Disc At Once?

[Dr. Wicked]

When writing to disc, does Microstudio 3 use Disc At Once? If not, is it possible?

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Dr. Wicked

When writing to disc, does Microstudio 3 use Disc At Once? If not, is it possible?

I believe it does already. Even if you write only one song file to the disc you cannot go back and add any more files to that disc. That would mean the disc is closed so that all drives should be able to read it.
What makes you question this? Did you have a problem?

[George]

I believe you're right, Dale.

I remember some discussion on the forum regarding an error message someone was getting to the effect that DAO had failed, and if I'm not mistaken support answered back that the drive was probably failing.

[Dr. Wicked]

No, I am not experiencing any problems. I don't use Microstudio much for Karaoke but instead mostly use it to compile custom audio discs. I am in a singing group that is putting out our first CD and the CD replication houses want the CD that they are going to make a glass master from to be created using DAO. If Microstudio does DAO then I can just use it to burn the CD. Otherwise, I have to get some other software to do it.

[ddouglass]

Then you should be set.

[George]

It's my understanding that when used to produce a master, DOA normally eliminates the two second gap between tracks.

If memory serves me right, the new Microstudio 3002 offers an option to include or eliminate the two second gap., I'd have to reinstall 3002 to confirm that. Perhaps ddouglas can check that out, unless you already have it.

Don't know if this is meaningful to you or not. Might be, depending on what your producers are used to working from, and I thought I'd mention it.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by George

It's my understanding that when used to produce a master, DOA normally eliminates the two second gap between tracks.

If memory serves me right, the new Microstudio 3002 offers an option to include or eliminate the two second gap., I'd have to reinstall 3002 to confirm that. Perhaps ddouglas can check that out, unless you already have it.

Don't know if this is meaningful to you or not. Might be, depending on what your producers are used to working from, and I thought I'd mention it.

Problem is George I am at work and don't have the program to look, but I do believe you are correct that feature was added.

[Dr. Wicked]

I had noticed that Version 3.002 did add the checkbox for "Write 2 Second Gap". I just didn't know if that switched the mode of writing the disc or if it was done in another way. I think usually when a program uses "Track-At-Once" to write the disc it puts the 2 second gap between tracks. I figured that Microstudio used DAO if you were copying the entire disc but was unsure if it did when compiling a custom disc. According to what I have read if any method other than DAO is used, the laser is turned on and off and leaves artifacts on the disc which are detrimental to the manufacturing process of creating the glass master because it sees them as errors. I read that many of the CD burning software packages (like Nero, CD Architect, etc.) have an option to select DAO or not. Not finding that as an option in Microstudio, I thought I would ask, hence my question. In case anyone is interested, I found this article which gives a pretty good description as to why DAO is needed for CD replication.

http://www.discmakers.com/pdf/makingcdmaster.pdf

[admin]

Microstudio's Write Tracks screen uses Track-At-Once, not DAO. However, the article you reference indicates TAO is also not "Fixating" or "Finishing" the disc, allowing more tracks to be written at a later time. This actually are two separate controls. Microstudio ALWAYS (even in Write Disc) writes a single session and closes the disc by writing a single FINALIZED TOC at the end. Thus, even with MS's Write Track, your producer may be able to use it. I don't think our code turns the laser on-off, but I'm not sure as we license this code. Send your producer two test discs; once written by Write Disc, and the same by Duplicate Disc and see what they say.

However, if you FIRST write your custom assembly list to a disc, and then use Duplicate Disc to copy that disc, it should write in DAO.

In Microstudio 3.002, we added a check-box option to remove the 2 second pregap written before each track. This is in the Write Disc screen. That might be helpful to you also.