There Go My Speakers! A Mastering Question

[Fulcrum]

I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place, even though this forum isn't called Master It Like A Record...

Does anyone have any ideas as to why, when I assemble all my tracks into a CD, the very end of the CD generates an ungodly-loud pop/crack/spike before rolling back to track 1? I cannot seem to get rid of that pop no matter what I do.

And this is Samplitude 8 I'm using for this purpose, a program much vaunted for its awareness of the Red Book CD standard. So it is not possible for the End-Of-CD marker to be placed anywhere that doesn't fall on the exact second or (1/75th fraction of a second thereof)... and yet in practice, it is also not possible for me to move the marker anywhere and not have that pop place severe stress on my speakers. (The last song on the CD similarly conforms to the 1/75th rule, so the pop isn't coming from there.)

Anybody got any thoughts? Could it be my media? Any other settings I should check?

Thanks in advance.

[jord]

I don't know anything about Samplitude, so I don't know what kind of help I may be. However, I had a similar problem in WaveBurner when I was using various instances of Ozone (on separate regions). If you are using any plug-ins, are they varying drastically? Another thing I did at times was add a small fadeout on the last region (if it didn't have a fade on it already).

That's all I can think of... sorry.

jord

[Fulcrum]

While I did use Ozone, it was in Sonar while I was mixing the tracks. I didn't use it (or any plug-ins) in Samp-- using Samp strictly for assembly and the accompanying foley work.

[MacGregor]

While I did use Ozone, it was in Sonar while I was mixing the tracks. I didn't use it (or any plug-ins) in Samp-- using Samp strictly for assembly and the accompanying foley work.

You most probably checked this already, but is the level REALLY
digital 0 at the end of the last track?

Mac

[Fulcrum]

Well. I have four stereo tracks in Samp, each of which have a clip object at the end of the program (one with music, three SFX). Not only do I fade the tracks themselves to -infinity, I faded the clip objects down to infinity as well.

Moreover, I had moved my End Of CD marker a second or so after the end of the last clip(s).

[Trazan]

I've never experienced anything like that. Are you generating a wav first, or burning real time?

[Fulcrum]

Hm. Not sure what you mean Trazan. I'm just using Samp for assembly-- Sonar creates the WAVs. Once I've assembled, I make the CD-- I am pretty sure I am working in Disc-At-Once mode.

Does that help answer the question? I'm not sure I'm following.

[Trazan]

When burning a CD from Samplitude it asks whether you want to "burn on the fly" (all efx, crossfades, auromation etc. are calculated while burning the cd) or generate a new continuous wav file. Pay attention next time :Razz: and chose "generate new file" and see if that helps.

[Fulcrum]

I'll try that. Thanks for the further explanation.

[Trazan]

If that doesn't do you any good, you may try to use another driver (Same Make Cd window, Problems Burning?...or something like that).

Or maybe it's Beelzebub leaving messages? Try playing that loud pop backwards!

[jord]

Or maybe it's Beelzebub leaving messages? Try playing that loud pop backwards!

I played mine backwards... it just said pop. Perhaps, it was calling my name in a language I have never heard before.

jord

[Fulcrum]

Some sounds are just palindromic like that.

Boy, there's a sentence I never thought I would ever type.

I saw that Troubleshooting button as well, and I'll give that a look in. Really I think this is the last thing I need to fix before I can finally start figuring out what the hell to do with it now that it's done.

[Fulcrum]

Well, that didn't work either. I still got the pop even after generating the new file, and I know all levels are at -∞.

I guess I could try a different driver.

And as I am discovering other little anomalies about the program, like one track suddenly being much much quieter than the others and Samp consistently failing to import the entire WAV, I'm probably going to need to re-examine the various components of the CD.

Maybe I should just use Wavelab.

[Trazan]

Well, that didn't work either. I still got the pop even after generating the new file, and I know all levels are at -∞.


Was there a pop in the generated file, or only on the cd burned from it? Do you have the pop-problem on this project only, or do you get pops on anything you burn with Samplitude?

If there was no pop in the generated file, and if anything you burn with Samplitude pop's at the end....there's got to be some kind of communication problem with the cd-writer. Try different drivers, and see if there are firmware updates available for the writer.

[Fulcrum]

Was there a pop in the generated file, or only on the cd burned from it?

That was the first thing I was gonna check when I got home, only I got home to two inches of powdery snow on top of two more inches of snow packed into ice by earlier sleet.

My back had just started to feel good again, generally, and now it's out. Again. Plus, it was St Valentines Day yesterday.

I will check that when I get in tonight and report back.

Do you have the pop-problem on this project only, or do you get pops on anything you burn with Samplitude?

This being the first assembly I'm doing with Samp, I have nothing against which to compare it.

If there was no pop in the generated file, and if anything you burn with Samplitude pop's at the end....there's got to be some kind of communication problem with the cd-writer. Try different drivers, and see if there are firmware updates available for the writer.

I hope it doesn't come to that.. they're not updating my burner's firmware any more.

[Holm]

This is a thing that has never happened to me and I use Samplitude since 1998. I am pretty sure that it has something with Samplitude's communication to the CD burner.

Yeah, when you do the "gnerate new file" the first thing to do is to make sure that the generated waveform doesn't have that kind of a peak in the end. If it's not there then something goes wrong on burning stage.

There should be a cd burner .dll file at Samplitude's support site somewhere. Download it and overwrite the one you are having now. Maybe that helps.

[Holm]

The dll is on the support area and is called:

Patch CD-Burner DLL (from 04/09/2005)

There are older versions aswell.