Playing CDs

Part 1: Understanding the Technology

Before you learn how to play CDs, you need to understand a bit about how CDs work.

The way a CD works is by using a laser to read minuscule bumps in the surface. These bumps represent digital 1s and 0s. The music is encoded in a spiral of data from the inside to the outside of the disk. The most important thing is that you avoid scratching or smudging the discs, or the data will be irreparably damaged.

Part 2: Understanding the Studio Equipment

We have a couple of different CD players in the studio, but we'll just go over the most complicated type of unit, the              Marantz PMD 340. This is a professional grade CD player and has superb audio quality.

The most important buttons on the machine are Eject, Exit/Stop, Clear/Cue, and Enter/Play/Pause. These, along with the index +/- buttons, make up all the things you need to ever use on this machine.

The Buttons and Their Functions

• Eject - Pops the CD tray out for loading
• Stop - Immediately stops the playing track and resets to the beginning of the track. 
• Cue - Has the selected track ready to play (armed)
• Play/Pause - Stops the currently playing track where it is and resumes it without changing the position.
• Index +/- - Changes the track to be played. Use this to select a specific song on an album.

Part 3: Playing CDs!

1. Insert the CD
2. Use the index buttons to select the track you want
3. Turn on the CD2 or CD3 input on the board depending on which cd player you inserted the disk into.
4. Press the Play/Pause button
5. Let the music flow!
6. Insert the next song in the other CD player and verify it is correct using the cue output on the console.
7. Seamlessly (if you have three arms) fade the last track, fade in the next track, and start the CD player at the same time.