CD Creator/Author

songsj

Member
Looking for a good low cost software that will allow me to burn cd's with the song title , CD title, Artist name, Genre. Etc, Just the basics. not sure if Nero 2017 {I already own} or Roxio do this. Do I need anything fancier. I would either be transferring 16 bit cd files to the program or 24 bit .wav files if the program can handle it. No mastering needed this will be the final files going on to the cd.
 
A few thoughts:

There are two types of CD's, Audio CD and Data CD. The Audio CD is the type used when a band releases an album. To get song title, artist name, etc, you need to use CD-Text. An audio CD requires 16bit, not 24bit. So don't bother converting, not that it would do you any good anyway. I believe Nero can provide all the functions you need to make an audio cd with CD text. An audio CD can hold about 75 minutes of music.

The data CD can hold about 700MB of data. You can put MP3s on it. A lot of CD players can play data CDs with MP3s. You can put a whole lot more music on there. For that you need an MP3 converter. You can load in all the song info for each tune. If each song were a 10MB file, you can have 70 songs on a data CD. Nero might be able to convert your tunes to MP3. I'm not sure, though.

You gain nothing by converting a 16bit file to 24bit. The music is in 16bit format and you can't create the extra bits. The software will do it for you, but all you get are a bunch of zeros tacked onto the 16bit word as placemarkers.
 
No mastering needed this will be the final files going on to the cd.
Splitting hairs to some - But this - the creation of the master - IS mastering. Back in the day (and that day wasn't too long ago for that matter), the whole point was to simply put the audio on the final medium while changing it as little as possible to create a compliant final production master (hence the self-defined word). All this "sweetening" and "loud" and what not are relatively modern additives to the process.

Anyway - On to your question. I'd imagine Nero will do the trick. Reaper certainly will also (Reaper will also export DDP, which is what you should actually be using if you're replicating discs). That said -- *embedding* that information and *reading* that data are two completely different things. If you're looking for that information to show up in the rare (usually automotive) player that actually reads CD-TEXT data, there you go. If you're looking for that info to come up in a typical computer program or what not, that's usually a completely different and unrelated set of rules.

That all out of the way -- It's (creating a compliant digital replication master) not exactly rocket surgery - But it's rarely as simple as throwing a bunch of files into a program and having it output a disc (or DDP). "Compliant" doesn't necessarily mean "done properly" if you know what I mean. The time between the start points and the first purposeful oscillation, end points and pause markers (if used and used properly), pre-gap (automatic in some programs, missing from others) - Just make sure you know what you're doing if you're making a quantity of discs for commercial release. I have plenty of horror stories....
 
While I usually use Reaper to create DDP masters for proper replicated discs, I also sometimes have to supply CD's for duplication. I'll usually create a .cue file with all the CD text which can then be read by a variety of different software including Nero. However my copy of Nero is limited to a particular make of CD writer so I'll often use Imgburn if I need to use a .cue file with a burner that my copy of Nero doesn't support.
 
Splitting hairs to some - But this - the creation of the master - IS mastering. Back in the day (and that day wasn't too long ago for that matter), the whole point was to simply put the audio on the final medium while changing it as little as possible to create a compliant final production master (hence the self-defined word). All this "sweetening" and "loud" and what not are relatively modern additives to the process.

Anyway - On to your question. I'd imagine Nero will do the trick. Reaper certainly will also (Reaper will also export DDP, which is what you should actually be using if you're replicating discs). That said -- *embedding* that information and *reading* that data are two completely different things. If you're looking for that information to show up in the rare (usually automotive) player that actually reads CD-TEXT data, there you go. If you're looking for that info to come up in a typical computer program or what not, that's usually a completely different and unrelated set of rules.

That all out of the way -- It's (creating a compliant digital replication master) not exactly rocket surgery - But it's rarely as simple as throwing a bunch of files into a program and having it output a disc (or DDP). "Compliant" doesn't necessarily mean "done properly" if you know what I mean. The time between the start points and the first purposeful oscillation, end points and pause markers (if used and used properly), pre-gap (automatic in some programs, missing from others) - Just make sure you know what you're doing if you're making a quantity of discs for commercial release. I have plenty of horror stories....

When bands I record in my studio do not have funds to send the tracks out to a separate mastering guy, I hire a long time studio owner/friend to do the final 'master' DDP file. It is always IMO better to have an outside ear at very least to do the final fades/track names/levels/dither/ISRC Codes for duplication CD. After some 200 hours of recording/mixing, my ears are not likely the best to make final decisions. He uses Sequoia and it takes him way less time than I wish to and I know it will be done correctly.

I am always amazed how much better the final product is when a seasoned mastering engineer takes over the final mix. The finished product is so worth the money IMO.
 
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