response 38 of 119:

May 30 19:01 UTC 2001

I'm only out $4 in "coasters" so far, and I buy expensive blanks at 
$1 each including the box.  (And I still have the boxes!)  I've now
done three successful burns in a row; I will leave things set the 
way they are for now, but eventually I do want to see if I can go 
back up to 4x speed if I have the screen saver/power management stuff
shut down.

response 40 of 119:

May 31 13:28 UTC 2001

CompUSA tends to creep me out, but they do seem to have the cheapest media
(even if you buy a name-brand spindle instead of a shrinkwrap "too cheap even
for a spindle" bundle of generic media).

Plus you can find interesting orphaned computer stuff being sold off, like
the touchpad mice I bought 3 of a few weeks ago.

response 42 of 119:

May 31 17:59 UTC 2001

resp:38 :: mission accomplished.  With the power management and screen
saver stuff switched off, I can reliably run the CD writer at 4x, which is  its
top rated speed.

Now I'm fussing over between-track timings.

response 44 of 119:

May 31 20:37 UTC 2001

True enjoyment requires suffering.  :)

On the subject of CompUSA and cheap media, has anybody actually tried one of
those generic bundles of CD-R?

response 46 of 119:

Jun 1 01:08 UTC 2001

I'm looking for control of between-track spacing while recording as
"disc-at-once."  Mickey described a PAUSE column to me in the CD Layout
window, but I don't seem to have that option.  My Easy CD Creator is 
version "4.02d S45" copyright 1999.

response 48 of 119:

Jun 1 03:28 UTC 2001

There is no version 5, just 4....to my knowledge.  What you could do, is find
someone to loan your theirs or burn a copy of their cd for you to install...

response 50 of 119:

Jun 1 18:24 UTC 2001

        It took several attempts for a freind to make a CD for me
on his own equipment.  Found he also needed to turn off virus 
protection and isolate the machine to be more reliable.  Something
humorous about fiddleing with NERO to burn a CD-ROMe.

response 52 of 119:

Jun 2 12:21 UTC 2001

Look for the "cdrdao" program.  I've got it on Linux, but I think there are
versions for other programs.  It lets you rip a CD to a big binary and then
burn that back to CD-R for a copy with the spacing intact.

response 54 of 119:

Jun 2 18:57 UTC 2001

I'm not sure I understand how what Scott and ashke are describing differs
from how Roxio/Adaptec CD Creator works.  CD Creator builds an image of the 
CD in the windows\temp directory and then burns from that.
 
The question seems to be, what are between-track pauses -- are they 
instructions in the Table of Contents to stop for a few seconds?
I start to suspect that the gaps are not represented by a data stream
with playing time, as they would be in an analog medium.

If so, I can see where problems would develop, since if you are 
building a disc image one track at a time, from multiple source 
discs, then there would be no reason for the program to preserve
between-track information from source disc Tables of Contents.

I need to experiment and see if "CD Copier", part of the Adaptec/Roxio 
package, preserves between-track gaps.
~

response 56 of 119:

Jun 3 03:33 UTC 2001

My impression with Disc-at-Once (DAO) was that its entire purpose was to
eliminate the 1-2 sec pause between tracks, which was the result of the laser
physically stopping and starting again. I haven't noticed this issue, mostly
because I rather like having one song start immediately after another. I'll
have to check to see how this works with my version of EZ CDCreator. It seems
unclear whether the software copies one large binary to the \temp when DAO
is selected (as Scott says that this "cdrdao" program will), or if it copies
each file as a separate .wav file and then merely instructs the laser not to
stop during the burning process. I believe that the between-track pause is
indeed a TOC entry, not a physically recorded blank space. 

Mostly, I use the DAO option in EZ CD because it is the only recording method
that will save CD Text information, and I've found that very helpful for when
I forget to label what the disc is and then it sits around for weeks. When
I need to know what sort of obscurity is on the disc, I can put it back in
the computer and get the information again. 

I wonder, do you notice the songs running together on the CD-Rs I've sent you?
I'm 99% sure that all of those were recorded using disc-at-once ... especially
the ones that began as mp3s, e.g. Luar Na Lurbre & Lais. Only once have I
encountered a set of mp3s that had to be recorded without the gap between
tracks, and that was because the original CD had been recorded in the same
way. 

For clarification, ashke, were you saying that when making a CD-R from several
CD sources, you find it helpful to copy each redbook audio track to a .wav
file on your hard drive, and then direct EZ CD to those wave files for
assembly onto CD-R?

Ken, I've been listening to the 3 CD-Rs you sent me extensively over the past
26 hours, and I've found them of extremely good quality. You must be doing
something right. ;-)

response 58 of 119:

Jun 3 18:16 UTC 2001

Yes, Mickey, thank you very much.  That is what I was saying.  

response 60 of 119:

Jun 10 15:04 UTC 2001

There's a Unix/Linux program called "cdparanoia" which is designed to work
around that sort of problem by reading the data directly and cleaning up the
data as needed.

I just finished (well, not really finished, but read on) a vinyl-to-CD copy
of Adrian Belew's "Twang Bar King".  I use Linux, and on Linux use "yarec"
to record and "snd" to trim the track files.  The snd package isn't the most
elegant thing in the world (maybe on it's native platform Solaris it is), so
I have to follow certain steps to avoid problems when using it.  One thing
I have to do is click the "sync" option so that changes I make affect both
left and right channels.  I was wondering what would really happen if I missed
doing that, and it turns out I found out on the currently-playing track on
the test CD.  The right and left channels are about 1.5 seconds out of sync.
D'oh!  Guess I have to re-record that track.

I also think I need a subsonic filter for my turntable and preamp.  Since the
last vinyl copy I repatched things so that I'm getting my signal direct from
the RIAA preamp without running through the rest of the receiver.  What I'm
seeing in the wave file editor is some inaudible low frequency stuff, perhaps
footsteps through the concrete floor and other vibrations.

response 62 of 119:

Jun 11 01:33 UTC 2001

(Dammit, that's the second time in recent days I've misapplied the apostrophe
in "it's".  Getting sloppy...)