Producer Cafe

Burn a DJ Mix to CD Properly with WaveBurner

Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Maluu in Tutorials

Before we get started, I just want to introduce myself. I go by Maluu, and I have been recruited by Luke to publish articles for ProducerCafe. I look forward to interacting with all the members here, especially on the forums (which I have been told are coming soon!), so keep an eye out

WaveBurner to the rescue!

Anyways, let’s get started! Today we are going to talk about how to go about burning a dj mix to an audio cd. If you have ever listened to a continuous dj mix on your stereo which featured multiple tracks, you may have noticed that there are slight gaps, clicks, or pops in between the (what should have been) seamless transition. This can be very annoying, especially when the whole point of a continuous mix is to have a gap free listening experience in order to really get in the mood. Good news though, we can prevent this occurrence so transitions from track to track are perfectly seamless.

The easiest way around this problem, which many people still do, is to burn the mix as one long track. The compromise here is you have to listen to the entire mix from start to finish every time you put it in your stereo. It’s either that or holding down fast forward forever, and that’s no fun, especially while driving! Cutting your mix into separate tracks allows the listener to navigate freely between songs without all the hassle. Be careful though, there is actually a right and wrong way to cut your tracks in a mix specifically for use in any cd player. This is where our software of choice comes in, Waveburner.

If you own Logic, you own Waveburner, as it comes bundled with. Before we get going though, we want to make sure we are working with the highest quality version of our mix, preferably a .wav or .aif. If you only have an .mp3 available, it will have to be converted before import, which adds processing you otherwise didn’t need to apply. However, if that’s all you have to deal with, no sweat.

First, let’s open up the program and import our mix. We can use the import icon in the toolbar, or simply drag and drop from the finder.

Hotkey - ⌘F

Once we have imported our mix, let Waveburner calculate the waveform. We will want to zoom out to see the mix in its entirety as well.

This mix is 30 minutes long with 5 tracks

Before we start hacking our mix into pieces, there are some settings we need to apply. First up, we need to set the default pause length. This is the time inserted inbetween cd tracks, which is normally 2 seconds. Since this is a dj mix, we want absolutely no time in between, so we will set it to zero. Navigate to the menubar on top and select Waveburner > Preferences.

Then, under the General tab, set your “Default Pause Length” to “00:00:00”.

Next, we will need to select our marker and tool types. We are going to use the track marker (the purple one), and the scissor tools.Now comes the most important step, and the main reason we are using Waveburner: the 588 sample grid, better known as CDDA frames. Here’s how this whole thing works. When CD’s are burned, they have a resolution unlike any other we are familiar with, such as milliseconds, or samples. For a CD, there are hours, minutes, seconds, and finally CDDA frames, or 1/75th of a second, or 588 samples. This is a very specific resolution, and we need a program that can set its grid to this value. Why is this so important? Well, think of how you would normally go about cutting your tracks without regard to CDDA frames. You would probably zoom in as close as you can into the waveform, and cut it on the downbeat of the transition. This is fine until you burn it to a CD and listen to the transition between tracks. When the cut was made, it wasn’t conformed to this special grid, which means during the burning process, the CD has to round off the remainder, resulting in clicks, pops, or gaps depending on how close your cut was to a multiple of 588 samples.

Let’s go ahead and select the correct time format now that we know what exactly is going on. We are going to select the “Min:Sec:Frm (CDDA Frames)” format.

Now we can proceed as normal. Since we know our grid is set to CDDA Frames, we don’t have to worry about making improper cuts! Can you imagine doing this manually without this special grid? Yikes…

Let’s find the first transition in our mix. Another cool feature of Waveburner is the ability to zoom in and out using only the mouse wheel. Go ahead and get as close as you can to that first downbeat. If you are having trouble finding it by looking at the waveform, simply listen for it, and pause right before the downbeat using the spacebar. I usually make my cuts right when the bass switches from previous to the next track, though you may have your own preference. Just remember that these cuts are where your tracks will begin when navigating through the cd from your stereo.

Notice here I have my playback head set right on the transient of the downbeat of the incoming track. This is done so when the listener skips to the next track, it will sound as if it just began. Make sure to take note of the frames in the number that appears in the dialog box above the waveform, because that dialog box will disappear when you move your cursor to make the cut.

To splice the region, click and hold on top of the waveform, you will notice the dialog box with your frames appears again. Keep holding it and scrub to the same number your playback head was on previously, release to make the cut.

Continue to do this until you have cut all your tracks for your mix. When you are finished, go back and name your tracks accordingly using the “CD Tracks” column. This way when you pop the disc into your stereo, the names will appear in the display (unless you have an older model). This can be done by highlighting the track in the “CD Tracks” column below your waveform, and pressing ⌘T. Make sure to select the “CD Text” tab and fill in the track title. Just press the “Next” button to move down the tracklist.

You may notice that for the first track, there is a 2 second pause at the very beginning. This space is saved for other information to be stored on the CD, so I would recommend leaving it alone, it is only 2 seconds after all.

Once you have named all your tracks, the final project should look something like this:

I have made all my cuts on the downbeat of the incoming tracks, and have filled out all my “CD Text” titles. That leaves one last step…Burn!

Let’s review! We are using Waveburner to make cuts based on a CDDA frame grid to prevent gaps and pops between track transitions. When making your cuts, zoom as far into the waveform as you can, and splice on the transient of the downbeat for your incoming track. Once you have made all your cuts, go back and fill out your track titles for your “CD Text”.

Whether you are listening to your cd in your car, or are sending it off to a nightclub manager, you can now rest easy in knowing that your transitions are smooth as butter!

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Tags: Apple, Burn a DJ Mix, Burn CD Mix, CD burn, DJ Mix CD, logic, wave burner