players, there is something very wrong (unless they are all car, ghettoblaster, or carusel players.....).

geoff
Frenchy wrote on 11/18/2002, 11:34 AM
SonicDennis or anyone who does know:

<"once you do fade-ins or faded-outs....then CD Architect performs...">

What if you do fade-ins or fade-outs, crossfades, mixing, normalize, level changes, apply FX, OR if your source audio is not 16/44 in Vegas? I'm still having difficulty seeing what advantage/extras CDA has over VV.

frenchy
drbam wrote on 11/18/2002, 3:12 PM
<<What if you do fade-ins or fade-outs, crossfades, mixing, normalize, level changes, apply FX, OR if your source audio is not 16/44 in Vegas? I'm still having difficulty seeing what advantage/extras CDA has over VV.
frenchy>>

Below is a copied post from another thread by Dennis (SoFo tech) which should answer your above question. If you don't want or need any of the CDA 5 features listed below, then Vegas will probably work just fine for you. Hope this helps.

drbam

(copied post)
We were able to do a much more work-flow optimized user interface in CD Architect 5 that we were not able to do in Vegas, being a general purpose tool.
Also, some of the new features in CD Architect 5 that are not in Vegas 3 include:
- Smart track reordering
- Import Sound Forge® regions as tracks; markers as indices
- Separately dockable Playlist/Tracklist
- CD emulation mode (unmute fades)
- PQ list printing
- CD image file rendering
- Audio clipping detection
- Pause time indication and editing
- Real-time DirectX® event effects
- Supprt for drives with buffer underrun protection
- Timeline event and track locking
- PQ subcode extraction from CDs
Geoff_Wood wrote on 11/19/2002, 4:21 PM
Drbam (and sonic dennis)

Yes, strongly agreed here. The reasons quoted here were the main reason I and others were not happy with Vegas as a CD-A replacemnt.

The 'separate application' thing just makes it *so* much easier to focus on the task in hand, without the clutter of irrelevant menus and non-optimised display for the purpose !
MoonicaDeenus wrote on 2/9/2003, 11:58 AM
Man, Thanks to everyone that responded to this inquiry (all good); & I apologize for my lack of follow-up (this is a great group, but I always damn forget to return & check the board, due to lack of e-mail reply notifcation.) Sorry.

Thanks again,

MoonicaDeenus