In the Generate CD Image/ SACD Master, the first track index 00 is at 00:00:00 then index 01 at 00:02:00 - I assume this is pre-roll? If so, is it compulsory?
Not a big deal I know, but it seems to make the total running time display 2 seconds out which appears in the TOC from discwrite - this is often sent to clients / bosses to verify ISRC codes and running times, produce artwork etc.
End result is I didn't add up the running time of a multi-disc project correctly, not exactly slick and professional.
Any ideas?
CD pre-roll??
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The Merging Technologies team cannot be held responsible for support queries logged on the public forums. If a support query is logged here and only here, it may not be found and dealt with by the appropriate team.
To ensure that your support issue or bug report is dealt with properly and in good time, please use the link to the tech support request form page on the Merging website.
Make sure to let us know what version you are using when you send your mail. THANKS!
Re: CD pre-roll??
The two second pre-roll is manditory - it can be longer, you can even put audio material in there (this is how some folks put in a "hidden track"), but it has to be at least two seconds.
As far as communicating with the "civilians", I'd recommend that you use a feature that comes as part of DiskWrite: the Reports. To make things civilian-friendly, however, you have to do some editing to the stock reports that Merging/Pyramix provides. Here are the steps:
1. Create a .pmi in Pyramix, then close Pyramix and open DiskWrite, and load your new .pmi.
2. On the right side of the DiskWrite window, below the area showing all the PQ information, you'll see four buttons: "Print TOC...", "Save TOC...", "Select Report..." and "Design Report...".
3. To get a feel for things, click on "Select Report...". A File Selection window will open - navigate to the "CD TOC" folder and load a file named "Basic Compilation". The File Selection window will close and you'll be back in DiskWrite.
4. Now, click on "Print TOC...". A Window will open, which will offer a variety of output formats and methods (to the printer, to a PDF, Text, Rich Text, etc., etc.) - Select "Preview" from the drop-down menu. Click on "Start".
5. If all goes well, a lovely form will appear on your computer screen, showing the track numbers, titles, durations and artists for each CD track, as well as other information at the top derived from the CD text information you included back in Pyramix when you were making the .pmi. You'll notice that it has the very lovely Pyramix logo graphic in the top left corner. You'll notice as well that the Total time duration shown at the bottom of the form gives the total in a minutes:seconds:frames format - not exactly civilian-friendly. This is what we're going to change.
6. Take a deep breath, maybe a shot of rum, and steel your resolve to press on.
7. Close the Preview window, which puts you back in DiskWrite. Now, click on "Design Report...". The file selector window will open again, and you should click on "Basic Compilation" once again. The "List & Label Designer" program will open with the Basic Compilation report ready for editing. This program is a really full featured application for designing reports, that can access the data that Pyramix encodes into the .pmi files. However, it's probably as complex as Pyramix itself - maybe take another shot of rum...
8. At the very bottom of the screen, you will see three tabs: "Layout", "Layout Preview" and "Preview". These are just three different ways of looking at the form you're editing. Click on "Layout".
9. You will see the form in its basic format, with green text showing the links it will take from the .pmi. Don't worry about any of that now. Just look at the bottom of the list, the line where it says, "Total" in the first column and "Total Length" in the third column. More rum.
10. Double click on "Total Length". A "Table Contents" window will open, which shows the various components making up that line of the table. On the left, you'll see that ""Total Length" is highlighted. Double click on that.
11. Another new window will open: "Edit Table". There's an area at the top with two columns in there - ignore that. Instead, look near the very bottom of the window - you'll see an editing field with "Total_Length" (without the quotation marks, but with the underscore) written in purple. Double click on that, which will highlight it.
12. Change the text to this, exactly: Audio_Length_Truncated
13. When you type the final letter, the text should turn purple, showing that you've entered a definition in the proper syntax. Click on "OK" at the bottom of the window. You'll return to the Table Contents window, where you'll see that your new definition is now in the list. Click on "OK".
14. Now you're back in the basic "Layout" window, and if you look closely, you'll see that the third cell in the bottom line of the form now reads "Audio Length Truncated". You should feel very satisfied, and perhaps a little woosie from all the rum. Let's take a brief break.
Why "Truncated", you ask? There are actually three definitions for "Audio Length" you could have used, and if you look over on the far right side of the window, you'll see them in the list of available definitions: "Audio Length", "Audio Length Truncated", and "Audio Length Rounded". At first blush, it would seem that it would be better to choose the "Rounded" option, but I prefer "Truncated" because that is how most CD players display their time - they don't progress the display to the next second until its proper time - the display doesn't round up. If you provide a graphics designer with a form where the total time is in its truncated format, then the printed materials will agree with what a customer will see as being the total time on the disk when they put it in their player. There's a 50/50 chance that you'd be a second out if you used the "Rounded" option. Not a huge deal, but still messy.
Long as we're here editing, how about we replace the Pyramix logo with your own? Talk about slick! You do have a logo, don't you? Something in a nice .jpg, perhaps?
15. It might be better to change how you're viewing the form, at this point, so click on the "Layout Preview" tab at the bottom of the window.
16. Now you can see the Pyramix logo in the upper left corner. Right click on it, and select "Properties". In the lower left corner of the screen, you'll see an area labeled "Properties". There are various, um, properties of the graphic listed there: Appearance, Data, Source... Look in the Source area. Next to file name, you'll see "(embedded)". This is because the Pyramix logo is, well, embedded into the form, but we can change that. Click on "embedded" and a file selection window will appear, so that you can navigate to your logo's location - find it, double click on it and presto!, you've replaced the Pyramix logo with your own. You might have to re-size it, and move it around a bit to get it to line up nicely with the text, but once you've done that, you're pretty well done.
17. In the "File" menu at the top of the screen, "Save as..." your edited form to a location of your choice with a new name like, "My Spectacular New Form for Graphics Designers.lst".
18. Quit the List & Label Designer. You'll return to the desktop where you'll see DiskWrite waiting patiently for you.
19. In DiskWrite, click on ""Select Report...", and navigate to your newly created Report and load it.
20. Wanna see? Click on "Print TOC..." and then select "Preview" just like you did before, only now you'll see your wonderful, new, personalized Report, which - and here's the kicker - shows the total time without the extra two seconds required for the CD pre-roll.
21. If you're satisfied with the result - and who wouldn't be? - you can now go back to DiskWrite, and select "Print TOC..." but this time you can select a different output - to your printer, if you want to make a paper copy, or to a PDF, if you want to send it by email. As you've seen, there are lots of options in the list there.
Emboldened by your success, you may decide that you wish to modify or even create other forms for your use. At the very least you may decide to replace the Pyramix logo with your own in any other forms you need, but you can also change the layout, type face, which data fields derived from CD Text and other information will be included, etc., etc. Hours, if not days of fun-filled layout enjoyment await you as you plumb the depths of the List & Label Designer. Go to C:\Program Files\Merging Technologies\Pyramix Virtual Studio\Docs\ to find the extensive manual.
Have fun!
As far as communicating with the "civilians", I'd recommend that you use a feature that comes as part of DiskWrite: the Reports. To make things civilian-friendly, however, you have to do some editing to the stock reports that Merging/Pyramix provides. Here are the steps:
1. Create a .pmi in Pyramix, then close Pyramix and open DiskWrite, and load your new .pmi.
2. On the right side of the DiskWrite window, below the area showing all the PQ information, you'll see four buttons: "Print TOC...", "Save TOC...", "Select Report..." and "Design Report...".
3. To get a feel for things, click on "Select Report...". A File Selection window will open - navigate to the "CD TOC" folder and load a file named "Basic Compilation". The File Selection window will close and you'll be back in DiskWrite.
4. Now, click on "Print TOC...". A Window will open, which will offer a variety of output formats and methods (to the printer, to a PDF, Text, Rich Text, etc., etc.) - Select "Preview" from the drop-down menu. Click on "Start".
5. If all goes well, a lovely form will appear on your computer screen, showing the track numbers, titles, durations and artists for each CD track, as well as other information at the top derived from the CD text information you included back in Pyramix when you were making the .pmi. You'll notice that it has the very lovely Pyramix logo graphic in the top left corner. You'll notice as well that the Total time duration shown at the bottom of the form gives the total in a minutes:seconds:frames format - not exactly civilian-friendly. This is what we're going to change.
6. Take a deep breath, maybe a shot of rum, and steel your resolve to press on.
7. Close the Preview window, which puts you back in DiskWrite. Now, click on "Design Report...". The file selector window will open again, and you should click on "Basic Compilation" once again. The "List & Label Designer" program will open with the Basic Compilation report ready for editing. This program is a really full featured application for designing reports, that can access the data that Pyramix encodes into the .pmi files. However, it's probably as complex as Pyramix itself - maybe take another shot of rum...
8. At the very bottom of the screen, you will see three tabs: "Layout", "Layout Preview" and "Preview". These are just three different ways of looking at the form you're editing. Click on "Layout".
9. You will see the form in its basic format, with green text showing the links it will take from the .pmi. Don't worry about any of that now. Just look at the bottom of the list, the line where it says, "Total" in the first column and "Total Length" in the third column. More rum.
10. Double click on "Total Length". A "Table Contents" window will open, which shows the various components making up that line of the table. On the left, you'll see that ""Total Length" is highlighted. Double click on that.
11. Another new window will open: "Edit Table". There's an area at the top with two columns in there - ignore that. Instead, look near the very bottom of the window - you'll see an editing field with "Total_Length" (without the quotation marks, but with the underscore) written in purple. Double click on that, which will highlight it.
12. Change the text to this, exactly: Audio_Length_Truncated
13. When you type the final letter, the text should turn purple, showing that you've entered a definition in the proper syntax. Click on "OK" at the bottom of the window. You'll return to the Table Contents window, where you'll see that your new definition is now in the list. Click on "OK".
14. Now you're back in the basic "Layout" window, and if you look closely, you'll see that the third cell in the bottom line of the form now reads "Audio Length Truncated". You should feel very satisfied, and perhaps a little woosie from all the rum. Let's take a brief break.
Why "Truncated", you ask? There are actually three definitions for "Audio Length" you could have used, and if you look over on the far right side of the window, you'll see them in the list of available definitions: "Audio Length", "Audio Length Truncated", and "Audio Length Rounded". At first blush, it would seem that it would be better to choose the "Rounded" option, but I prefer "Truncated" because that is how most CD players display their time - they don't progress the display to the next second until its proper time - the display doesn't round up. If you provide a graphics designer with a form where the total time is in its truncated format, then the printed materials will agree with what a customer will see as being the total time on the disk when they put it in their player. There's a 50/50 chance that you'd be a second out if you used the "Rounded" option. Not a huge deal, but still messy.
Long as we're here editing, how about we replace the Pyramix logo with your own? Talk about slick! You do have a logo, don't you? Something in a nice .jpg, perhaps?
15. It might be better to change how you're viewing the form, at this point, so click on the "Layout Preview" tab at the bottom of the window.
16. Now you can see the Pyramix logo in the upper left corner. Right click on it, and select "Properties". In the lower left corner of the screen, you'll see an area labeled "Properties". There are various, um, properties of the graphic listed there: Appearance, Data, Source... Look in the Source area. Next to file name, you'll see "(embedded)". This is because the Pyramix logo is, well, embedded into the form, but we can change that. Click on "embedded" and a file selection window will appear, so that you can navigate to your logo's location - find it, double click on it and presto!, you've replaced the Pyramix logo with your own. You might have to re-size it, and move it around a bit to get it to line up nicely with the text, but once you've done that, you're pretty well done.
17. In the "File" menu at the top of the screen, "Save as..." your edited form to a location of your choice with a new name like, "My Spectacular New Form for Graphics Designers.lst".
18. Quit the List & Label Designer. You'll return to the desktop where you'll see DiskWrite waiting patiently for you.
19. In DiskWrite, click on ""Select Report...", and navigate to your newly created Report and load it.
20. Wanna see? Click on "Print TOC..." and then select "Preview" just like you did before, only now you'll see your wonderful, new, personalized Report, which - and here's the kicker - shows the total time without the extra two seconds required for the CD pre-roll.
21. If you're satisfied with the result - and who wouldn't be? - you can now go back to DiskWrite, and select "Print TOC..." but this time you can select a different output - to your printer, if you want to make a paper copy, or to a PDF, if you want to send it by email. As you've seen, there are lots of options in the list there.
Emboldened by your success, you may decide that you wish to modify or even create other forms for your use. At the very least you may decide to replace the Pyramix logo with your own in any other forms you need, but you can also change the layout, type face, which data fields derived from CD Text and other information will be included, etc., etc. Hours, if not days of fun-filled layout enjoyment await you as you plumb the depths of the List & Label Designer. Go to C:\Program Files\Merging Technologies\Pyramix Virtual Studio\Docs\ to find the extensive manual.
Have fun!
Frank Lockwood, Toronto, ON, Canada
• Pyramix Native 11.1.6
• Mac Mini 6.2 (3rd Gen. Quadcore i7) - Bootcamp 6.0.6136 - Win10 Pro SP1 64 v1809
• RME Fireface 800 ASIO driver 3.125 or ASIO4All 2.15
• Pyramix Native 11.1.6
• Mac Mini 6.2 (3rd Gen. Quadcore i7) - Bootcamp 6.0.6136 - Win10 Pro SP1 64 v1809
• RME Fireface 800 ASIO driver 3.125 or ASIO4All 2.15
Re: CD pre-roll??
Hey Andy,
I'd be happy to send you a copy of my report, which Frank's very long post is largely based on...(isn't it...?)
gb
I'd be happy to send you a copy of my report, which Frank's very long post is largely based on...(isn't it...?)
gb
Graemme Brown
Zen Mastering
1460 Wild Rose Drive
Gabriola Island, BC
Canada V0R 1X5
+1.604.874.9096
"A Horus, A Horus; My Kingdom for a Horus!"
Zen Mastering
1460 Wild Rose Drive
Gabriola Island, BC
Canada V0R 1X5
+1.604.874.9096
"A Horus, A Horus; My Kingdom for a Horus!"
Re: CD pre-roll??
Thanks Frank, and Graemme
I have actually got the report generating sussed already I think.
I was caught out by the 2 second pre-roll. Sent a client a total running time, which I got from the actual project and the time between first cd marker and last end marker, but this was different to the total length displayed in the report by 2 seconds.
Even more confusing, I checked the length of the .pmi in the original project against the length of the edit and the length of that matched the length of the edit - not the time on the report.
What would you call the total run time of the disc? The length of actual audio - from first to last cd marker, or the length in the TOC - including the pre-roll?
Thanks for the suggestions both of you guys
I have actually got the report generating sussed already I think.
I was caught out by the 2 second pre-roll. Sent a client a total running time, which I got from the actual project and the time between first cd marker and last end marker, but this was different to the total length displayed in the report by 2 seconds.
Even more confusing, I checked the length of the .pmi in the original project against the length of the edit and the length of that matched the length of the edit - not the time on the report.
What would you call the total run time of the disc? The length of actual audio - from first to last cd marker, or the length in the TOC - including the pre-roll?
Thanks for the suggestions both of you guys
Re: CD pre-roll??
AndyR wrote:What would you call the total run time of the disc? The length of actual audio - from first to last cd marker, or the length in the TOC - including the pre-roll?
It depends. A CD replicator is interested in the total time, including the first track's pre-roll. A consumer (and therefore the graphic designer) are probably more interested in what appears in a standard CD player's display. In the report, use "Total_time" and its variants for the replicator; use "Audio_time" for the consumers.
Frank Lockwood, Toronto, ON, Canada
• Pyramix Native 11.1.6
• Mac Mini 6.2 (3rd Gen. Quadcore i7) - Bootcamp 6.0.6136 - Win10 Pro SP1 64 v1809
• RME Fireface 800 ASIO driver 3.125 or ASIO4All 2.15
• Pyramix Native 11.1.6
• Mac Mini 6.2 (3rd Gen. Quadcore i7) - Bootcamp 6.0.6136 - Win10 Pro SP1 64 v1809
• RME Fireface 800 ASIO driver 3.125 or ASIO4All 2.15
Re: CD pre-roll??
Ah ok, got the subtle difference in the report code.
100% got it!
Cheers Frank!
100% got it!
Cheers Frank!