Procedure to Burn CD/ bit rate/normalization, etc.

[RJWlaw@aol.com]

The end goal is to have 13 original songs, some loud, some soft, which were recorded in T6 burned to an audio CD and to have the perceived volumes of the tracks make natural sense against one another. In other words I am NOT looking for peak-driven normalization or a loud brick wall effect. I am aware that T6 permits RMS normalization.


I have T6 set to record all clips as 24-bit wav files.

First question: When I render an edit to a wav file do I render it to 16 bits with dithering at this point, or do I render to 24 bits without dithering?

2nd Question: Once I do have my 13 properly rendered wav files, do I open a new blank edit and paste them all in line back-to-back on one track and render them with T6's RMS normalization to one 24-bit wav file, which I then manually chop back into 13 separate 24-bit wav files, and then import those 13 24-bit files into RealPlayer and burn to a CD or . . . . . do I have to first render with dithering those 13 24-bit wav files into 13 16-bit wav files and THEN import them into RealPlayer to burn?

[terrynoakes]

Good question, I'm about to do this for a cd I've recorded for friend and would also like to know. Lets hope your questions are answered and not diverted away.

[klangbastler]

my answer to first question:

- render the files to 32bit float without dithering.
you don't have to worry about levels with 32bit float, even some overs here and there don't matter, theres is no "brickwall" at 0 db with float files.

second question:

- reimport your songs into a new project on one track (or two if you want to make some crossfades between songs).
put a a good transparent limiter on the master (loudmax is a good freeware-choice: http://loudmax.blogspot.de/).

now go for your softest song and adjust clipgain so it falls into the -18 to -22 db rms! range on the meter. then go through your songs and compare them (also jumping around between them) to get a feel how they compare loudnesswise and if some may need some more or less gain.
when you have your levels between songs balanced, check the loudest ones with the limiter and how much it does limit the peaks.
if it is more than 6-8 db on heavy peaks (it may be ok if it limits heavier, check if it sounds still good for your ears), you may want to give that song some extra treatment, maybe go back to the mix and see if you can reduce the peaks there a little bit more (maybe some instrument is peaking more, than it is necessary).

if that is all set, you have two options:
1) export single songfiles in 16 bit, 44.1khz with dither. import in your cdburning program and make sure that it does not normalize there or mess with levels in any form. check the pause duration between songs if you need any and burn your cd.

2) when you already made the pauses between songs perfect in your tracktion masterproject, export the whole cd as one file from beginning to end (also 16 bit, 44.1khz, with dither). as next step you will need a "cue-file" that says the cdburning program where to place the markers. i have to check if there is a way to export markers in tracktion as cue-files. then you could use a program like "image-burn" to import wav and cue-file and it will burn the cd. cd-text support for this would be great too.

i'd say method 1) is the easiest and fastest way right now. as most burn programs can import single tracks and burn them to cd as tracks.
method 2) is for more sophisticated songorders, where pauses and maybe crossfades should be exact and perfect.

[klangbastler]

if you are interested in the second burn-method (cue, wav), let me know.
there is a free programm called EAC (exact audio copy), that can create cue-files. it has a builtin wav-editor, where you can set the points of trackstarts and it will create the correct cuefile. it also has an option to fill in tracknames for cd-text before burning (it also burns cds).

[RJWlaw@aol.com]

Thank you for the info. You confirmed some suspicions and opened a door to an alternative approach.

For years I had mastered/rendered each song with dithering to wav 16 bit, and then burned all to a CD in anticipated running order, listened, went back to T6 and made adjustments to the output of the edits that needed to be brought up or down in volume until each song-ending and adjacent song-beginning sounded "proper" relative to each other.

The technique of exporting one long file with gap cues is interesting. I am going to have to pull out my CD of the Beatles "Abbey Road" where all songs were linked with transitions to see where the cues were placed. Interesting.

[klangbastler]

actually, the way things are organized technically on a cd, is equivalent to method 2.

i guess many people think of single tracks with gaps (i did too...) and that they are arranged like this on a cd (like on vinyl).
i learned, that it is not that way.
a cd stores one single continous file and a TOC (table of contents, like a cue-file), that contains all the necessary info about track points, pauses, indizes and so on, also cd-text. this makes it possible to have tracks starting at points where music is actually happening.

a comment about normalizing:
i never use these automatic processes to adjust loudness, be it peak or rms normalizing.
but i am also never in a hurry when doing these things, i can well understand that there are situations where these processes come in handy.
i think that manually adjusting loudness hy hearing is superior to any automatic process, when you have the time and some appropriate metering and a good monitoring situation in your room.

edit: here is a free metering solution, that gives you all you need (manual is recommended)
http://www.tb-software.com/TBProAudio/dpmeter2.html

[RJWlaw@aol.com]

Did not know about the CD being one file. When I see a .cda file for each song I assumed . . . . . . .


And yes, I had been looking for a shortcut to "proper-volume" adjacent tracks. The method of burning a CD and listening on different playback systems and going back and adjusting over and over can get tired.

[Mark Swanson]

The actual process of making a finished CD from the tracks we create is something many of us don't really know too much about, or about the correct way to do it. Someone who does should write some kind of reference on-line article we can all keep! This discussion is a big help.

[terrynoakes]

@klangbastler much appreciated thanks