quantize for CD

[Dan McDonald]

Just a question about the "quantize" tool. What does it do exactly? I don't seem to have any problem just chopping the files and using "Disk at once" methods for burning CDs. I never seem to get gaps that way. Should I be quantizing also?

Dan

[Rick]

Re: quantize for CD

Dan
You would not normally notice this if there is silence between the songs. Where it is noticable is when you try to make one song span multiple tracks as in some classical music or maybe a medley of songs where you put a track marker at the start of each song.
The Quantize function moves the markers to the nearest multiple of the basic CD block size. I forget exactly what the number is but somewhere around 1500 samples. The reason this makes a difference is that the CD recorder will add silence to pad the track out to one whole block. If there is just silence there already, you will not notice, but if it is in the middle of some music, you may notice a glitch.
So in all it is somewhat of a corner case where you will actually notice it.

Rick Carlson

[Dan McDonald]

Re: quantize for CD

Thanks, Rick. That explains a lot. I do a lot of transfers of concerts, and chop the file. Usually there is no problem, but occasionally you get a real slight blip between tracks - not two seconds of silence, but just little 'jolts'. It sounds like I should quantize routinely whenever there is a cut in the material, just to play it safe.

Dan

[Dan McDonald]

Re: quantize for CD

One more question -
If you quantize for CD audio but then process the file again, does that mean you need to re-quantize?

Dan

[Peter Allen]

Re: quantize for CD

Hi Dan,

I would think you don't need to requantize unless your processing changes the number of samples in the file to be "chopped".

Peter

[Rick]

Re: quantize for CD

Thats right. As long as the length of the song does not change, you do not need to re-quantize.

Rick Carlson

[Dan McDonald]

Re: quantize for CD

thanks - that saves some worry and time.

Dan