Easy Creator vs. Sonic Foundry CD Architect

[Tasha Morgan]

I was reading in another thread about someone having difficulty with the mix in stuff he was burning to cd. He stated he uses Easy Creator but has heard that it is crap and Sonic Foundry CD Architect is much better. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I use Easy Creator, but I would like to get CD Architect if it is a lot better. I have Cakewalk home studio 9 installed on my computer to creat. Is that compatible with CD Architect? I went on to Sonic Foundry's website, but could not find CD Architect. Where can I get it and how much does it cost?

Also, if there is even a better product to use, what is it?

Thanks,

Tasha

[Tasha Morgan]

In regards to my thread above, I got on the internet and found CD Architect, but it starts at $250. Whoo. Is there another program that is better than Easy Creator, but doesn't cost $250? Any ideas, anyone??

[sTigmuTha]

It is pricey. Fortunately mine came bundled with my cd burner (smart&freindly). Easy CD creator is indeed easy, but not very useful. CD Architect is very malleable and will allow you to actually "master" your cds. Here is what it offers:

* Change audio levels within each song, individually
* Allow you to move and rearrange songs before burning
* Allow overlap and cross fades between songs
* Track insertion anywhere in a song

It is worth the money in many ways, but not if you are a weekend warrior only burning occasional mixes. If you are a serious/semi-serious home musician, this is a great tool to master your CD's for sale on your website.

[pglewis]

Just as a heads-up: I'm fairly certain CD Architect is being discontinued by Sonic Foundary, so you might be able to get a good close-out deal. Rumor has it they might be working on an all-in-one mastering program to compete with Wavelab (also explains why no 24-bit version of Sound Forge has ever surfaced).

[KaBudokan]

Yeah, you should be able to pick up SF CD Architect for ~$50. I think the last SF catalog I got had it listed in there for cheap, but I don't see it on their website anymore. You may be able to write them and ask if you can get it direct for cheap.

[pr4f2s4r]

Hi:
I think sonic foundry's program has another advantages over easy cd creator:
-cd arquitect "detects" the original cd-r's capacity (i.e.:74:45 instead of 74 minutes).That is very useful when you're going to record 80 mins. cd-r's.
-cd arquitect "emulates" an average cd player with a few controls like play, skip, etc... This is useful when you put track indices and sub-indices(*) manually, and you want to know if the distance between the index and the begining of the song is long enough.
-(*)To put sub-indices manually in any part of the song is another cd arquitect only feature.

I know only one problem with cd arquitect:if you have the songs (or a few of them) pre-recorded in your hard disk and if you select more than three archives at a time from the "audio pool" the songs will be recorded in different order in the cd-r if you don't re-arrange this to equal the hard disk order (if you want so) prior to the recording.

[russpeterson]

Make sure that your burner is compatible with CD Architect before you make a move. Yes, they have discontinued it (I spoke with a SF rep last week), but it will still be available in bundles.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products...uct.asp?PID=13

[Jon X]

Sonic Foundry recently came out with something called Siren, which I assume is going to replace Architect in their product line. Not sure if it will do everything that Architect did or anything else about it for that matter. Came bundled with Vegas Pro, but I've yet to install and use it.

Architect was cool, so I hope Siren is just as good or better.


***

I just looked at it, and it's weak so far compared to Architect. Maybe I'm missing something, and will have to look into it more later on. Ahh, I was planning to buy Wavelab and some plugins anyway.


[Edited by Jon X on 10-15-2000 at 01:38]

[drstawl]

I tried Siren when it first came out. The idea there is not a CD authoring tool but a way to get your .mp3 files converted to .wav and burned to CDR. Also has the now very popular "eye-candy" psychedelic display during playback.
It's pretty weak, though.

[Edited by drstawl on 10-15-2000 at 09:27]