BobRogers
22 May 2011
I'm getting annoyed with my CD burning freeware and looking to buy a "grownup" product. CD Architect has more than I need, but I might put out some "home mastered" disks in the future and programs like Roxio and Nero seem to be bloated with "easy to use" video editing. There were good reviews of CD Architect a few versions ago - is it still top of the heap? Anyone out there using it? Which features are you actually using?
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I love CD Architect, I use it all the time. Really easy and frie
I love CD Architect, I use it all the time. Really easy and friendly way to lay out a CD, with support for CD text and ISRC codes etc. My only problem with it really is the lack of DDP export... however, a recent [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.sonoriss…"]Sonoris DDP Creator[/]="http://www.sonoriss…"]Sonoris DDP Creator[/] update has apparently added CD Architect image import, so that might be an option if you end up with a project due for replication. I wish I'd known before I went and bought Wavelab! ;)
Bear in mind however: afaik CD Architect still comes bundled free with Soundforge (that's how I got my copy) so if you don't already have a capable editor you might want to spend the extra and get both. Soundforge is great, I don't know how I would manage without it.
As far as the features I actually use: mostly I render a finished disc from Reaper, then use CD Architect just to add track IDs etc. and burn the disc. In this case I usually import a dithered 16 bit file to CDA, and I have to remember to delete or disable the dither plug that it automatically adds to the master section... ;)
However, sometimes I just need to burn a rough copy of a work in progress: in this case I can pull in rough mixes, and run Ozone as a DirectX plugin to do some quick and dirty limiting if needed. No VST plugs unfortunately, but the included "Wave Hammer" is probably good enough for shaving a dB or two off rough mixes if you don't have Ozone.