I can’t post in the WaveLab forum so forgive me for posting here. I need to create the best possible CD for a piece I have. I have access to a small theatre where I can evaluate/play the CD so I want to have the best possible master to do this with. I presently don’t own any version of WaveLab but am willing to pop for Elements if it can do this.
The file is in WAV format. I burned it using Media Player. Sounds OK but it doesn’t play on many CD players and the sound is very faint.
You don’t need Wavelab, what you need is to learn how to make your file louder and to use a different brand of CD.
Yes wavelab can help you with the first, but so can Cubase.
CDrs can be finicky about what player they playback on, it’s not the burning software.
I remixed the piece with the help of a compressor so it’s much louder. Actually, I like this mix much better. The problem now is what CD brand. I can only get Verbatim locally. In the past I couldn’t use Verbatim DVDs and was able to swap them for Sonys which worked OK. Can you suggest something more fail safe then the Verbatims?
Not really, some burners like some makes over others!
I made a burn with iTunes. It produced a track.cda that will play on a variety of CDs. However, it sounds lousy. I’m hearing certain frequencies that I don’t hear on the WAV file and others are almost not there. The sound between the original files, the WAV file and the CD are miles apart.
On one hand, I’m able to send out a CD for evaluation. On the other, it sounds like $hit. Don’t know what to do to fix this.
Are you playing it back on the same system you recorded it on with a player that has no enhancements or EQ switched on.
That is like for like. if you are and it sound wrong then something happened.
If it sound fine when played back on the same system that it’s recorded on, ie via Cubase CD import and crap on other systems then the mix is bad.
I found out the problem was exporting at 32 bit instead of 16 bit. I did another burn at 16 bit using imgBurn and got a really good CD. Was still a little soft in the volume department but otherwise a good burn.
Yeah, that would be a problem 
Most burning software would tell you and not try to burn a 32 bit file. I use to have a utility on my old computer that would try to play 32 bit files and hard truncate the bottom or top (could never work out which) 16 bits!!! result was a full scale blast of highly distorted noise with a bit of music getting through
you’ve been in my studio again tut tut 
yep it has to be 16 bit all the way for all industry standard readers and home players as split as pointed out