Exporting for CD

I tried exporting a set of 4 tracks for a CD using the CD preset, I put CD track markers at the start of each audio section, but the generated ToC file was missing the first track.

Is there some simple and obvious mistake I might have made to get this result?

Also is there a way to make it generate a 2 second “pre-gap” at the start of each track?

In case it matters, this is with the latest Ardour 3.5.74 downloaded from this site.

Up to now, when creating a CD I’ve exported each track to a separate .WAV file and created the CD ToC separately: this is the first time I’ve tried getting Ardour to do it. I am hoping to do mastering in the future by creating an Ardour project containing all the mixed stereo tracks, but it isn’t goping to happen unless I can get the CD track markers to work reliably.

i just done the same thing as a test and looked at the cd toc file in a text file. all 4 of the cd markers i created are there. however it looks a little odd to me

CD_DA
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE_MAP {
0 : EN
}
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE “session”
PERFORMER “”
}
}

TRACK AUDIO
COPY
NO PRE_EMPHASIS
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE “mark1”
PERFORMER “”
}
}
FILE “/media/ExternalDrive/Ardour/Driving Saturday/export/CD/session.wav” 00:00:00 00:04:00
START 00:00:72

TRACK AUDIO
COPY
NO PRE_EMPHASIS
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE “mark2”
PERFORMER “”
}
}
FILE “/media/ExternalDrive/Ardour/Driving Saturday/export/CD/session.wav” 00:04:00 00:04:00
START 00:00:00

TRACK AUDIO
COPY
NO PRE_EMPHASIS
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE “mark3”
PERFORMER “”
}
}
FILE “/media/ExternalDrive/Ardour/Driving Saturday/export/CD/session.wav” 00:08:01 00:03:67
START 00:00:00

TRACK AUDIO
COPY
NO PRE_EMPHASIS
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE “mark4”
PERFORMER “”
}
}
FILE “/media/ExternalDrive/Ardour/Driving Saturday/export/CD/session.wav” 00:11:68 03:40:12
START 00:00:00

But all 4 markers are there.

Is your first marker before your start marker?

Is your first marker before your start marker?
Funny you should mention that :-) Yes, I took another look and found that to be the case, and I did some experiments and also read up on Red Book requirements for "Pre-gap" So Red Book specifies a pre-gap of at least two seconds on the first track, but doesn't care about the others. To get the required 2 second pregap on track 1, I must have the first CD track marker at least 2 seconds after the start marker, and preferably not have any audible sound starting until after the CD track marker.

With Ardour’s exported ToC file, I don’t get pre-gaps on the other tracks, but I don’t think I need them. I could add PREGAPs to the ToC file if I wanted to, but my plan for the future is to put all the tracks of a CD in one Ardour project and set the inter-track timing by moving the regions; having done that to my satisfaction I don’t want to add any extra silence.

Thanks for taking an interest and posting, anyway.

You can put audio into the pre-gap and it will only play if you “rewind” to before the first track’s start on the CD player. That’s the place where you put your “easter egg”: a dedication or message (or an occult satanic curse!).