Bounce to disk or burn to disc?

[blameshifter]

for the most part, i exclusively bounce to disk for my clients (from pro tools). i have considered purchasing an external cd burner because i feel a direct burn from my main outs may just sound better (and louder). id like to hear from people that have done both. let me know what, in your opinion, sounds better. also, have you noticed any sonic difference between bouncing stereo interleaved and mulitple mono? thanks.

[@?,*???&?]

If you're talking about data, there is no difference. If you're talking about maintaining 24-bit audio onto your hard drive as a mix file, then that question answers itself. As to which will sound better in the 16-bit domain, the file off the hard drive will sound best. Laser scatter is ugly.

[I'm Painting Again]

in my experience an external burner sounds better..may not be true for everybody..but a dump to my 24bit sony burner sounds better than a bounce in Logic platinum..then a burn with itunes..thats using the analog in on the burner and the outs of the computers converters..i imagine and i will try this soon is that a digital connection between the two will sound even better..but who knows till you try it right?

[Family Hoof]

It always sounds better when you don't have to stare at a computer screen.

[brew]

There is no sonic difference with bouncing to stereo interleaved or multiple mono, as already stated. Data is data, it is always the same. When you download a Word document, save it to your hard disc, and then put it on a floppy and open it again down the street, do you get misspelled words that weren't there before? Nope.

in my experience an external burner sounds better..may not be true for everybody..but a dump to my 24bit sony burner sounds better than a bounce in Logic platinum..then a burn with itunes..thats using the analog in on the burner and the outs of the computers converters..

If that method sounds better to you, then that's perfectly legit, but remember that you are enjoying the added coloration and distortion from an additional A/D/A conversion.

i imagine and i will try this soon is that a digital connection between the two will sound even better..but who knows till you try it right?

A digital connection from DAW to external device (barring dither/word length reduction) will be identical to a bounce in the DAW. There will be no sonic difference here because again, data is data, it doesn't inexplicably change down the wire.

As to which will sound better in the 16-bit domain, the file off the hard drive will sound best. Laser scatter is ugly.

Laser scatter? How about Nonsense. And you can prove it by ripping that burned CD back into your DAW, lining it up with the dithered 16 bit bounce file, and phase inverting one of them. Totally cancelled. Whatever laser scatter is, is a myth, like green inking your CDs for superior sound. The shit just works.

[rob@SigmaDelta]

Laser scatter? How about Nonsense. And you can prove it by ripping that burned CD back into your DAW, lining it up with the dithered 16 bit bounce file, and phase inverting one of them. Totally cancelled. Whatever laser scatter is, is a myth, like green inking your CDs for superior sound. The shit just works.

Funny, never worked here. Depending on the burner, assume a consumer cd burner, Ive found about -80 to -70db difference in average cases (slightly scratched or jittery-burned cds). It's called interpolation to deal with various problems reading from the cd.

laser scatter is a silly idea though.

Anyways, generally external cd burners will have better error-checking, interpolation, data streaming and more stable mechanics (leading to fewer errors). They WILL sound better usually if you got digital to digital.

Remeber burning a cd is not digital magic, it's a physical process prone to errors. And dealing with these errors can cause large differences between the source and end product. If you want to give it a go, scrub a cd you burned with a mild abrasive but not enough so it skips. Rip it with cdex, wma, winamp in a realtime mode import and invert. Point proven.

Dont even bother trying to use something like EAC in this test. Very unrealistic results when dealing with how a cd will sound when playedback since you generally dont have the luxury of usin such elaborate error correction systems in a playback device.

[edit] this is all assuming you're burning straight to redbook. If you're burning data files, you will be fine due to the luxury of redundant sector scanning and the like:)

[I'm Painting Again]

There is no sonic difference with bouncing to stereo interleaved or multiple mono, as already stated. Data is data, it is always the same. When you download a Word document, save it to your hard disc, and then put it on a floppy and open it again down the street, do you get misspelled words that weren't there before? Nope.

I don't know man..i can hear a difference..its not the distortion and the like from the additional conversion and going either..its more like a muddifying and messed up mix levels..i think the mixing/summing code of audio software definitely effects the sound..especially with a bunch of dsp running on a mix..i dont use any plugins anymore or bounce to disk for this reason..

[rob@SigmaDelta]

There is no way interleaved is different from multiple mono. If there IS, digidesign is a bigger bunch of idiots than I previously suspected. (no disrespect to the workers, only the company).

It is identical data, it is simply written to the file different. Stereo interleaved is a single file that contains alternating sets of bytes (2-3byte blocks for 16-24bit). Left then right left the right left then right. Multiple mono is 2 files with straight raw data written along with the header and such in big/little endien depending on if you're wav/aiff.

Stereo interleaved is also much friendlier on your hard drive, and some plugins.

It's funny how people can find the oddest differences in sound for identical things... or assert ludicrous myths just because "I can hear it". Bleh.

[I'm Painting Again]

It's funny how people can find the oddest differences in sound for identical things... or assert ludicrous myths just because "I can hear it". Bleh.

LOL