CONFUSION ABOUT FINAL RECORDING

[karusse]

Welp I've had the digi001 for a few weeks now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get this to a cd. I'm currently just wanting to put my stuff onto a cd so that it could be played in a regular stereo cd player. Here's some questions that maybe some of you guys could answer without putting to much time in it.

(1) I have a tdk cd recorder, but I also have a cdrw drive on the computer. Am i right in thinking that the sound quality would be better if I just recorded my mixes onto cd via the optical out on the pci card to my cd recorder's optical in? So far, my bouncing attempts have ended up with highly distorted songs that sound like junk. But I guess, the general question is: is it better to use the cd recorder sound-quality-wise as opposed to bouncing it and recording it onto cd via the cdrw drive on my computer?

(2) When I record, there are the options of doing it in either 44.1 or 48. If I plan on just sending the data via optical out to the cd recorder, would there be any problems in playing back the material on 48 while recording it on the cd recorder?

[where02190]

You need to bouce to 44.1k, whihc is the sample rate of standard cd's.

if you're getting distortion when you bounce to disc, you're overloading the master buss. Lower your track levels before bouncing, put a limiter on the master buss, and keep those levels down.

Once you bounce to disc, simply burn from your comuters burner using Nero or other CD burning software, at no more than 4x burn speed, and I recommend 1x.

the result will not be as loud as a commerical CD because it is not mastered, and while you can achieve some decent mastering results in protools, it does not equate to what a professional mastering engineer and facility can do.

Hope this is helpful.

[Allen Hallada]

Originally posted by karusse:
Welp I've had the digi001 for a few weeks now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get this to a cd. I'm currently just wanting to put my stuff onto a cd so that it could be played in a regular stereo cd player. Here's some questions that maybe some of you guys could answer without putting to much time in it.

(1) I have a tdk cd recorder, but I also have a cdrw drive on the computer. Am i right in thinking that the sound quality would be better if I just recorded my mixes onto cd via the optical out on the pci card to my cd recorder's optical in? So far, my bouncing attempts have ended up with highly distorted songs that sound like junk. But I guess, the general question is: is it better to use the cd recorder sound-quality-wise as opposed to bouncing it and recording it onto cd via the cdrw drive on my computer?

(2) When I record, there are the options of doing it in either 44.1 or 48. If I plan on just sending the data via optical out to the cd recorder, would there be any problems in playing back the material on 48 while recording it on the cd recorder?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I've done it both ways, recording direct to CD and bouncing from PTLE. The best I've found so far is to record at 44.1/24bit. Then bounce these mixed tracks to a stereo interleaved file without doing any sample rate conversion. Bring the stereo file back into a new session and master with the Waves Platinum bundle. I use the L2 and C4 mostly here. You can pump the volume using the L2 without clipping better than anything I've used. Try loading the presets that come with it first and then adjust from there. Then bounce down to stereo interleaved again using Waves dither to 16bit/44.1k. The advantage of a professional burning program here is that you can adjust the volume levels on each song to match the other before burning to CD. I've been lucky by setting all my master track volumes the same by just using the L2 last in the sequence of effects. If you don't have the Waves Platinum bundle you can download a free trial here. You can get the levels just as hot as any pro mastering facility I've seen. In fact one of the best mastering facilities in Memphis is the one that recommended the L2. www.waves.com
Allen [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[karusse]

Thanks a lot guys! Yes, I do have the platinum bundle Allen. I've been fiddling around with the various plug-ins, but I have not tried any sort of method like you're talking about. However, I have recorded directly to a cd recorder and it was recorded on pro tools at 24, which is a little strange because the quality of the sound in recording directly to the cd recorder (via optical) didn't seem to be affected, though I haven't any other methods just yet. Perhaps the cd recorder automatically records it at 16 bit? (
There is also a volume knob on the cd recorder.)

[karusse]

Allen, I don't have the L2 ultramaximizer on my plugin list, but I do have the L1--is there a reason for this?

Kyle

[karusse]

Scratch that--I do have the L2 under the audio suite menu bar. I'm still new to both pro tools and especially the waves software--it's going to take a while to fully understand how everything works--I'm still trying to get comfortable with my a/d converter+mic preamp combo!

Here's another question, and I wouldn't normally ask it, but it seems like another easy one to answer (otherwise, I'd just do trial and error). But I have a lucid 9624 ad converter and a speck electronics micpre 5.0 (great preamp, by the way). Well, since you can play around with the volume on either the preamp or the converter, which do you recommend minimizing? For example, I could raise the volume of the converter without clipping only if i lower the volume on the preamp, or vice versa. Is there common knowledge about this process that I should be aware of?

Kyle

[karusse]

bump