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Product Review
PreMaster CD— Mix Review
Mix Magazine, December 2006
Field Test: Sonic Studio PreMaster CD Software
Sonic Studio PreMaster CD
 |
Professional Desktop Editing and PreMastering
Software |
Mastering and PreMastering. What is the difference?
When we say “Mastering,” we really should be saying “PreMastering”. The real master is made at the pressing plant where they use a LBR (laser beam recorder) to “cut” a glass master. That master is then physically processed to make a metal mold that stamps commercial CDs. Whether you assemble your mixes at home or take your mixes to a “Mastering” studio to be processed (eq’d, compressed, dithered, spaced, etc.) you are actually “PreMastering”. Sonic Studio quite correctly calls their software PreMaster CD.
What Do It Do?
PMCD is the last program you use before you send off your mixes for replication. You use it to trim and space your tracks, make edits, add gain changes, create fades, input text and add PQ codes to your audio. PMCD uses your core audio hardware, so no extra hardware is required. Their user interface has been refined over many years and is full of features that speed up the premastering process. There are lots of commands for zooming and navigating. It opens AIFF, BWF and SD2 stereo files, but only at 44.1Khz. It supports 16 to 24 bit depths and provides their own proprietary dither that can be globally turned on or off. Sonic claims that the SSE (Sonic Studio Engine) is one of the most advanced in the industry. They are secretive with their technology, so when I asked Sonic about the bit depth of the SSE, they wouldn’t give me a direct answer, but they did say that “their previous software, Sonic Studio HD, was double precision and it is even better now.” Editing in PMCD is always non-destructive. Gain can be adjusted for each song, or by defining audio segments within the song and then applying segment gain. (Similar to adding gain via audio suite in Protools except that it isn’t destructive.) Gain can also be applied using breakpoint automation on the time line. Sequencing is fast and easy. If you hold the cmd key down as you drop a file in the audio window, it will automatically space the track and create the PQ codes required for professional disc manufacture. PMCD does many things in the background. When PQ codes are automatically or manually created it checks them against the red book standard. If there is a problem, PMCD tells you what it is. (Although, it doesn’t tell which track has the problem.) It also creates CD refs in the background. One of PMCD’s most important features is its ability to create DDP File sets, which I will get into later.
Best of Show
Sonic’s Smart Fade Tool™ is a thing of beauty. Fade ins and outs are color-coded. The cursor’s icon and function change depending upon where it is placed near the edit. You can make an edit, cross-fade it and then move the whole cross-fade backward and forward in time to hear where the cross-fade sounds best. When you move the fade, the waveform beneath the fade is “live” and instantly adjusts to reflect the changes you are making. You can easily make very long cross-fades by holding the option key and mousing up the center of the cross-fade. The beginning and end regions of the cross-fade both expand while keeping the parameters of the fade you just created. There is also a small “bead” that allows you to adjust the curve of the fades without having to access another window. It is by far the most powerful and elegant fade tool I have ever used.
What Don’t It Do?
It will not record files. PMCD assumes your masters are already sonically finished. (Their high-end program, soundBlade will allow recording.) PMCD can change polarity, reverse audio, normalize and make gain changes, but it does not support DSP processing. In other words, you can’t apply plug-ins or do sample rate conversion. In fact, PMCD will only accept 44.1kHz files. There isn’t any provision for scrubbing, only half speed playback. Although horizontal window resizing is allowed, PMCD only offers two vertical window sizes. The large size is certainly big enough, but you can’t grab the window corner and pull it down to the bottom your screen. Waveform vertical zoom sizes cannot be adjusted incrementally. PMCD does have a magnified view vertical setting, but only if it is selected as a preference. There also isn’t any provision for copying and pasting timeline gain changes. PMCD doesn’t allow load back of DDP files. (Sonic Studio said this function would be included in the next version.)
To DDP or not to DDP, that is the question.
When you or a mastering studio sends a CD-DA to a manufacturing plant, the plant has two choices when it makes your CD. They can either play the CD in real time directly onto a glass master or onto their server, or rip the audio using Digital Audio Extraction (DAE). Each method has drawbacks. Real time playback uses error correction for drop outs and must be properly clocked while DAE pulls small segments of the audio files off the CD and then reconstructs them back together on the server. Although DAE has greatly improved over the last few years, it is susceptible to read errors and error concealment, especially at high speeds. Some CDR mechanisms support up to 46x ripping, and time is money, so take a guess which one plants like to use.
A much better option is to deliver a DDP
(Disc Description Protocol) file set. DDP’s can be
delivered on any media that a plant will accept, like DVD-R,
Jazz or hard drives.
Manufacturing plants simply transfer the files onto
their server the same way you would copy any computer data.
The
difference is that the DDP files are transferred as
data, not audio. Every bit is accounted for. There is no
ripping,
no re-clocking and no error concealment. When the files
are copied to the plant’s server they are exactly the
same as they were on your computer. Roll up your sleeves
If you want to make a quick CD by dragging some files
into a list and burning a CD, PMCD is fast and easy.
You can make a CD in six simple steps (one of those
steps is
loading the CD into the computer). However, if you
want to get into it, and do some fine tuning, then
be prepared to
have your nose in the manual for a while. Sonic is
a powerful program that has evolved longer than any
other DAW software.
They have their own way of doing things, which you
will have to learn before you “master” their
PreMastering software. However, to be fair, it is no
different from learning
any new powerful software and in the end it will be
well worth the effort.
Listening tests.
I wanted to see if I could hear a difference if I loaded 44.1/16bit files into two different Mac programs (that both support DDP) and burned a CD from each program. Everything in the test was the same except the program: the same files, computer, burner and media (Taiyo-Yuden all from the same spindle). I put the CDs in my car CD changer and listened as I was driving to a recording session. At 50 mph, with rumble and road noise, I was shocked by the difference. It was not small. And I was not the only person who heard the difference. Without telling anyone which disc was which or why they were listening, I simply asked them which CD sounded “better”. We all chose the same CD. The Sonic Studio PMCD.
Since I only used two CDs for my first
test, I repeated the test using more CDs and made it a totally
blind
test. I burned CDs using three different Mac programs.
The disks
were identified as “A”, “B”, and “C” and
I was able to correctly identify each disc in each
group. However, this time the results were less conclusive.
I preferred
the PMCD disc only twice. In the third group, the PMCD was my second favorite.
At this point, you may be wondering why am I including
this information, since the tests were inconclusive.
My tests did not prove that brand A made a better sounding
CD than brand B. If that were true I would have picked
the PMCD disc every time. But I didn’t. Why?
Because inconsistencies in CD-R media have more affect
on the sound of a CDR than the programs that use them.
This underscores the importance of using DDP as a delivery
medium to the pressing plant. DDP is immune to jitter
and guarantees audio integrity from your computer to
the pressing plant’s computer. Given the choice,
I will always choose DDP over CD-DA for my masters.
Sonic Studio PMCD is a highly evolved powerful tool for audio CD preparation. It delivers high quality masters on a superior format at a very reasonable price.
Erik Zobler is a Los Angeles Engineer/Producer and a proud father of two boys; one who plays World of Warcraft on the computer and one who plays the real WOW as a Marine stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Erik can be reached at zobiz at mac.com. OORAH!
An edited
version of this review appeared in
the December 2006 issue of Mix Magazine. For more
information on how Sonic Studio can help your
business grow while coping with the often conflicting
demands of commercial audio production, please contact
our sales professionals at 1-866-926-1383 or your local
Sonic Studio representative.
