CD burning software

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scottbakalar

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howdy gang -

this may be a silly question - but I am perplexed.

My .wav files are 24bit/44.1 K - my burning software will not accept them. (I've been using Nero 6) - the Nero does accept 16/44.1

I burn the 24/44.1 successfully with another program, but when I play them on my winamp - the info reads 16/44.1

when I play the files direct from my HD in winamp - info reads 24/44.1

Am I doing something wrong here, do burners burn at 24/44.1?
Do I have to render all files to 16? If so what's the purpose of 24 bit sound?

would rendering .wav files to 24/48-96-etc be better?

what up?!

thanks for your help!

scott
 
16-bit 44.1khz for CD-DA compatibility.

ISO RedBook is the standard, but consumer programs won't do it.

http://www.massivemastering.com/html/redbook_cd_s.html

WaveLab, CD Architect, etc. will.

Consumer progs are okay for demo listening, etc. Just don't hand them off for replication or you're inviting disaster.

John Scrip - ww.massivemastering.com
 
thanks for your suggestions.

I did end up using the CD Architect 5.0 to burn some files.
some of the files were encoded at different settings for an experiment.

16/44.1
24/44.1
24/96

when I played the burned CD in my winamp, all files displayed
16/44.1

to give you a breakdown here: Roland VS-890 at 24/44.1 via fiber optic to CPU. Vegas 4.0 at 24/44.1 to Sound Forge 7.0 at 24/44.1
to CDArchitect. My soundcard is Creative Audigy 2ZS, my burner is a LITE ON LTR.

Why would the files on the burned CD be at 16/44.1 then?

thanks again for your help.

scott
 
ALL consumer audio CDs are at 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. If they weren't, the players cannot play them.

The Alesis Masterlink has a format for 24-bit files (its basically a set of wav files)

DVD audio has a different standard.

It sounds like your CD burning program is automatically converting the audio for you without making it clear that it is doing that. While convenient, that's potentially a problem because you don't know HOW it is doing the conversion.

There are several different algorithms for converting from 24-bit to 16 bit involving different "dither" schemes that produce different results. Some programs, such as cool edit pro, let you choose between multiple methods.

There is a mastering guide on www.izotope.com (free pdf file) that explains dithering, etc. in great detail.

-lee-
 
I just saw a different part of your question: Why 24 bit then?

IMHO, 24-bit is very useful during the processes BEFORE converting to CD -- last step. It gives you a lot more headroom than 16-bit samples, and if you record things too quietly, you still have a greater number of samples to save the sound quality.

Once all the processing/mixing is done, convert to 16-bit using the full dynamic range, etc. for best results. It is important that your final volumes really use the entire 16-bit range to preserve your quality.

-lee-
 
thanks to all who chimed in on this topic. I really apreciate your input.

After my last post, I started some thinking (which I do somethimes): I played some commercial CD's in the winamp - they too registered at 16/44.1

Taking what was said earlier that 16/44.1 is the standard for audio CD's it only makes sense that that's what mine are turning out as. I then figured out that the better the quality .wav one starts out with, the better sounding final product one will get.

that a 24/96 wav will sound better on a 16/44.1 CD than a 16/44.1 wav will sound on the same CD. I was able to get that encoding with the CD Architect.

Am I in the ballpark here?

thanks again!

scott
 
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