WAV to CDA = Change !! Help !

U

ustadjohnny

New member
Hi,
When I convert a WAV file and burn it on a CD as a CDaudio, it seems to eat up the highs and boost lows. Is this possible ? I'm sure I'm not imagining it. Why does this happen ? Please help
 
Are you listening to the CD you burn on the same monitoring system that you listened to the wav files on before burning? That may be a stupid question, but I'm just trying to eliminate the simplest things first. The mix may not be translating well if you are listening on different systems. This could cause the problem you are hearing.

I haven't heard anything where just burning a CD from wav files would make any difference in the EQ. My stuff seems to tighten up once I burn to disc, but I think that might be my imagination. Whatever it is, I like it. The problem you are having would not be so good.
 
Jon X makes a very good point about listening to the burned CD on the same monitors. But, you should also be listening to that CD with the same D/A converters too.

My 24 bit Lynx One sound card not only outputs stuff about 6db hotter then my Marantz CD burner at the same +4 operating level, but the Marantz unit seems to have far less high end detail to it's sound, most likely a result of the lesser D/A converter it has.

So, if you think that the burned CD is differnt then the .wav file you burned it from, the only way you can truely make a comparison that removes all other equipment from changing the sound is to have the ability to transfer the audio off of the CD back onto your hard drive with a digital bit perfect transfer, and listen to it compared to the original .wav file it was burned from on the same D/A converters and monitoring system. You will find that they will sound exactly the same in this scenerio unless your sound card is not making a bit perfect digital copy from the CD.

You studio monitors and higher end soundcards off course are going to sound much better then a consumer playback system. So, they will have tighter low end, better high frequency detail, etc.....

Ed
 
Thanks guys,
But I'm listening to both the wav files as well as the CD thru my comp. I have the wav files in my hard disk and a CD that I burned at a friend's place. The wav files were also burned by that friend onto a CD from which I copied them onto my HD !! So it's the same monitors, same soundcard !
 
How are you copying the CD to the hard drive?

Like I said earlier, the data on the CD should sound EXACTLY like the .wav file it was burned from when it is played back with the same D/A converters and through the same monitoring system. There is no funny business going on when a audio CD is burned from a .wav file. The software will only burn 16/44 .wav files to an audio CD, and the data integrity is kept.

But, if the CD is being recorded to your hard drive through the sound card using the A/D converters, it will surely not sound the way it did originally. You need to make an exact, bit for bit, digital copy of the CD. A lot of CD ripping software does not make bit perfect copies to the hard drive.

Ed
 
Hi Sonusman,
I had the WAV files burned onto a CD.That is, I made a data CD, not an audio CD. Then I just copied the WAV files onto my hard disk. Then there shouldn't be any change, isn't it ? Because I'm not "grabbing" Audio Cd files, just copying WAV files from a data CD to my hard disk.
I'm really confused, but I'm sure I'm not "hearing" the difference.
 
Hang on, let me try and make this as clear as possible.
I have the WAV files on a friend's hard disk. He burned an Audio CD (Let's call this CD CDA) for me from the WAV files, and also a data CD where he burned the WAV files (let's call this CD CDB) I came home, inserted CDB in my disc drive, and opened Windows Explorere, went to my CD drive, copied the WAV file and pasted them onto my hard disk.
Then I played CDA from my disc drive (Thru winamp)
And played the WAV file from my HD (Thru winamp)
They sound different !
 
Ahhhhhhh...we are getting to the point.

YOU ARE NOT HEARING THE THE AUDIO THAT IS ON THE CD PLAYING THROUGH WINAMP ON THE SAME D/A CONVERTERS!!!!

Sorry about the shout there, but had to make the point loud and clear..... :)

When you play a CD from your computers CD Rom drive, the CD Rom drive supplies the D/A conversion. Typically, the D/A converters on the average (or even above average) CD Rom drive are very cheap.

When you play the .wav files that are on the hard drive, THEY ARE BEING PLAYED BACK USING THE SOUND CARDS D/A CONVERTERS!!! Sorry again about the shout.... :)

Your computers CD Rom drive has a nice little cheap cable that runs from the D/A converters output on the drive directly to the speaker output of the soundcard.

So, that is why the CD sounds worse then the .wav files do.

Ed
 
Thanks a ton Sonusman !

And U can shout as much as you want, you're the one that's helping me, and I really am grateful ! But I have another question. Then when I'm playing the CD in any other system, say a Cd player or some other computer, will the sound quality be as good as the WAV files ? I like the sound of the WAV files played thru my computer. How can I master the CD so that it sounds like that everywhere ?
 
UstadJohnny,

I'm not trying to cut in on Ed's response to your question, he knows what he's talking about far more than I do, but anyways see if this helps.

I went through this exact problem about two months ago, and posted a similar thread on the same subject. Unfortunately, you will not be able to make your CD-R sound the same as your .wav files playing back on your computer. I struggled with this for a while, I would get a .wav file sounding good, burn it to CD-R, and notice drops in my decibel level on CD-R playback.

The reason for this has already been posted by Sonusman a few posts up. When you are playing back your .wav files through your soundcard (and Im going to assume you have a 20 or 24 bit soundcard) you

1. have the benefit of hearing your music on a 24 bit 48000 kHz system, the higher bit rate and sample rate will add more clarity to your music

2. are taking advantage of your soundcards higher quality D/A converters. This was Ed's point above is consumer quality CD playback devices have a lower D/A conversion quality...combine that with point number 1, and that is why your .wav will never sound like your CD-R.

I found that my soundcards hotter D/A conversion rate gave it an artifical sense of having a higher decibel level....this is all just relative though...

Im not saying mastering your CD's will not give them more depth/sparkle/punch, it will always benefit your sound to have them mastered.


Anyways thought my experience might help....ill let someone who knows what they are talking about answer your question now....... :)


Heat
 
You can try the way I do it... I pick a few commercial CDs that I think have good production and is similar in style to the music I'm working with and close to the sound I'm going for. I then rip the tracks off the CD to wav files with a bit by bit transfer in either AudioCatalyst or Easy CD Creator. Maybe these don't do it exact, but I've noticed that when I master my tracks and compare to the ripped files from pro CDs I am more confident in buring a CD of my stuff. It usually sounds like what I'm going for once burned to disc and played on other systems. Sometimes it takes a couple of runs through this process.

Of course, you can always do a remix after listening to the CD you burned. Although you are going to waste some blank discs this way.
 
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