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Best way to burn CD's
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psilonaut
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 1, 2007 14:20
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Whats the best way of getting my music from my cubase project file to an audio CD. Like what format and quality should I be mixing down to and then whats the best way to burn the audio files to a CD?
To me it seems logical to mixdown to a format that is 16bit and 44.khz so its the same as a CD. Is this what I should be doing?
Sorry if this has allready been asked but I couldn't find the answer I was looking for.
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mk47
Inactive User
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Posted : Mar 1, 2007 14:37
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dont think u can burn higher that 16 bit .. wont play most places anyway
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
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Posted : Mar 1, 2007 16:55
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you should mix down at the highest possible format.
really preferably 24 bit.
bitrate comes into play especially in the mix stage.
higher bitrate = more dynamic range.
for any masterng purposes, you want to give the engineer the best file you can.
if at any time you are going to put it on cd then just dither it down to 16bit in soundforge/wavelab or whatever you use.
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ess765
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 1, 2007 20:18
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On 2007-03-01 14:20, psilonaut wrote:
Whats the best way of getting my music from my cubase project file to an audio CD. Like what format and quality should I be mixing down to and then whats the best way to burn the audio files to a CD?
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Hi Psinolaut,
I think people didn t understand what are you looking for exactly. I think you simply want to know how to bounce mixdown track into an audio Cd, so that you can listen to it in you car stereo or hi fi sound system, right?
If you simply would send it to a master engineer, you should save it at 24bits to keep the tracks details better reserved. But in your case you d need 2 actions: master your track and then bring it down to 16 bits to burn an audio cd.
here are the steps, that many people tht use Cubase and try to burn their own mastered tracks can t realize.
1 - you work at 24bits, so when you end up mixing the tracks (all volumes, automations and parameters are ok for you), you ll export it as a stereo interleaved file under 24 bits format.
2- close the project and open a new one
3 - open a single stereo audio track in this new project, and import the 24bits stereo track into it, using the pool.
4 - Now you ll need to master it. By mastering you ll bring more volume and balance into the final mix(basic explanation), using some tools such as multiband compressor, limiter, eq, expanders, enhancers, exciters, whatever. Open the project s mixer, click on the "e" and insert the plugins for mastering. If you know how to do it, I d sugest you to look for the Ozone3 mastering by Izotope, that can help you a little through a less technical mastering process. Choose a preset or try by your own. Use your ears.
5 - Top tip: so you have a 24bits track and you want to save it down to 16bits cd fomat, right? Many people would simply export/audio mixdown/16bits, and voila. Not the best option. Dithering is the process of bringing the audio into a lower bit rate, and it often "kills" a lot of details, once you ll bring a full detailed audio from 24bits into 16bits. It s like you live in a 1000m2 house and now bought a 300m2(random proportion just to ilustrate) place and want to bring all furniture inside.
Solution: Cubase Sx will give you a dithering plug in by Apogee for this purpose. You ll find it on the plugins list menu, "others" list, if I m not wrong. So, you ll need o use this apogee plug in on the last insert slot from your mixers master channel. I really mean the last slot. Choose the 16bits format, and the plugin will do the job.
6 - Now you re ready to burn a quite more reasonable cd, compared to people who won t pay attention to the above listed details.
Export as an audiomixdown, 16 bits and here you are with your final mix ready to be taken into diferent sound systems. Obviously, that making it sound right on all of them, will depend on your own skills, concerning a good mix and well done mastering. Don t blame Cubase...
Thats it. Good mixdown for you.
Final advice: choose some of your favorites artists trustfull tracks and listen to them while you mix and master just to be sure you re on the right path. Mixing and mastering walk together with comparisons process to another artists works as reference.
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jivamukti
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 1, 2007 20:39
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I've read you should burn the disc at a very low speed, like 1x or 2x, to minimize errors.
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faxinadu
Faxi Nadu / Elmooht
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Posted : Mar 1, 2007 20:46
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Mike A
Subra
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185
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3954
Posted : Mar 2, 2007 00:27
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Quote:
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On 2007-03-01 16:55, faxinadu wrote:
you should mix down at the highest possible format.
really preferably 24 bit.
bitrate comes into play especially in the mix stage.
higher bitrate = more dynamic range.
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if you go for mastering. it really doesn't matter for anything else. most sound systems can't even reproduce anything below -90dbfs which is around the 16bit limit.
the dynamic range is below, in the most silent sounds. not above, in the powerful sounds. so it doesn't matter.
Quote:
| I've read you should burn the disc at a very low speed, like 1x or 2x, to minimize errors. |
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depends on your burner and media actually. using 12x for a long time without any problems. |
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psilonaut
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 2, 2007 01:36
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Yep thats exactly what i'm wanting to do ess765 thanks heaps guys.
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Meta
Meta/Boomslang
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24
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1045
Posted : Mar 2, 2007 01:51
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Quote:
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On 2007-03-01 20:46, faxinadu wrote:
Quote:
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On 2007-03-01 20:39, jivamukti wrote:
I've read you should burn the disc at a very low speed, like 1x or 2x, to minimize errors.
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ya burning slow is the best option.
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Err... kind of. Modern media is made to be burned at faster speeds. Most computer burners won't let you burn that slow anymore (1x-2x)
If you put high-speed computer media into a "real time" CD burner, it doesn't work properly.
Generally slower is better though. Most burners won't let you burn slower than 4x anymore.
16X is the fastest you should ever burn, that is the fastest speed that CD Burners burn at a "constant" speed. At speeds higher than 16x with drive "spins up" constantly during the burn to get up to 40-52x peak speed, but that max speed is not a constant.
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mk47
Inactive User
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Posted : Mar 2, 2007 06:02
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Quote:
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On 2007-03-01 20:18, ess765 wrote:
5 - Top tip: so you have a 24bits track and you want to save it down to 16bits cd fomat, right? Many people would simply export/audio mixdown/16bits, and voila. Not the best option.
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so basically .. a file exported to 24 bit .. then dither down to 16 bit in wavelab or watever .. will sound better than a file thats directly exported to 16bit from the sequencer ?
explain plz ..
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ess765
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 2, 2007 07:24
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[/quote]
so basically .. a file exported to 24 bit .. then dither down to 16 bit in wavelab or watever .. will sound better than a file thats directly exported to 16bit from the sequencer ?
explain plz ..
[/quote]
Dithering is one of the problems you might have when working on digital enviroment. A 24bits sampls can lose some important details when simply saved under 16bits. Apogee ia a very respected brand concerning those conversions issues. That s why Cubase brings as default, the dithering plug in from Apogee, to enhance the final result of the 16bits audio file. Of corse that when you have professional hardware to do the ad/da conversions everything at the end will sound better. Anyway, as we re talking about a computer enviroment and cubase, the explained method should work fine.
Basicly you save the file under 24bits, Re import it to another project(could be the same), master it and then bounce into 16bits with the apogee dithering plug in at the last slot of the master channel inserts.
This process and this plugin will make your final mix to preserve more details, if you ll be able to notice or not it ll depend
on your ears and the mix and master quality. A bad mix will never sound nice, no matter what you do.
But few people use this method, as I have noticed through the forum topics. If you have a better equipment to work with, that s ok. But if you have a pc, sound card and cubase, its really worthy.
In my particular case, I found that it got easier to notice that some good mixes I had done became better on diferent sound systems, while sometimes some good mixes sound worse after mixing down to cd format. It gives more accuracy to the final cds tracks concerning audio quality. |
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Spindrift
Spindrift
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Posted : Mar 2, 2007 08:52
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On 2007-03-01 20:39, jivamukti wrote:
I've read you should burn the disc at a very low speed, like 1x or 2x, to minimize errors.
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That used to be true a few years ago, but not any more with modern media and burners.
To find the ideal speed for a combination of CDR's and your burner you can scan for errors with Nero, or if you have a Plextor drive, Plex-Tools.
Burning a 52x CD at 1x or 2x or even 16x will usually give you loads of errors and the ideal speed will usually be somewhere between 32-48x instead.
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parapsyched
Scratch 22
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Posted : Mar 3, 2007 09:51
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"Dithering is the process of bringing the audio into a lower bit rate,"
not true. dithering is a procces which adds "digital noise" in the lower bits so the whole track is actually "shifted" upwards in the bitrate so the sound is "pushed" to the higher bits where the resolution is better. i know this isnt a very good explanation but i cant seem to find the right terms in english . sorry.
and where the hell is colin when you need him ?
i`m sure he can explain it better...
and about burning speeds. i heard somewhere that x8 is the best speed for audio burning because some tests showed that at this speed the avreage amount of errors is the lowest. i dont know if its true or who the hell did those tests but that a rumour i heard somewhere....
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-aeon-
Aeon
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Posted : Mar 3, 2007 11:33
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ess765
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
25
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169
Posted : Mar 3, 2007 20:01
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[quote]
dithering is a procces which adds "digital noise" in the lower bits so the whole track is actually "shifted" upwards in the bitrate so the sound is "pushed" to the higher bits where the resolution is better.
not true. Dither can also be applied for digital video as well not only audio.
Correcting my previous post, I just meant that dithering helps the process of bringing a 24bits to 16bits sapmle avoiding less losses. Sorry my english.
Technical definition:
Dither is a form of noise, or 'erroneous' signal or data which is deliberately added to sample data for the purpose of minimizing quantization error. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and digital video data. (wikipedia)
BTW, you dont need anyone (nothing against Collin, a very nice helper here) to give you such a simle information once google exists. You sounded like a crying small boy...he he....
Best wishes.. |
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