Getting ready to Master my project and I need some Ware advice.

pisces7378

pisces7378

New member
I use e-Magic's Logic Audio Platinum 4.7 for my PC based DAW recording. I use the Delta-66 w/Omni Studio B-out box. I think that you all know that already.

Anyway, I can finally say.... IT ALL WORKS!!!! I get more than just 4 audio tracks... I am not 100% sure what I did. I just increased a buffer size in miliseconds and poof, it all works and it doesn't drag down my CPU. (Pent III 933Mhz). Now I am going to break down and step up the RAM by 128 to 256MB RAM, and finally get a 30-40GB 7200 rpm HDD.

Now that I can add the final audio tracks to the skeleton tracks that are already down... I will be needing some mastering and burning software.

Now I have a Samsung CD-RW that came with the computer. What exactly does a fella need to master a CD? I have 10-12 songs that I want to burn to CD "Full length LP style complete with cover art and CD art". I am not at all knowledgable about mastering. I have just heard from EVERYONE that it is sooooo important for normalizing everything and making sure that song 1 is the same volume level as song 10, plus smoothing out everything. I wanted to use e-Magic's Wave Burner Pro. But I am PC based and on their website I could not see anything other than Mac stuff. Is it true that e-Magic is being racist and not producing a PC version? If this is true then what other software is "the best." Not the cheapest. I just will be needing some pretty advanced stuff I assume. Here is an example of some of the advanced features I might need....

I have a song that is 7 minutes and 34 seconds long. But it has a section in it that sounds QUITE different from the rest of the song which lasts about 2 and a half minutes. Now I wanted to have the CD counter to carry song one up to 3:12 (which is where the different part comes in) and then switch to song two and count 0:00 up to 2:30 and then switch back to song 1 and pick back up at 3:13. It is kind of like snipping song 1 and punching in song 2 in the middle of song 1. All without any seams or silent pauses.

I also need to do features like... "secret songs" that are 10 minutes at the end of the CD. Old trick I know... and over done and cheesey, but I have a reason.


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Now my final question is...
I recently bounced 4 audio tracks down to one audio track and tried to burn that to a CD. Now after I bounced the tracks, it sounded great in a medi player like Microsofts Media Player and Real Player etc... but when I went into my CD burning software that came with the PC, I selected the .wav file and burned it out as an Audio file and it came out... but it came out full of noise. Where is the fuck up? Is it a software problem? Am I simply using cheap free software? Is it a PC problem or what? The noise isn't UNBEARABLE but it just sounds like I recorded the song in a windstorm using a micrrphone with no windscreen.

What do you guys think?

Man thanks guys really,

Mike
 
Mastering is an art, there's no quick "here's how you master: 1,2,3" really possible. That said, there's plenty of information that will guide you in the right direction. The current issue of Home Recording magazine has an article on mastering your own stuff. If it's really important to you you should consider having it professionally mastered.
 
If you've really verified that the source wave file is fine, then the problem does indeed lie with your CDR drive and/or software. Try burning some other audio tracks and see what kind of results you get.

Slackmaster 2000
 
As for what you want to do (having track 1 go to 3:12, then track 2 for 2 mintues, then back to track 1, with the count starting at 3:13) that is not possible in the RedBook (standard CD audio)format. Consequently, you will not find any software that lets you do that. That said, most CD burning software for audio is fairly full-featured, and will support most (if not all) of the features of the RedBook spec.
 
No way. Go to sonictimeworks.com and download the free fully functional versions of the compressor, reverbX and the mastering EQ, and then go the PSP vintage warmer site and download that demo, and tweak everything real nice. About as close as your gonna get to any real mastering on your own. The warmer will roll off some nasties and thicken things up some. Try it on different tracks as well as the whole mix. Experiment.
The Waves L1 will help you get the overall volume up, use it last in the chain and to dither if you are in 24 bit.
Have you multed the vocals through a compressor and squashed the begeezus out of them yet? Try that, and then blend the orginal and the new vocal to taste. Fattens em up, and try the warmer extra-heavy on the compressed one, too, and EQ it with a little more life in it, and then mix it with the original, just behind it, to taste. YMMV. Let me know if you try any of this and your thoughts. Really squash the shit out of that multed vocal, EQ it, warm it, fuck it up. Hell Yeah. :)
Peace.
 
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