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25 new of 119 responses total.
ashke
response 39 of 119: Mark Unseen   May 31 11:25 UTC 2001

Like I said ken, I have boxes from "the beginning" when I did that, 2 years
ago, when you couldn't get cds on a spindle for cheaper.  So I have a HUGE
backlog of boxes.  However, if you go to Best Buy or CompUSA, you can buy
cases, slimlines are more for the $$ and you can get a lot for cheap.  Trust
me, it's worth it.
scott
response 40 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
ashke
response 41 of 119: Mark Unseen   May 31 17:37 UTC 2001

CompUSA tends to creep me out too, but sometimes they're cheaper than Best
Buy and just down the walk.  I much preferred the one in Novi, until I began
to know more than the sales staff, and I had to stop myself from correcting
them in front of the customers.  I don't like going somehwere and they don't
know the difference between a Zip and the new 250 Zip...
krj
response 42 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
dbratman
response 43 of 119: Mark Unseen   May 31 18:38 UTC 2001

Ken, you sound a lot happier than you did before.  Those initial posts 
came across as those of a deeply frustrated man.
scott
response 44 of 119: Mark Unseen   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?
micklpkl
response 45 of 119: Mark Unseen   May 31 21:41 UTC 2001

resp:44  - I'm 3/4 of the way down a stack of 100 of the generic CD-Rs at
the moment. I actually counted the "coasters" last night, and I've made eight
of the buggers, out of the 77 that I've used so far. A couple of these seemed
to be poor quality in the media (weird distortions in the audio upon playback)
but most were a result of my under-powered computer.
krj
response 46 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
krj
response 47 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 1 01:14 UTC 2001

I found a zdnet page saying that this feature comes with Easy CD Creator
Deluxe, not with the OEM versions shipped with burners.  How annoying.
I certainly don't want to touch Version 5.  I will need to come up 
with ten seconds of silence as a track, I guess, to insert between
an album and the filler tracks.
ashke
response 48 of 119: Mark Unseen   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...
krj
response 49 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 1 05:45 UTC 2001

(See above responses.  Easy CD Creator Version 5 is reported to be a 
system-killer in Windows 2000 and to cause serious performance problems
with Windows 9x, according to http://www.theregister.co.uk .  
The Register tends a bit towards yellow tech journalism, but I've 
seen the Windows 2000 story elsewhere.   One might also look at 
http://www.roxio.com .)
 
Mickey showed me how to create 15 seconds of silence
with Windows Sound Recorder, and that's all that I need.   I just 
like a few quiet moments between the end of an album, and the filler
tracks I might stuff in at the end.
tpryan
response 50 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
krj
response 51 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 2 04:04 UTC 2001

Well, poot.  Disc-at-once does not preserve the between-track spacing
on the source disc.  I have a source disc which didn't leave any padding in 
the sound files, and the songs are practically colliding with each other 
on the recorded disc.
scott
response 52 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
ashke
response 53 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 2 15:57 UTC 2001

Like I said, Ken, I reccommend, if you can afford the space, to save things
on your hard drive, make a format, save that, and then make cds off that. 
When I first began I did it, putting one cd in the drive that held one song,
and flipping, and it was too much work.  But it gives less errors, IMHO to
do it all from the hard drive.  no guesswork.
krj
response 54 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
~
ashke
response 55 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 01:29 UTC 2001

CD Copier will copy a cd exactly.  Mostly used for whole cd copies and <ahem>
copying data cds.    So yes, it does "preserve the between-track gaps".  If
you're making a cd from drifferent tracks, CD copier should automatically add
a 2 second or so gap between items.  
I'll have to look it up and let you know...
micklpkl
response 56 of 119: Mark Unseen   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. ;-)

scott
response 57 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 11:41 UTC 2001

Converting a bunch of .wav files to a single binary would probably help a
slower CPU keep up with a fast CD burner.
ashke
response 58 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 18:16 UTC 2001

Yes, Mickey, thank you very much.  That is what I was saying.  
krj
response 59 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 10 05:40 UTC 2001

I had an annoying failure tonight.  The story is too long to type in 
right now, but my best analysis of it is that I have a source disc
which is just a wee bit off center, and this is causing read errors
on the CD-R drive.  The first copy has lots of staticy noise on 
tracks from this one CD, but not on tracks which came from a different
CD.  And the CD-R drive seems to vibrate excessively when the suspect
CD is in it, and I have gotten the staticy noise intermittently when
just playing the CD using Winamp, again only on this once CD.
 
If I had time I might try to figure out how to take the disc spinning
speed down to 1x.  Only a mild annoyance, really, since this problem 
CD was just contributing filler tracks to the tunes I really wanted.
scott
response 60 of 119: Mark Unseen   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.
orinoco
response 61 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 11 00:33 UTC 2001

I'll vouch for cdparanoia as well.  It's rendered a few of my "unplayable"
CDs readable.
scott
response 62 of 119: Mark Unseen   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...)
mcnally
response 63 of 119: Mark Unseen   Jun 11 03:14 UTC 2001

  re #59:  audio playback of a CD (in WinAmp or any other CD-player you might
  choose) is already at 1x speed..  So if you're experiencing problems playing
  that CD in WinAmp you can slow your CD-burning software down all you want
  but it's doubtful that that, by itself, will fix the problem.
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