I'm confused (again). If you have some sort of audible distortion in a pressed cd, there must be gross errors in the digital data. If pressing glass were that innacurate, you would never be able to transfer software on a pressed cd. Is the standard for audio CDs that much lower than for The Sims?

Has anyone done a bit-by-bit comparison of a master to a pressed cd? I could write a quick app to do that if someone could provide me with snippets of the same audio from both sources.

I do appreciate the knowledge that you guys bring to this forum. I'm very thankful that I can sit in on these discussions, given my lack of contributable experience.

peace, the dog

I suggest that you cut your tracks to fit better in the mix. Like a puzzel everything needs to fit in its place. RE: Get a presonus BLUE MAX compressor
and .. Make the bass tracks more narrow so that they do not bleed into the other instruments and vocals. Start your mix with the bass and vocals up at the same volume and mix around that. then send it to me. :roll:

Can somebody direct me to where I can find all the rules for the RED book CD and if possible all the other color code CDs?

Although it's a few years old (1995), "Mastering CD-ROM Technology" by Larry Boden is a good overview of how and why CDs work and covers Red, Green, Orange and White books.

Hi Bill! Sorry for being almost 3 months late! I had to fix my personal PC due to an HD crash. I am quite present at this nice forum now!
Yes, it was me.. also, I have some other mp3 filesof root samba, classical that I sent to some great friends on here.
Yes, it is a "budget" system: PT 5.1.1 mix, 02R, plugins. They are not the final versions.

Many thanks and keep up the great work on here!"
studiodp@terra.com.br

Here at Europadisk we have our own Glass Mastering equipment in house. Nothing ever leaves the building. We create your master (or use the one you send) and can turn out a completely retail ready finished product. Glass can be cut at real speed, if requested. I do the mastering in the studio upstairs & then after client approval, the project moves downstairs to our plant for replication. CD masters in a wide variety of formats made in other mastering facilities are also accepted for replication.
E-mail me (see address below) or call at 1-718-407-7300 ext 340 & I can gladly arrainge a tour of our facility for any Recording.org member.

I know that you are all past the philosophical aspect of why it is important to use a professional mastering engineer. I started off in this business in the professional side and shifted to a project studio and now I am back to the real world. Even during my time working at the project studio level, I would always choose a mastering engineer. I am suprised that no one here has mentioned the importance of professional outside objectivity and how necessary that is for a professional project. If you have done everthing yourself on the project, of course you are going to think it sounds great. I support everthing that those have said in recommending a professional and agree 100%. I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that anyone can attain the results they are looking for. But if you are looking to take your music further and make it the best product that you can. Use professionals as much as you can afford. As stated earlier they have countless years of experience in their crafts and certainly can lend that professional outside objectivity that you or your closest source can not see. I also prefer to work with mastering engineers who master to 1630. Their are many reasons for this and those endless reasons can be found in any of the recommended readings from other postings. I have had great luck with The Mastering Lab in L.A. and S.A.E. Mastering in Phoenix for more affordable mastering. Of course if you can afford them Steve Marcusson and Bob Ludwig are great to work with and learn from. Which brings me to my last point. Determine realistically at what level you are currently working. I have always prefered to work with mastering engineers at the level above where I am. This enables me to continually get critical objectivity and it always enables me to push further in my level of skills. Wanna learn how to make better recordings work with professionals especially mastering engineers and ask them for critical thoughts on your project. Hope this adds something to the soup.....Vinny

I know that you are all past the philosophical aspect of why it is important to use a professional mastering engineer. I started off in this business in the professional side and shifted to a project studio and now I am back to the real world. Even during my time working at the project studio level, I would always choose a mastering engineer. I am suprised that no one here has mentioned the importance of professional outside objectivity and how necessary that is for a professional project. If you have done everthing yourself on the project, of course you are going to think it sounds great. I support everthing that those have said in recommending a professional and agree 100%. I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that anyone can attain the results they are looking for. But if you are looking to take your music further and make it the best product that you can. Use professionals as much as you can afford. As stated earlier they have countless years of experience in their crafts and certainly can lend that professional outside objectivity that you or your closest source can not see. I also prefer to work with mastering engineers who master to 1630. Their are many reasons for this and those endless reasons can be found in any of the recommended readings from other postings. I have had great luck with The Mastering Lab in L.A. and S.A.E. Mastering in Phoenix for more affordable mastering. Of course if you can afford them Steve Marcusson and Bob Ludwig are great to work with and learn from. Which brings me to my last point. Determine realistically at what level you are currently working. I have always prefered to work with mastering engineers at the level above where I am. This enables me to continually get critical objectivity and it always enables me to push further in my level of skills. Wanna learn how to make better recordings work with professionals especially mastering engineers and ask them for critical thoughts on your project. Hope this adds something to the soup.....Vinny

Originally posted by MANTIK:
I was interested in buying a back up drive to output DDP/CRM files to.
Is this the drive that is used in the mastering industry? Is the tape size also what is accepted by CD replicator houses. Is the tape size sufficient to cover the amount of data for an average album of audio?[/QB]

The most common Exabyte 8mm drive, the Eliant 820 is not in production anymore. You can pick them up on Ebay and have them refurbished if you want. The Exabyte format is a dying format. I think the DDP format will move to other media types like AIT tape or DVD rom similar to DVD production.

I don't know of any stand alone applications for DDP/Exabyte creation although there might be. There is an option in Samplitude/Sequoia but it's expensive. It's standard on a SADiE and a Classic will go for cheap soon with their new hardware coming out.

I would stick with CDR. Just use a good media/burner combination.