Hi guys.
I moved to Yosemite and it's time to move to a new mastering soft.

What I need:
-DDP
-CD text
-AU plugins
-Fades
-ISRC
-Simple file editing
-Project track by track export
-MAC

Some suggested Bias Peak (but they are done AFAIK).

I do not need more then that, so soundblade for example is a bit over the top.

THANKS!

DSP Quattro is very similar to Waveburner, and I assume it can do all of the above (I don't own it). I;m not sure what its current development status is. Maybe Wavelab Elements would work too, though I'm not sure if that does DDP.

Yes I would also say that if your not gonna go with soundBlade then go with DSP Quattro, which our other engineer Nick Landis uses daily.

You might also want to add Sonoris DDP Creator to your audio arsenal as well.

Just Sayin... but check out their plug-in capabilities first, that's always the trick.

Best, JT

For your needs Quattro is the way to go, its easy to operate and cheap. But as Jerry suggested you'd really add DDP Creator Pro, which gives you the best and secure DDP export with no errors. I personally don't rely on Quattro when DDP export comes, cause often makes mistakes in CD Text.
my2cent

Studio One Project Mode does all of this plus album art. More expensive than Quattro, but does great DDP.

Also consider Triumph by Audiofile Engineering as well as WaveLab 9 if you can handle working with VST instead of AU.

There are no Pause Markers in Studio One, if that's important for your work
And it is not possible to create pauses between tracks if there is no audio (or mabye i just coldn't figure out how)
Otherwise handling is very similar to waveburner
Plugin Support and track export works great

I would recommend HOFA CD burn & DDP. It can do almost all you've listed with the exception of editing and Plugins. But it's very low price - if you combine it with an audio editor (e.g. RX5 or Twisted Wave) you have a winner!
I have done over 20 productions on DDP with it so far and it all worked well.

Second recommendation to HOFA CD burn & DDP.
It's simple and task oriented software, which works very well as an expansion just for CD assembly, CD TEXT and exports.
It has solid DDP output, is cross-platform and affordable (you can activate up to two licenses for one purchase).
It isn't full fledged editor (only basic editing, xfades and volume), but if you can do all your audio tasks at your DAW (it's IMO much more comfortable than various weird 2-track editors) and just export finished tracks, then it could work for you.

Michal

HOFA also said they are working on a significant update to the CD Burn & DDP app so maybe we'll see some added features getting it closer to a Waveburner style master app with plugins.

I'd recommend DSP Quattro but it's starting to feel abandoned... I may be searching for something else soon, too.

DSP-Quattro could be great as a secondary DAW if it ever moves it beyond its long-neglected bugs ... There's much potential and an intuitive workflow, but its development and support lag behind the needs of professional work.

I'm braving Wavelab 9's learning curve for a while.

Reaper does it all

I never had a single error in CD-Text with DSP-Quattro, the only thing is it doesn't write the genre (on my system). I agree there are a few minor bugs, but nowhere near as bad as soundblade was when i tried it quite some years ago.

Of course you should always check your DDPs with another software before sending off. I use Sonoris DDP Player (which i also send to my customers for checking)

All these years later, with mastering still being a critical component in the recording industry and the software for a simple two track editor is still the bastard stepchild in the industry.

Why has no software manufacturer ever stepped up to the task?

Sonic is as old as Pro Tools yet is still riddled with stupid bugs... come on, after all this time??? I always want to use Sonic as I feel they got the math right (it truly does sound best), yet I can't handle it crashing all the time or having to reboot my system. A shame for sure.

Cobble together a system that works for you. I use Protools, Sample Manager, Sonoris and Hofa software. Between all 4 it gives me more than enough capabilities.

Btw I'm still using Sonic soundBlade HD 2 all day every day, rarely hangs or crashes, and it Does sound great.

Sonic is older than Pro Tools actually, I think Digi's Sound Designer started about the same time, mid 80s.

But we've discussed this to infinity.

It comes w a learning curve, may require a few workarounds, and ~might~ work w your fave plug-ins.

Still many top MEs continue to use soundBlade today.

Just Sayin...

Best, JT

+1

Reaper does everything you want - plus a lot more.

I still have DDP Creator from Sonoris and Triumph from Audiofile Engineering but lately I've been using almost exclusively Reaper for DDPs.

Would someone mind re-posting the essentials to get Reaper working for DDP etc? I'd love to give it a go.

Also using Soundblade, also think it sounds best. It rarely crashes IF you know where all of the landmines are planted and you know how to dance around them.

I think its such a niche market with very high stakes if the wrong bugs are in place. Thus it needs true support but it would be hard to get enough $ from sales to really iron everything out.

I love how Sonic come out with a new version of Amarra every 2 months, but Soundblade hasn't been touched in 3 years. Maybe 2017 is the magic year?

The thing that's always puzzled me about this is that no one seems to take advantage of the sound of Sonic where it would benefit the actual master, i.e. as a pitching DAW.

REAPER is close to being an all in one solution in my opinion but it's not quite there. A few things are just too clunky or rely on 3rd party scripts that could break.

I think if REAPER added a mastering mode like how Studio One does, then it could really be something.

Adding CD-Text is not as fast as WaveLab, REAPER can't transpose CD-Text to ID3 metadata, CD frames support requires setting the tempo map to something very specific.

While you can do it all in REAPER, it's not quite there yet for me so I do phase one in REAPER, and finish up in WaveLab which really specializes in some boring but essential detail stuff.

I do! I always pitch with soundblade.

Anyone written to Justin at reaper about this? Seems like if enough people did he would take it seriously.

I have a few times but maybe others should too. They seemed open to feedback but also haven't indicated if they are interested in this.

As I said, you can technically do it all in REAPER but I still have the desire to use WaveLab to do the final steps.

REAPER is AWESOME for the main processing. The scripts and custom actions make quick work of most things. Since moving form Pro Tools to REAPER for the initial processing via plugins and analog gear, and well as spot cleanup with RX5 as the external edit, I can work so much more quickly and accurately.

I kept hearing how awesome REAPER was and finally took the time to learn it after a few failed attempts.

It's not that hard but it's mostly text based and that's what puts people off using it. Basically, markers define TOC, that's the whole concept. The name you add to each marker defines its function and also its metadata.

A marker starting with "#" represents INDEX1 and defines a track start. A marker starting with "!" represents the INDEX0 for the following "#" track/marker.

You'll need to add a marker titled "!" at 00:00 followed by a "#" marker at 00:02. You can't have audio in those first 2s, per red book standard. After that just keep adding "#" markers in each place you want a track to start. You'll just need to make sure audio is starting only at the 2s mark and that you have the "!" marker at 00:00 and the "#" marker at 00:02s (use snapping, it's easier)

If you want to add CD-TEXT you'll just need to add the data in each marker for each track. For instance, a typical marker for track start will be something like: "#TITLE=Dr. Beauchef, Penguin Dentist|PERFORMER=Kneebody|ISRC=CCXXXYYNNNNN" instead of being just "#".

You'll need to add a marker starting with "@", usually placed at the end of the timeline, for the album metadata. First thing after the @ will be the album title - i.e. @ Low Electrical Worker" - and it's where you can add the UPC/EAN code for instance.

And that's mostly it.

Ah, so you're the one. I knew I'd seen one person (that's one person, ever!) post that they pitch from sB.

I'd also be keen to get a bit of groundswell behind improving the mastering specific aspects of Reaper. Still holding out for the Hofa update as well. It's been a while now since they took suggestions.

FYI, if you set your timebase to "Frames" (in the project settings) and the framerate to 75, you don't have to bother with fudging BPMs etc - that's how all my sessions are set up and it works perfectly.

Cool, super helpful and thanks for the relatable example!

@ thermos ,

for the full syntax of that special marker naming convention, you can check help at Render to file dialog in Reaper. After you select Output format to DDP, then help button appears.

Also you can employ useful DDP helper written by Karumba, which greatly simplifies that. Because it automatically fills song tiltles according to item names at track 1 and set all the markers according to entered metadata, incl. ISRCs with error verification.
Reaper DDP GUI

I'm not sure how you're familiar with Reaper, but it's Reascript written in Python language. So you'll need to enable Python scripting support in preferences first (Plug-ins/ReaScript), you're at OS X with built-in Python interpreter, so it should work out of box after Reaper restart.
Then you need to open Actions dialog and load that downloaded file as a custom ReaScript. Then you can place it to some toolbar or assign keystroke for its launch.

Michal

Just to add to this, they started up 'support' subscription plans which just made me laugh so hard. Why in God's green Earth would anyone pay Sonic for support when they haven't offered any updates to their buggy software in over 3 years??

It truly is unbelievable! My guess is that if they do ever update soundBlade it will be another paid upgrade with a few more features and the same number of bugs and the same lack of ongoing support.

It's such a shame as in the right hands it could be a truly winning program. Unfortunately those in charge are prioritizing the audiophile market instead of looking after their professional user base which is dying a slow death.

I do wonder though... if anyone has signed up to the sB support plan whether they're receiving exclusive builds with bug fixes that the general userbase is not getting. @ Jerry Tubb are you privy to this information?