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IIRs 28 October 2010

Hi.

I do a little low budget mastering from time to time. :redface: Generally this means polishing up home studio productions for myspace, or for small scale duplication, and I have been happily laying out CDs using CD Architect.

However, I do sometimes master projects destined for replication, and I would ideally like to provide these as DDP files. Last time around I used the demo version of http://www.sonoris…"]Sonoris DDP Creator[/]="http://www.sonoris…"]Sonoris DDP Creator[/], but to be honest I didn't enjoy the experience much...

I usually lay out the whole CD in Reaper, export it as a single wav file, then use CD Architect just to add track IDS / ISRC codes etc. But I couldn't work out how to accomplish the same thing in DDP Creator, which seemed to expect me to import each song as a separate wav. No doubt I was missing something, but even so: the software is pretty clunky and un-friendly compared to CD Architect.

I didn't want to keep my client waiting, so in the end I used the import feature to import the preview disc I had burned from CD Architect, then swapped the wav file it ripped for my original. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I have another such project which is just waiting for the media catalogue number to be finished, and I can't decide whether to buy the Sonoris software or not. Its not that much money really... but then again, Soundforge originally cost me about the same, and CD Architect was included! I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money on software that I found so frustrating, so I'm wondering if I should put it towards Wavelab instead?

I see there is a new version of DDP Creator available... I'm hoping it will give me another crack at the demo! But is there anything else I should be looking at that I have overlooked? Everything else I've seen appears to be up in the Sequoia type price range, which I can't really justify at the moment!

Or on the other hand, am I worryng about it too much? Maybe I should just burn two masters from CD Architect at 4x (the slowest my burner will go) and hope for the best?

Thanks :smile:

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Comments

Michael Fossenkemper Thu, 10/28/2010 - 17:09

I never like hoping for the best. If you have a compatible burner, you could get a copy of plextools and analyze your discs before you send them out. I also have DDP creator, for the mac, and yes it's a little limited but I also find it to be very reliable. You just have to find a work flow that is compatible with it. An all in one solution is by far the best. If you can justify taking a step up in software, it'll pay off in the end if you send a handful of DDP's out a year. there's also a crop of DDP players coming on the market that allow your customers to playback a DDP image on their computer, there's even one for the iphone now called backline DDP. Things are heading this way, so I would bite the bullet and jump on the train if you see a trend in your work.

IIRs Fri, 10/29/2010 - 01:41

Thanks for the reply: good to know you use DDP Creator yourself.

You just have to find a work flow that is compatible with it.

Out of interest, what's your work-flow? Do you lay out the disc in DDP Creator, or just add IDs etc? Or do you import the project in some way?

Another idea I had was to try importing cue sheets exported from CD Architect, but they weren't compatible and I didn't have time to try manually re-formatting. I wonder how hard it would be to create an automatic converter utility..?

Regarding Wavelab... apparently I can't even try the demo without buying a hardware dongle. I don't like dongles, so I'm going to need a good reason!

So, given that I already have various audio editors and DAWs that I am happy with, plus a large collection of plug-ins, it seems the main thing that Wavelab would bring to my party other than DDP export is the cleaning / restoration functions. Does anyone here use these? How good are they?

I currently get by with the stuff in Soundforge, plus some suprisingly useful de-noising / de-clipping etc. options in Acon Digital Media's Acoustica editor, and some amazingly powerful spectral editing options in Magix Audio Cleaning Lab (that's a tip I picked up on these forums IIRC!) Obviously having it all in one place in Wavelab would be more convenient, but would it also be significantly better?

Of course, I also need to consider the fact that at some point there wil be a Soundforge 11 update, which may well add some or all of these features. I would then kick myself for spending ~£500 on Wavelab instead of ~£100 for a Soundforge upgrade... :confused: Anyone want to place bets on whether SF 11 will have a DDP export option?

IIRs Thu, 04/14/2011 - 02:20

Update: I bought Wavelab 7 :redface: Picked up a s/h copy on the KVR marketplace for a good price...

Its a bit broken in Vista however (eg: high sample rate files won't draw waveforms!) I haven't bothered to try it in XP: waiting for my new Win 7 / i7 box to arrive sometime next week. :cool:

Big K Thu, 04/14/2011 - 06:32

WvaeLab7 was a strange experience for me... They exchanged a lot of what was WL6 and not always easy to find out untill I uncluttered it quite a bit.
Now, with most of what I don't need hidden and out of the way, it makes a fine software and DDP is rather reliable and very welcome.
All jobs done, also done with DDP, went flawless on XP pro SP3 and Win7, 64 bit & 32 bit. I skipped Vista ...

Thomas W. Bethel Thu, 04/14/2011 - 06:59

Big K, post: 368827 wrote: WvaeLab7 was a strange experience for me... They exchanged a lot of what was WL6 and not always easy to find out untill I uncluttered it quite a bit.
Now, with most of what I don't need hidden and out of the way, it makes a fine software and DDP is rather reliable and very welcome.
All jobs done, also done with DDP, went flawless on XP pro SP3 and Win7, 64 bit & 32 bit. I skipped Vista ...

WL 7 has NOT BEEN a very good experience for me yet. We are still using WL6 for most work, especially with client's present. It has some nice features but it is too far away from the normal WL 6 and earlier work flow. A new update is due out this month. Hoepfully that will make things "better" or worse.

Big K Thu, 04/14/2011 - 08:38

Very true... WL 6 is a known and tested workhorse.
WL7 is better, but has a steep , sometimes annoying learning curve and it took me weeks to introduce it to the normal studio work.
You are so right. Nothing is more stupid then messing up with a client sitting by... and for the customer it doesn't matter if a standart job is done with WL 5, 6 or 7.
Just for the DDP ... and the FX management ... it takes WL7. Some of the new applications will have to prove if they are needed, at all.

Big K Fri, 04/15/2011 - 04:46

Hi S&S, ..
Can't hurt.. makes it a lot easier, I guess.
Finding out, where all the known stuff went and digging through the new gadgets only with a manual sucks!
Even after I learned my way round in WL7 I still think it is too much for too many applications in it, but hey, me is 50...lol...

Massive Mastering Fri, 04/15/2011 - 10:13

I haven't used WL as my "main" since 3 or 4, but have continually upgraded (because it's a friggin' Swiss Army knife otherwise and I couldn't do without it).

WL6 I still use pretty frequently for this and that. 7 I pretty much break out for DDP only at this point. I haven't yet wrapped my head around the whole "new workspace" thing...

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