Importing CD Track for Reference

[JeffLancaster]

I would like to import a song from a commercial CD as a track in a Sonar project (Sonar 4 Studio) to use as a "reference" track to check my mix, eq, levels etc. I thought if I could just stuff the .wav from the CD into a track in my project I could A/B it with my mix using the mute and solo buttons.

Songs on a CD are stored as a .CDA file which is not an option for import into Sonar. It appears that I could use Windows Media Player to rip to an MP3 and then import that, but I'm sure if I did that I would be losing quality in the conversion. Does anybody know a good way to do this? Alternately, if anyone has a better method of A/B-ing with a reference CD maybe you could suggest that instead?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dachay2tnr]

I would like to import a song from a commercial CD as a track in a Sonar project (Sonar 4 Studio) to use as a "reference" track to check my mix, eq, levels etc. I thought if I could just stuff the .wav from the CD into a track in my project I could A/B it with my mix using the mute and solo buttons.

Songs on a CD are stored as a .CDA file which is not an option for import into Sonar. It appears that I could use Windows Media Player to rip to an MP3 and then import that, but I'm sure if I did that I would be losing quality in the conversion. Does anybody know a good way to do this? Alternately, if anyone has a better method of A/B-ing with a reference CD maybe you could suggest that instead?

Thanks in advance.

Rip it from the CD as a wave file (.wav) and import it into Sonar that way. You won't lose any quality using wave format.

If you don't have a program to do this, there are plenty of free ones available on the net. Do a google search for CD rippers.

 

[JeffLancaster]

Yep, works great. Found one called "FreeCDRipper" which did the job just fine. Thank You.

 

[Porter]

You 'can' actually use Windows Media player.. I'm running 9 here at work and 10 at home.. I know I've also done this at home, but in the CD Ripping options there is an option to rip to WMA lossless which I believe is the equilivant as a WAV file.

Daniel

 

[BrentDomann]

A good one to try is CDex. It's freeware and has a variety of options. It can convert .wav to .mp3 and .mp3 to .wav, and can rip CDs to .mp3 or to .wav.

Just rip the CD track to .wav and import the .wav into your project.

 

[Paul881]

I would like to import a song from a commercial CD as a track in a Sonar project (Sonar 4 Studio) to use as a "reference" track to check my mix, eq, levels etc. I thought if I could just stuff the .wav from the CD into a track in my project I could A/B it with my mix using the mute and solo buttons.

Songs on a CD are stored as a .CDA file which is not an option for import into Sonar. It appears that I could use Windows Media Player to rip to an MP3 and then import that, but I'm sure if I did that I would be losing quality in the conversion. Does anybody know a good way to do this? Alternately, if anyone has a better method of A/B-ing with a reference CD maybe you could suggest that instead?

Thanks in advance.

As an adjunct to your question, Steely Dan's AJA recording is often regarded as being "the" definitive mixing and mastering example

 

[JeffLancaster]

As an adjunct to your question, Steely Dan's AJA recording is often regarded as being "the" definitive mixing and mastering example

Yep, I have that one...quality recording, something I'd love to aspire too. Course, my current project is one consisting of big distorted guitars, pounding drums, and hard hitting vocals. I'm using an LA Guns track as a reference for this...

 

[Paul881]

Yep, I have that one...quality recording, something I'd love to aspire too. Course, my current project is one consisting of big distorted guitars, pounding drums, and hard hitting vocals. I'm using an LA Guns track as a reference for this...

I use British Naval guns as a reference for my recordings

 

[rayc]

You could record it into Cakewalk in real time.
I've also imported a ripped wave file (easy CD extractor) into Pro Audio 9.3 without any probs except it went into a single track as a stereo file.
Cheers
rayC