Quick question regarding playing DDP files -
Do you recommend this or any other app for playing and analyzing DDP files created in Wavelab?
The two main ones in my opinion are HOFA DDP Player and Sonoris DDP Player:
I have seen a few others here and there but I would consider these most popular. A few mastering apps like Soundblade and Triumph come with their own DDP Player for your clients but I believe they are both Mac only players so that doesn’t really work well for all clients and also not really related to WaveLab in any way.
Both HOFA and Sonoris also offer versions of the DDP player that allow you to send a working DDP Player to your clients so they can approve the DDP on their own computer and/or burn CDs, so you may want to look at those options if you have a need for it. Those versions cost a bit more money because they will get more use but worth it if you have a lot of clients.
The HOFA stuff is generally more affordable than the Sonoris stuff. I prefer the HOFA DDP Player Maker for clients because the install/authorization is simpler for your clients. With HOFA, there is basically no install/authorization process…they just download the zip file and can launch the HOFA DDP Player and their DDP master in one click. With the Sonoris OEM version, the client first has to download, install, and authorize their version of the DDP Player app and then separately load the DDP file. For clients that are less tech savvy, this can be an issue. With the HOFA version, I never have client issues.
The plus side to the Sonoris OEM version is that it now comes with an iOS app version (no Android yet).
WaveLab can of course load DDP images but for a few reasons, I think it’s useful to have another method to open/play DDP files for double and triple checking things and I personally could not do without the HOFA DDP Player Maker for sending to clients.
Thank you for such a detailed answer, Justin. Great information.
+1 for everything Justin said.
I have both of these and … FWIW … prefer to do my QC and burn CDs with Sonoris. But 100% agree that the HOFA is super good for DDPs for clients.
Thanks for the info, Rat - I appreciate your response.
I purchased the HOFA DDP Player and it’s working fine. There isn’t much information to glean from it as all of the pauses between tracks are in my Audio Montage and so I only see CD time, duration, barcode, etc… I do not see any information regarding fade outs for example. Should I be?
This will be the first time I have sent a DDP file set to our manufacturer (Disc Makers). In the past we have always sent CD-Rs. Anything you can think of to advise me this first time so that everything goes smoothly is much appreciated.
Regarding the fade out times, there’s no way for a DDP file (and therefor a DDP Player) to know about any fades you did in your DAW. It basically sees the audio as one continuous file and then info about the ID markers, CD-Text/ISRC/UPC etc. All the fades are written into the audio for the DDP so it’s unaware of anything like that.
It’s normal to not see any fade out info. Some people still use separate CD track end/start markers between songs which creates a pre-gap (also known as negative time) and if you do this in your montage, you’ll see that info in a DDP Player, but I personally use the CD Track Splice Marker in WaveLab so that any space between songs is part of a track and not between tracks. It makes it easier to be sure the spacing between your songs is the same whether you make a DDP from WaveLab, or if you render WAV/mp3 files of each CD track.
The DDP Player is good for double checking all the track ID placements, song transitions and making sure there are no glitches between seamless tracks, CD-Text/ISRC/UPC but you certainly won’t see any fade times or anything like that…just the pre-gaps should you have any.
If what you hear in the DDP Player is correct, just zip the entire DDP folder and upload it to Disc Makers or whatever it needs to go.
Thanks Justin. I understand and all sounds good. Yes, any spaces between songs is part of the track in my audio montage so no pre-gap.
Thanks again!
Good deal. WaveLab 9 added a feature to include those pregaps in rendered files from the montage now, but unless I client specifically asks for pre-gaps, I just avoid them all together since about 2010 and stick to CD Track Splice markers which just simplifies things for me. Pre-gaps may still be valid for classical and live albums but the way digital distribution works, and how iTunes interprets pre-gaps when you import a CD, I think they’re basically obsolete for most normal album mastering these days.
Best of luck with all this.
kristinnavaro … also, in the HOFA player maker, you can generate a CD report from menu. This is, essentially, a PQ Sheet.
Thanks Rat - good to know.