For me it's really important to make my own audio CDs. I have a HDD recording workstaion (the VS-880) and want to put the recordings on a media that provides me a good and constant sound quality without losses even after many years.

Create your own CDs from your recordings requires some basic equipment:

• A CD recorder or better a recorder for CD re-writeables


• Software to write the CDs


• A good soundcard


• A program for recording or editing huge audio files


• Lotsa free HDD space

A SCSI CD-Recorder and CD-ROM drive are definately recommended. If you want to copy audio CDs (certainly your own, I don't advice you to commit any copy right violation), a SCSI device is the only way to generate a "disk image" which can be used to create a CD that is absolutely similar to the CD you want to copy... otherwise you have to record WAV files, edit them and then write them to CD, which is definately a lot of work.

A good software to create your CDs is Adobe's "Easy CD Creator". I have had a lot of trouble with other software I have tried out, the Easy CD Creator works just fine. Before you buy the software, you should make sure, that your CD recorder is supported by the software or in case you don't have one, you should get a CD recorder that is supported by the software you want to use.

For getting the audio files on your HDD, you need to have a good soundcard with a reasonable sound quality. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) should at least be better (more) than 80dB. A tape recorder has an SNR of about 60dB and your CD should be better, right?

If you have external digital audio equipment (like the VS-880, a DAT recorder or a Minidisk player, it's useful to have a soundcard with a digital (S/PDIF) input.

I'm using a Terratec EWS64XL soundcard, which I would personally recommend, but there are other suitable soundcards too.

To make a *:WAV-file, you need to have a program that is capable of handling huge WAV files. The Windows WAV recorder is definately not and the programs that come with the soundcard aren't either (usually). The problem is that saving the undo information takes forever with that kind of software. The software of my choise is Syntrilluim's Cool Edit 96.It is fast enough and even provides effects like reverb etc.

You can calculate the required HDD space for a recording pretty easily. To record a one minute audio file with CD quality (stereo, 16 bit at 44.1kHz) requires about 10megBytes of HDD space. For recording a CD you should at least have 700megs of free HDD space.

If you don't have a HDD recording system, you can also use software like Cakewalk for digital multi-track recordings. I have Cakewalk 7.0 and have tried it out - it works - but have to admit that I'm not experienced in using cakewalk for HDD recording.

If you have used a 4-track or whatever analog recorder, you have to connect it to the line input of the soundcard. Connecting devices to the microphone input is definately not recommended. Usually they don't provide a good recording quality and some even put phantom power on the mic input, which can damage your recording equipment.

If you have a digital input on your soundcard that's where you have to connect your digital sound equipment. A problem that can occure when using digital equipment is the synchronization. Best is to switch the synchronization of the equipment to the internal clock source (that should be the default setting) and that of the soundcard to external synchronization.

A wrong synchronization will result in a periodical "plopp" noise, which isn't very obvious, you won't hear it all of the time, but when the volume is very low or very high it can be anoying. Finally it's nothing you really want to have on your CD.

Now you can record a *.WAV file (16 bit stereo @ 44.1KHz). After recording it, usually some editing is required. Usually you have to cut off the beginning and the end, which is just empty or in case of using a tape recorder as source it's white noise. A "zero cross adjustment" one the portions you haev marked to be deleted is usefull, it will modify the selected area of the file, so that the selection limits are at locations where the audio wave form is zero.

The rest of the file has to be normalized. That means that the volume is adjusted to a certain level... that level should be at least about 6dB away from the full scale level.

After that you should remove the DC-offset from the file. The last step can be fading out the volume at the end of the file.At least you haev to fade out a short time at the end of the file. The goal is to prevent a popp noise at the end of your piece. It can be required at the beginning of the file, too. That are the parts of the recording I put most attention to.

After recording end editing the pieces you want to put on your CD it's pretty easy to create a CD from it. Important is that you select an Audio CD layout and not a Data CD layout. Then you add the pieces to the layout in the order you want, Press record and after maybe 30 minutes, you have a CD to show off with :)

Another thing I want to mention is that not every type of CD-R can be played back on audio CD players (your CD-ROM drive might not have any problem with them). I have heard that the "Silver" CD-Rs are more siutable than the "Gold" or other ones. You don't have to use the most expensive CD-Rs. I am using the "Silver" Phillips CD-Rs which are the cheapest I know and don't cause any problems. I have tried to play them on various CD-players and they work. I would recoomend to buy one or two of the brand you want to use and to try them out both with your CD recorder and all CD-players you have access to.

What I have described is a way to produce small amounts of your own CDs. If you want to make 100 or more CDs, the normal way might be cheaper and better. The CDs from your CD-recorder are not considered to be suitable master CDs for a professional production. The CD recording studios prefer DAT tapes to create a glass master. Maybe they accept the WAV files, you have made, but you should talk to them to find out the best way.

Last modified on Sunday, 10. October 2004