CD-Text Character Limit

I just had to assemble a DDP with some really song song titles and one of them was 193 characters.

The CD-Text entry of WaveLab wouldn’t allow the entire name to be entered. Out of curiosity I tried to do it in HOFA CD-Burn.DDP.MASTER app and it allowed the long title.

Is there a legal limit for CD-Text characters or did WaveLab just assume that at a certain number, it would never be used beyond that?

I’m guessing Hofa is probably technically right, that a single song title shouldn’t be limited to a fixed limit, unless it makes the total exceed the total limit for all the CD text. But there may be players that won’t display all of it.

Wavelab 9 on Windows now gives you a warning if the total CD Text limit is exceeded, but I think that’s only on Windows because of the Gear driver and it only appears when you go to make DDP or CD. I don’t think there’s such a warning on Mac, but maybe I’m wrong. PG could confirm or correct me on that.

The Gear driver limits to 160 characters. As far as I remember, this is the legal length for one entry. But bob99 might right too.

The worst thing would be if nothing appears reading the final product, like in this thread:

That would be something to test with a cd made in Hofa.

Thanks guys. I’ll have to take a closer look but I was curious if there was a clear answer.

Do you have a good relationship with a replicator? Maybe ask them what they think “real world”. You don’t want them calling your client asking them to sign a waiver or something down the track.

Good question. This job is actual for a CD broker (or middle man) so I have made them aware of the situation and they can check with the replicator they use.

I do a lot of work for this company because so many of their customers send them a bunch of WAV files not realizing that is not a CD production master so I assemble the DDP and send it back with HOFA DDP Player for them to approve before pressing.

This is the first time such a long track name has come up.