Frequently Asked Questions: Audio Mastering
Burn in Disc At Once Mode?
When using a CD-R or DVD-R recorder to produce a master that will itself be used for commercial CD or DVD production, ensure that the disc is written in 'Disc-at-Once' mode rather than 'Track at Once' mode. Pressed discs can only use master cd's and dvd's burnt in DAO mode.
CD Audio Standards?
When preparing to burn your cd audio master, each track must be burnt at 44.1 kHz, in stereo and at 16 bit resolution. WAV or AIF formats are prefered over MP3 as there is no loss in quality.
My cd player jumps straight into the 1st track?
Some cd players are slow in reading the contents of an audio cd, as a result the start of the 1st track may be chopped off by a few milliseconds. It is wise therefore to insert 2 seconds of silence before the start of the actual audio on the 1st track to allow for this.
What is digital distortion?
When recording digitally it is important not to record higher than 0dB since this is the maximum headroom of digital audio. By trying to record beyond 0dB the resulting sound will become clipped and sound unpleasant to the ear. You can see the effects of digital distortion if you view the recorded sound within a sound editor such as Sound Forge.
CD for Karaoke?
Compact Disc + Graphics (CD+G) is a special audio compact disc that contains graphics data in addition to the audio data on the disc. The disc can be played on a regular audio CD player, but when played on a special CD+G player, can output a graphics signal (typically, the CD+G player is hooked up to a television set or a computer monitor); these graphics are almost exclusively used to display lyrics on a television set for karaoke performers to sing along with.
Keep cd and dvd masters clean?
Be very careful when handling blank CD-r's and DVD-r's. Fingerprints on the burn surface can actually be embedded with the digital data when writing a master disc.
What is CD-Text?
CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book specification for audio CD that allows for storage of additional text information (e.g., album name, song name, artist) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The information is stored either in the lead-in area of the CD, where there is roughly five kilobytes of space available, or in the subcode channels R to W on the disc, which can store about 31 megabytes. Be aware that this info is not automatically submitted to online database archives such as Gracenote or FreeDB. An audio cd must be submitted to these databases manually using a program linked to the audio archival system in question
What is an Enhanced CD?
Enhanced CD, also known as CD Extra and CD Plus, combines audio and computer data for use in both compact disc and CD-ROM players. You will need to consult your cd authoring software help manual for info on how to creating an enhanced cd. The primary data formats for Enhanced Compact Disc's are mixed mode (Yellow Book/Red Book), CD-i, hidden track, and multisession (Blue Book).
What is Super Audio CD?
Super Audio CD (SACD) is a read-only optical audio disc format aimed at providing much higher fidelity digital audio reproduction than the Red Book. Introduced in 1999, it was developed by Sony and Philips, the same companies that created the Red Book. SACD was in a format war with DVD-Audio, but neither has yet managed to replace audio CDs. In contrast to DVD-Audio, the SACD format has the feature of being able to produce hybrid discs: in addition to the SACD audio, these discs contain a standard audio CD layer which is playable in standard CD players, thus making them backward compatible.