Exactly my process. The important thing is the being able to have instant one-click access to any point on the disc to hear and compare.

I would LIKE to be able to use (for instance) SF9s Ozone tools independantly on each track as we notionally can or can with smaller more efficient fx, but as it stand, that can put too much load on the cpu for realtime preview on my 'mere' P4 3GHz.

geoff

I would LIKE to be able to use (for instance) SF9s Ozone tools independantly on each track as we notionally can or can with smaller more efficient fx, but as it stand, that can put too much load on the cpu for realtime preview on my 'mere' P4 3GHz.

Geoff,
You have mentioned this issue several times around here. I also have a P4 3GHz in my audio machine and have never had a problem such as you describe. What (and how many) plug-ins are you running that choke your system?
Steve

You can preview a CD with 15 tracks with say Izo Sony Mastering EQ, Mastering Limiter, and Multiband Compressor on each of the 15 tracks ?!!

If I put just Multiband Compressor on each track, playback stutters severely. P4 3GB, or Athlon 2600+ .

Without plugin automation, the alternative is one blanket setting on the Master, or compressing twice, per track with say the default Sony plug on the individual tracks. Or doing it in SF....

geoff

I tried your scenario last night, Geoff. I can preview okay with the multiband compr on 15 tracks. But as I add plugs one by one, preview deteriorates quickly.
It does not make sense to have all 15 compressors working when only one track is playing!

i would suggest mastering in another application and using cda juat to make the cd. the only plugin i use in cda is dither.

i mix my music in sonar, then i use the ozone plugins in sound forge to master, and bring the mastered songs into cda. you could also use vegas, if you have it, or even sonar - the ozone plugins don't work in sonar but there are many other mastering-type plugins that do.

Here are a few things I do for "mastering" in CDA although I agree with some others that you can apply polish to your tracks in another program that handles this job more fully, and then bring songs into CDA to arrange and burn your CD. I have imported some songs from a commercial CD of a similar genre to mine. On playback I keep the volume control to my phones or speakers set where I would normally listen. On the master volume meter of CDA, watch where the levels hover around during the loudest parts...usually it will approach 0 but never quite gets there - maybe to -3 or a little less. You want your songs to mimic this as close as you can. I load my songs into CDA as I want them to appear on my CD, and in my case I use the volume envelope on each song to even out the overall levels to no higher than around -3 to -2.9. All the nodes and ups and downs on the volume envelope might look crazy and seem like I am "micro-managing" the levels, but this avoids having to use a lot of compressers in succession. I also found that using the output controls on the EQ (if you are usinng one on each song-can be very useful. When all is said and done, all of my songs / tracks end up with a very similar range of output, and do not exceed -2.9 approx. On the Master fx bin I usually use a limiter, for fine adjustment and to "boost" the apparent volume and presence of the songs without peaks. Then I burn and listen over a few systems including the car, and may go back to the CDA if needed.