mattplaysguitar


Ha, I just use iTunes ;) Does the trick. Nice and easy!

I have to agree...




IMHO..  It all depends on what you mean by, "master."  For a professional Cd/Album that I was distributing myself, on Amazon, Itunes, Cdbaby, etc..  I'm afraid that I would invest in a professional mastering engineer/studio.


For all of my soundcloud singles..  I'm doing what I call, "the home brew master."  If I needed a cd to, "portfolio my work around the town."  I would load all ten tracks into Sonar, and balance them together...  but as far as burning goes..   lol..  "itunes." ftw

Sound Forge is a stereo editor.  It is commonly used for mastering functions - topping and trimming tracks, adding silence, adjusting volume envelopes w/in a song (more useful than you think!), and finally adding effects - master or otherwise.  You can also add track info - like title, engineer, artist, copywrite and notes that are keep w/ the song. 

CDA is the CD burner software.  It allows you to add tracks, name them, add track numbers, slide tracks and adjust timing, adjust volume, add effects, yada yada yada.  You can also add CD info in it.  For the last few iterations SF has come w/ CDA.  If not, you can probably find it, or use another CD burner program.  Pyro or whatever it is called these days works - it is kinda funky, but will let you do many of the same things as CDA.

Basically, you produce the mix in SONAR or DAW of your choice.  Bring that mix into SF.  Finalize it however you want/need to.  From that "master" (which can be put back w/ the SONAR project) you make your copies.  Want a dithered 16 bit/44.1 copy for CD.  Use the (for example) 96/24 bit master to produce the CD copy.  Put it in a different folder such as CD project name my band first CD.  Want to post an mp3?  Go back to the "master" that has the info along w/ it in the SF 96/24.  Save it as a mp3 w/ your info imbeded and put it in my bands mp3 folder.

Once your CD is ready bring all those separate CD wav files into CDA.  Adjust the tracks to flow just like a DJ would (another art form that is fun to play w/).  Adjust the minor variations in volume.  If you think you need more work on teh files you can use your VSTs right in CDA - tho I don't suggest it.  Keep mastering in CDA along w/ sfk files that it saves.  Once you get your opus completely finished burn it in CDA.

If you are just putting out a CD every year or two you can muddle through the above processes - you'll probably half forget the system you worked out before.  If you do more work than that, or work in a pro house etc., having a system, a process, and most importantly a file/folder system will save you a lot of time and grief.  It took me years to figure out my system.

@

I'll share with you what I do.

1. Each song mixed in it's own project within Sonar
2. All songs imported into my sonar Mastering project, each song on a different track
3. Nudge the start times to get the gaps between songs how I want (artistic choice here!)
4. Apply whatever Fx are needed (not much at this stage, maybe a little Master bus compression/limiting/EQ)
5. Export the whole project as a single .wav @ 16bit 44.1KHz
6. Open up in CD Architect
7. Insert Track Markers
8. Burn CD.

I then use the 16 bit master generated in step 5 for Mp3 conversion (if required)

Mastering An Audio CD.  What's the best way?
I imported the wav into Sound Fordge and created regions and burned an audio CD.  The CD plays,  but is not able to skip ahead to the next song

There is no best way, but i think your not encoding PQ codes into the CD and this is why your tracks are not able to skip ahead. If there is no info encoded into the CD,  they cant skip ahead or behind.