[Nono]

Until now I've been delivering my mixes for CD fabrication on DAT
tape, but due to declining availability, technical problems with the
meduim and the fact that CD-r is becoming more and more common
practice, I'm looking into delivering my future material on CD-r.

So, I've been sniffing around here and there and came across things
like "100% red book compatibility", "B.L.E.R.", "P&Q codes" etc.
These are pretty clear though, but at what stage are these things an
issue?
For example: A premaster - from which a glassmaster will be made -has
to be burnt with the "disk at once " function, does not have to have a
too high B.L.E.R.
But does this also apply to the CD-r that I make, from which the
mentioned premaster will be made?
Does it matter if my CD-r was burned using "track at once" instead of
"disk at once" and the B.L.E.R. is too high?
Are these problems / errors on my CD-r transferred to the pre-master?

About the P&Q codes I understand that - to insure that the beginnings
of the tracks don't risk getting lost due to the start playback
delay / mute of certain CD players - the start codes should be
edited / shifted so that there is a small gap between the code and the
real beginning of the audio.
This can be done with PQ editing software, but my question is; cannot
the same be achieved by not trimming the beginnings of the track too
tight but leaving a small quiet space before the beginning of the
music / audio and burn with any writing software without P&Q editing ?


Not that I'm going to work this way as I already found me a Plexwriter
Premium, which I understand is one of the advised ones for this
purpose, to buy and am looking into what is to be a decent software
program.
But I just like to know the principle and the why of things.

Many thanks.

[Scott Dorsey]

Nono wrote:
Until now I've been delivering my mixes for CD fabrication on DAT
tape, but due to declining availability, technical problems with the
meduim and the fact that CD-r is becoming more and more common
practice, I'm looking into delivering my future material on CD-r.

Okay.

So, I've been sniffing around here and there and came across things
like "100% red book compatibility", "B.L.E.R.", "P&Q codes" etc.
These are pretty clear though, but at what stage are these things an
issue?

You don't care about redbook compatibility and subcode data for the
disc going INTO the mastering house. You care aboout it on the disc
coming out of the mastering house going into the pressing plant. (This
used to be in PMCD format and so a lot of people still call them PMCDs
even though they aren't.)

You ALWAYS care about BLER, even if you're just making a disc to play in
the car.

For example: A premaster - from which a glassmaster will be made -has
to be burnt with the "disk at once " function, does not have to have a
too high B.L.E.R.
But does this also apply to the CD-r that I make, from which the
mentioned premaster will be made?
Does it matter if my CD-r was burned using "track at once" instead of
"disk at once" and the B.L.E.R. is too high?
Are these problems / errors on my CD-r transferred to the pre-master?

It does not matter how the disc was burned, because the mastering guy
is just going to play the disc back and collect the data off of it.
HOWEVER, if the BLER is too high, that data will be corrupted. Maybe
inaudibly (because the error concealment systems on CD players are
very good), but you never know. Get your error rates down as low as
possible.

About the P&Q codes I understand that - to insure that the beginnings
of the tracks don't risk getting lost due to the start playback
delay / mute of certain CD players - the start codes should be
edited / shifted so that there is a small gap between the code and the
real beginning of the audio.
This can be done with PQ editing software, but my question is; cannot
the same be achieved by not trimming the beginnings of the track too
tight but leaving a small quiet space before the beginning of the
music / audio and burn with any writing software without P&Q editing ?

The mastering guy is going to be doing the code editing anyway, so don't
worry about it. The pressing plant just sees a disc with data on it;
they don't care if the data comes off a CD or an Exabyte tape or a PCM 1630.
Your goal is to send the mastering house something they can massage into
a format the pressing plant likes.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Nono]

Okay, glad to verify that I had done most of my sniffing correctly .
Thanks again Scott.

[James Perrett]

On Mon, 14 May 2007 10:41:32 +0100, Nono wrote:

Not that I'm going to work this way as I already found me a Plexwriter
Premium, which I understand is one of the advised ones for this
purpose, to buy and am looking into what is to be a decent software
program.
But I just like to know the principle and the why of things.


Check out the Plextools software that should be included with the Plextor
Premium before going too far. It includes basic audio writing and a full
suite of error checks. You should also check out Plextor's document called
'The Process of Writing' which can be found in the support section at
http://www.plextor.be

Cheers

James.

[Nono]

On 15 mei, 17:53, "James Perrett"
wrote:
On Mon, 14 May 2007 10:41:32 +0100, Nono wrote:

Check out the Plextools software that should be included with the Plextor
Premium before going too far. It includes basic audio writing and a full
suite of error checks. You should also check out Plextor's document called
'The Process of Writing' which can be found in the support section at http://www.plextor.be

Cheers

James.

Thanks.