Roland VS-1824 owner manual Creating a Master Stereo Mix, Finalizing, 185

Creating a Master Stereo Mix

CD standards only allow two tracks (left and right) to be written to a CD-R. Before recording an audio CD, it is necessary to create a stereo recording of your song within the VS-1824. You can do this easily by bouncing your existing tracks to two available tracks on the VS-1824 (see “Mastering Room,” p. 177). Or, if you mix your songs to an external stereo recorder such as a DAT recorder, you can transfer the stereo mixes back into the VS-1824 for CD recording.

It is a good idea to prepare the final stereo recording of your song using the tools found in the VS-1824’s Mastering Room—see p. 177. In particular, we recommend turning on the Mastering Room’s CDRecMode parameter to create a CD image file of your song as you record your final mix. This image file will then be saved when you save your song. Song data that can be written to CD-R discs must satisfy the following conditions:

1. Sample Rate and Recording Mode:

Only tracks recorded with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz can be written to CD-R discs. Make sure you select the 44.1 kHz sample rate when you create a new song. You may use any of the recording modes; however, it is recommended you use either MTP, CDR, MAS, or MT1 for best results.

2. Levels

Audio transferred to the CD will only be the actual audio data as stored on the hard drive. Mixer, EQ, effects settings, and Automix data on these tracks will not be transferred. Thus, any desired level settings, panning, EQ and effects must be recorded as a part of the tracks’ audio. Make all EQ, level, pan and other settings on the source tracks during track bouncing—you can use Automix during the track bouncing process (p. 64).

3. Effects

Audio transferred to the CD will only be the actual audio data as stored on the hard drive. Effects settings made with the Track Mixer on these tracks will not transfer to the CD. Even if reverb or delay is applied to a track, the reverb or delay will not be written to the CD-R disc. All desired effects must be recorded as a part of these tracks. Make all effect settings during track bouncing.

4. Track Bouncing

You can select any two tracks (including any V-Tracks) to be written to the CD-R disc. One track will become the left channel of the CD-R, the other the right channel. If your song exists in a multitrack format, it must be mixed and bounced down to two tracks before being written to a CD-R. Designate the resulting stereo tracks as the tracks to be written to the CD-R disc.

5. Track Editing

The two tracks designated for writing to the CD-R disc are written from the beginning of the tracks (normally “00h00m00s00”) to the end of the tracks. Any blank

Chapter 13 CD-RW and Mastering

space or silence on the tracks before and after the actual
performance will be written as silence on the CD-R disc.
To avoid this, use Track Cut to remove any unwanted
silence at the beginning of the tracks and at the end of
the tracks, or Track Insert to create space between tracks.			Chapter
00h00m00s00
Blank Space	Performance Data	Blank Space	13
		Before Track Cutting
Performance Data
	After Track Cutting
		Time

Finalizing

Before a CD can be played on a standard audio CD player— or can be duplicated—it must be “finalized.” Finalizing writes certain important information onto the CD, including the track numbers and Table of Contents (TOC). It is the final step in the creation of a CD—once a CD has been finalized, no more songs can be added to the CD.

You can add songs to a CD one-by-one without finalizing the CD until you are done adding songs, though an un-finalized CD can only be played using the CD Player feature (p. 191).

This lets you create the CD in stages as you finish each of its songs. When you are ready to, you can finalize the CD.

If all of the songs are finished, you can burn and finalize the entire CD at once.

If you plan on having a CD duplicated, burn and finalize the entire CD at the same time (this is often referred to as the “disk at once,” or “DAO” method). Some professional duplicators will not accept a CD created a track at a time. Two CD-Writer parameters—Finalize and Write Method— work together to determine how and when a CD is finalized. When you are adding songs to a CD one-by-one:

-If you may be adding more songs later on, set Write Method to “Track at Once” and set Finalize to “Off.”

-If you are writing the final song, set Write Method to “Track at Once” and set Finalize to “On.”

-If you have already written all of the songs you wish to have on the CD, but have not yet finalized it, you can do so by setting Write Method to “Track at Once” and Finalize to “OnlyFin.”

When you are writing the entire contents of a CD at once:

-set Write Method to “Disk at Once.” The VS-1824 will automatically finalize the CD regardless of the Finalize setting.

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