It's pretty fast, but it depends on what your playlist is like. If you have high-resolution files with lots of DSP, the MasterLink takes anywhere from slightly less than real time to 2x-4x speed to either burn a CD24 or, if you are making a Red Book CD, to process the files back to a rendered image on the hard disk. Once this rendered image is on the disk, the process is very fast: a 45-minute Red Book CD can be "burned" about every ten minutes.