mix down advice... CD standards??

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Benreturns

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I am on the verge of buying a mixdown CD unit. (at last - until now ive been using a 2 track cassette deck).

Now i recently have been looking into the Alesis Masterlink although these are expensive, i will watch ebay closley. They burn to Redbook standard apparently... what exactly does this mean? If i decide on a stand alone CD recorder (ie Tascam CRDW 700) will the CD's I burn off be able to play on any household CD player or does it depend on the CD media used? What CD's should i use? Very confusing topic. Im torn between going the distance for the masterlink for its compression/EG abilities (and what is that redbook thing anyway??) or a cheaper stand alone burner. Can anyone explain the pro's + cons between the two?

Thanks all!
 
Red Book standard CDs will play on any CD player. The standard specifies how many, and what kind, of errors are acceptable. Standalone CD burners are not needed: you can burn w CD Architect to a Plextor Plexwriter Premium and check whether the finished CD is Red Book compliant. It ain't rocket surgery...just gotta get the real deal and not futz around with cheap software.
 
Thanks...

Redbook... got it.

Im actually after a hardware solution to this. I havent got CDRW drive on my comp and if i did, moving my studio to my computer room upstairs everytime i wanted to burn off a mix would eventually do my head in.

Has anyone else got any comments on the Alesis Masterlink? (is it compatible with my analogue tascam 488?) or can anyone reccomend a good solid stand alone CD recorder that will get me CD's to play on every day hi fi's?

Thanks.
 
I've used a Denon DN-C550R with great success. 700 bucks but a great unit...good converters. You may be as well off though with a cheaper Phillips recorder.
 
I've got a Masterlink that I use for other purposes... Playback oriented, mostly...

Yes, It'll burn a RedBook standard disc, but it won't document it - That spooks me. I don't even consider a disc "compliant" unless I have a serial numbered PQ log. That being said, if you're sending to a replicator that doesn't require a hard-copy of the PQ log, it should be fine.
 
Personally I would go with a Plextor drive and get a good software application for creating CDs.

The Masterlink came out basically to be able to mix to a 24 bit CD medium, rather than 16 bit DAT (IMHO). You can do the same thing by bouncing down your mixes to the hard drive and creating a data CD to send mixes out to be mastered (if you are using a DAW).

If you want to create a CD for the rep plant, having the software and a reliable CD burner will be better for you in the long run since you can edit, re-arrange, create a PQ list, add the dither type that you want, etc.
 
The Masterlink will work fine for what you need. Most people aren't as skittish about pq logs as MM ;)
 
I think I will go for a Masterlink. I dont know what PQ logs are so I wont worry about that just yet. If it makes a CD that i can send demo's on to publishers then thats enough for me. I like this all in one idea because I can store stuff in it too and like the idea of a final mastering processer that allows me to slap a little EQ on my mix etc...

Thanks all...

(Right now let me figure how Im gonna save for this thing!)
 
Guitar Center has them on sale for $799...
 
I dont think anyone will be interested but...

I ended up getting the Alesis masterlink.
It should be arriving next week and im quite excited! I was originally going to get a cheaper standalone CD burner by Tascam or phillips, but after 1 too many bad days at work i decided not to do it by halves and get a quality rig - burn sum tunes and send em off - make a million and get a nice big boat.

Also got a Zoom RFX 2000. Just need a rack unit now, everything at the moment is stacked up on each other! Going for an E-mu MP7 and a Rode mic soon too.

(ps:can anyone lend me a fiver??)
 
I think you'll be pretty happy with the MasterLink... Good storage space, pretty nice converters, and although I've never actually burned a disc in mine, I understand that it takes care of (RedBook) standards (mostly concerning the 150 frame pause before the first track marker) automatically.
 
What i am looking forward to most is its mastering capabilities. Will be nice to mixdown onto it and apply some finishing touches like limiting and compression to the whole track before producing CD's.
I got a good deal too. Company called turnkey does them for £569. They are piss poor delivery wise (never have stock of anything) but very cheap.

My current studio list is:

Tascam488Mk II
Active monitors
Compressot
Zoom RFX 1000 FX unit
Zoom RFX 2000 FX unit
A Samson condensor mic (which plugs straight into the Tascams pre-amps)
Alesis masterlink for mixdown/cd's
2 Track cassette deck for quick mixes
Instruments, keyboards....


Can anyone else think of something im missing? Anything not here that you here might think "christ he hasnt got a ...... I couldnt do without that!"

What about A better mic and Preamp? im looking into a rode NT1A. Are these reccomended? Any nice pre-amps that work well with them?
 
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