Converting audio to DDP for CD pressing?

[lintoni]

Any ideas, recommendations? Freeware/OS preferred. :)

[xjsb125]

Check out Reaper, or DDPtools. DDP Yoga will not help out, however.

[mwonter]

For the curious, here's a nice little piece on DDP files:
https://www.justmastering.com/article-ddpfileformat.php

Here's a copy and paste of some of it:

"DDP stands for "Disc Description Protocol", a proprietary format developed by DCA, Inc. DDP files are used when sending music to a CD manufacturer (also used for DVD formats). DDP files allow you to set all of the parameters for the CD such as the exact gap between each song, the cross fades and other information. A DDP file allows the producer and mastering engineer to have complete control over all parameters for the CD, therefore it is recommended for critical applications when you have very specific artistic needs for the production.


In the early days of CD manufacturing, a CD audio "master" would be sent to the manufacturer, and they would create a glass master from that CD from which all of the copies would be made with.This approach is still used today in many situations. The advantage is that it's simple. The disadvantage is that if your original CD master contains any data errors (which are quite common, just not easy to hear because the CD player "rebuilds" the damaged audio on playback using redundant information stored on the CD), those errors get included in the manufactured CDs as well. DDP files, on the other hand, have a significant amount of error correction built in which prevents any errors from making it to the final finished product.


Many CD manufacturers also accept regular audio files (typically WAV or AIF format), and there's nothing wrong with using those to assemble the CD from, however, it's important to note that unless you yourself can make time to meet with the manufacturer to set up the layout for the CD (gaps, any cross fades, pause marks etc), the manufacturer will most likely use a default setting which may or may not meet your needs.


Important Note: To avoid misunderstandings and extra cost, I recommend checking with the disc manufacturer, or duplicator, to confirm if they can accept a DDP file, before you choose to use this file format for your project. Many disc duplicators are setup to duplicate finished media (for example, an Audio CD), versus taking a DDP file and making an Audio CD from it. If you send them a DDP file in that situation, you may end up with several hundred disc-copies of a DDP file! To be safe, always ask first. "


And here's a link to some DDP creation freeware, available for windows, OS X and linux:
http://ddp.andreasruge.de/