Mastering a CD at home

I hope I'm in the right forum for this.

I just finished a CD and want to master it myself at home. I don't intend this to be the very final product, but I want it to be good enough to send out to labels, etc.

My needs are very simple: I want to place all the tracks (usually I have aiff files) on a screen, and be able to move them around (playing with track order, etc.). I want to be able to make the tracks a consistent volume, do a little editing, a little cross-fading, EQing, etc. and finally, insert index points and burn a CD. Nuthin' fancy.

What's my best bet?

Thanks folks!

 

I have used CD Architect to master CD's at home to send to production compaines (ie background music for TV shows). Worked pretty good.

 

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It is very good and affordable.

 

Thanks! I was leaning that way.

Much appreciated

 

When I've done this, I put each song on a separate track in a DAW (I use Logic Audio). I move them along the time scale so that they play in the correct order and either overlap or have the right size gaps between them as appropriate.

I can use the EQ and dynamics plugins in each channel to provide individual settings for each song and the channel volume, or even automation to match levels throughout the album. If I feel the project needs overall EQ, limiting or other dynamics processing I can insert plugins in the master output to affect the project globally.

When everything is lined up and things are tweaked, I can listen to the entire project straight through to check for consistency as an album. I will then bounce (or mix down) the entire project to a stereo output file. I can have the software apply dither and target my preferred format (i.e. 16-bit, 44.1 KHz for CD) for the output file.

I then open the entire project output file in an editor (I use Amadeus Pro) and insert markers at my desired track start points. Then I will have the editor split the file according to the markers to produce a set of tracks ready to be burned to a CD. In some editors, the CD can be burned directly from the marked file which can help prevent the burning software from messing with the track spacing.

Hope that helps...

 

That's why I like Samplitude Pro. It's a DAW that supports plug-in's, including Samplitude's own built-in, and 3rd party. Tracking, level adjustment, EQ, compression, fades, and PQ Editing too. Then I can add hidden tracks, cd text, and ISRC codes. Plus, I can burn a master cd-r with dither, and have the master verified after burn. All on the same platform. You can't get any easier than that!

 

I use Logics Waveburner
Its very effective even though its from 2009

 

Another vote for Sony CD Architect. Great great little home CD mastering package. I've used it for my needle drops for many years and many versions. You may want to get Sound Forge Audio Studio also to work with the files directly.

 

Mastering is very, very hard work and not trivial. It's wrong to think of it as only EQ, balance, levels, and compression. There's a whole lotta stuff that can go on.

Having said that: having a great room and great speakers is a large part of it. The software is the least of it. But I actually like Sony CD Architect and that's what I'd use if I was forced to do it in Windows.

But I also believe it's crazy to burn any CDs in 2014, and I think you're much, much better off using all files and playing back on a server and/or portable players. Physical media is so "90s." I'm more positive than ever that optical media does not stand the test of time.

 

CDs are still very usefull for limited classical distribution, my local duplicator is very good, about 2 quid an item inc printwork
It enables Choral Socs and PTAs to fund raise substantial ammounts from cd sales.

 

Here I am again...I was all set to go for CD Architect, but it doesn't appear to be available for Mac. Next best thing? I'm looking at Amadeus Pro now, but I'm not sure it will handle all my needs.