optical disc authoring Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical disc (ty ...

, there are multiple modes for recording, including Disc-At-Once, Track-At-Once, and Session-At-Once.

CD Disc-At-Once

Disc-At-Once (DAO) for CD-R media is a mode that masters the disc contents in one pass, rather than a track at a time as in Track At Once. DAO mode, unlike TAO mode, allows any amount of audio data (or no data at all) to be written in the "pre-gaps" between tracks. One use of this technique, for example, is to burn track introductions to be played before each track starts. A CD player will generally display a negative time offset counting up to the next track when such pre-gap introductions play.

Pre-gap The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents (TOC). The pregap ("index 00") is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence. Po ...

audio before the first track of the CD makes it possible to burn an unnumbered, "hidden" audio track. This track can only be accessed by "rewinding" from the start of the first track, backwards into the pre-gap audio. DAO recording is also the only way to write data to the unused R-W sub-channels. This allows for extended graphic and text features on an audio CD such as

CD+G CD+G (also known as CD-G, CD+Graphics and TV-Graphics) is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device. CD+G discs are often used for ...

and

CD-Text CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book Compact Disc specifications standard for audio CDs. It allows storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist name) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The specification for CD ...

. It is also the only way to write audio files that link together seamlessly with no gaps, a technique often used in

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

and other music genres.

CD Track-At-Once

Track-At-Once (TAO) is a recording mode where the recording laser stops after each track is finished and two

run-out block Run-out or runout is an inaccuracy of rotating mechanical systems, specifically that the tool or shaft does not rotate exactly in line with the main axis. For example; when drilling, run-out will result in a larger hole than the drill's nominal ...

s are written. One link block and four run-in blocks are written when the next track is recorded. TAO discs can have both data and audio at the same time. There are 2 TAO writing modes * Mode 1 * Mode 2 XA

DVD-R Disc At Once

Disc-At-Once (DAO) recording for DVD-R media is a mode in which all data is written sequentially to the disc in one uninterrupted recording session. The on-disk contents result in a lead-in area, followed by the data, and closed by a lead-out area. The data is addressable in sectors of 2048 bytes each, with the first sector address being zero. There are no run-out blocks as in CD-R disc-at-once.

Session At Once

Session-At-Once (SAO) recording allows multiple sessions to be recorded and finalized on a single disc. The resulting disc can be read by computer drives, but sessions after the first are generally not readable by CD Audio equipment.

Audio Master Quality Recording

Audio Master Quality Recording was introduced by

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

in 2002. The feature is only available on some models, notably the Yamaha's CRW3200 and CRW-F1 series, and Plextor's Premium 2. CD Recorders with this feature are no longer manufactured. It uses the Disc-At-Once method, usually at 1x, but some recorders allow for 4x and 8x speed mode. Since the pits and lands are longer, the quantity of information that can fit on a disc is less than with a normal method: 63 minutes instead of 74 minutes on a 650MB CD or 68 min instead 80 minutes on a 700MB CD.{{cite web, url = http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yamahas-crw-f1-series-guarantees-cd-r-audio-excellence-via-advanced-audio-master-77834262.html, url-status = dead, archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120449/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yamahas-crw-f1-series-guarantees-cd-r-audio-excellence-via-advanced-audio-master-77834262.html, archive-date = 2014-08-26, title = Yamaha's CRW-F1 Series Guarantees CD-R Audio Excellence Via Advanced Audio Master -- re> BUENA PARK, Calif., June 10 /PRNewswire/ --

References