FIELD TEST TECHNOLOGYFIELD TEST B y e r i k z o b l e r Sonic Studio PreMaster CD Software Professional Prep and Finishing Tool for Replication

onic Studio began as workstation make. You can easily make pioneer Sonic Solutions. Today, Sonic very long crossfades by SStudio makes hardware interfaces and holding the Option key Mac software for PCM and DSD production, and mousing up the center as well as integrated premastering for CD, of the crossfade: Crossfade SACD and rich-media distribution. PreMas- beginning and end regions ter CD (PMCD) is Sonic Studio’s premaster- both expand while keeping ing software, designed to trim and space the fade parameters that your tracks, make edits, add gain changes, you just created. A small create fades, input text and add PQ codes. “bead” lets you adjust the fade curves without having GETTING STARTED to access another window. Installation on my Mac G5 Quad running What PCMD won’t do? OS 10.4 (PMCD uses Core Audio) was It won’t record files. It can easy. Authorization is more involved due change polarity, reverse to challenge/response registration; this took audio, normalize and make about an hour, but the installation guide gain changes, but it doesn’t PMCD is used as the last step before sending your CD for replication. warns it can take up to three business days. support DSP processing. PMCD creates a CD in six steps. However, There’s no provision for scrubbing; only SURVEY SAYS if you want to do fine-tuning, then be half-speed playback is available. PMCD only I wanted to see if I could hear a difference if I prepared to have your nose in the manual. offers two vertical window sizes; the large loaded 16-bit/44.1kHz files into two different The program supports AIFF, BWF and SD2 size is certainly big enough, but it won’t Mac programs that both support DDP and stereo files, but only at 44.1 kHz. It supports let you grab the window corner and pull then burned a CD from each. I was shocked 16 to 24-bit depths and offers a proprietary down to the bottom of your screen. There’s by the difference—and I was not the only dither that can be globally turned on or off. also no provision for copying and pasting person who heard it; we all chose PMCD. Editing in PMCD is always nondestructive. timeline gain changes. PMCD also doesn’t I repeated the test using more CDs and Gain can be adjusted for each song or by allow load back of DDP files, but this feature made it a blind test. I used three different Mac defining audio segments within the song. is promised with the next update. programs, and I was able to correctly identify Gain can also be applied using breakpoint each disc in each group. However, this time automation on the timeline. Sequencing is DECISIONS, DECISIONS the results were less conclusive. I preferred fast and easy. If you hold the Command key When a CD-DA is sent to a manufacturing the PMCD disc only twice. In the third group, down as you drop a file in the Audio window, plant, the plant can either play the CD in real the PMCD was my second favorite. it automatically spaces the track and creates time directly onto a glass master or onto its My tests didn’t prove that brand “a” made PQ codes for pro disc manufacture. server, or it can rip the audio using Digital a better-sounding CD than brand “b.” If that PMCD performs many tasks in the Audio Extraction (DAE). Each method has were true, I’d have picked the PMCD disc background. It checks any created PQ codes its drawbacks: Real-time playback uses error each time. But I didn’t because inconsistencies against the Red Book standard. If there correction for drop-outs and must be properly in CD-R media have a greater effect on the is a problem, PMCD tells you what it is, clocked, while DAE pulls small segments of sound of a CD-R than the programs that use although it doesn’t reveal which track has the the audio files off the CD and then reconstructs them. This point underscores the importance problem. It also creates CD references in the them back together on the server. Although of using DDP as a delivery medium to the background. One of PMCD’s most important DAE has greatly improved during the past pressing plant. DDP is immune to jitter features is its ability to create Disc Description few years, it can be susceptible to seek errors and guarantees audio integrity from your Protocol (DDP) file sets (later). and jitter, especially at high speeds. computer to the pressing plant’s computer. Sonic Studio’s Smart Fade Tool is a thing A better option is to deliver a DDP file I’m sold on the benefits of PMCD as of beauty. Fade-ins and fade-outs are color- set. DDPs can be delivered on any media that a highly evolved, powerful tool for audio coded. The cursor’s icon and function change a plant will accept, such as CD-ROM, DVD- CD preparation that delivers high-quality depending upon where it’s placed near the R, Iomega Jaz or hard drives. Manufacturing masters on a superior format at a very edit. You can make an edit, crossfade it and plants transfer the files onto a server the same reasonable price ($495). then move the whole crossfade back and way that you would copy any computer Sonic Studio LLC, 415/460-1201, www. forward in time to hear where it sounds data; the difference is that the DDP files are sonicstudio.com. n best. When you move the crossfade, the transferred using data redundancy so that waveform beneath the fade is “live” and every bit is accounted for and there is no need Erik Zobler is a L.A.–based engineer/pro- instantly adjusts to reflect the changes you for ripping, re-clocking or error correction. ducer.

88 MIX, December 2006 • www.mixonline.com