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| Author |
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| 25 new of 119 responses total. |
mcnally
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response 83 of 119:
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Aug 27 05:18 UTC 2001 |
re #81: the original SCSI Ricoh CD-R drive I have is a single-speed drive.
backing up a CD thus takes 40-70 minutes just to write the disc, during
which time overtaxing the computer can cause an underflow in the CD-R
drive's buffer, which is quite small compared to those found on current
models..
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rcurl
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response 84 of 119:
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Aug 27 15:56 UTC 2001 |
That answers my question, but I didn't know that a SCSI drive is more
expensive than a USB drive. (I have some interest in this as I have
been backing-up my computer on CR-R with Retrospect Express, which adjusts
its own write speed, and only doing a little direct archiving with Toast
on a USB CD-R, where I have to simulate the burn first to be sure I
wont get an overflow.)
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mcnally
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response 85 of 119:
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Aug 27 18:34 UTC 2001 |
SCSI peripherals are quite expensive these days, at least compared to
(more or less) equivalent products that use a different interface.
USB drives cost more than EIDE, it's true, but the price difference is
largely accounted for by the fact that the external USB devices need a
case (and power supply? I doubt they run off the power supplied by the
bus); otherwise the USB interface adds only $10-20 to the cost.
The least expensive SCSI drives I've found around here would cost at
least $250, which is double to triple the cost of a same-speed EIDE drive..
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rcurl
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response 86 of 119:
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Aug 27 18:45 UTC 2001 |
It's true you can't get external SCSI devices for Macs anymore - have
to opt for USB or firewire. Except I found a PCI board for my G4 that
supports both SCSI and Serial - apparently it is quite popular for
Apple users' legacy devices.
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tpryan
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response 87 of 119:
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Nov 2 18:35 UTC 2001 |
Well, since August I've been learning and using my new
PC and the CD burning software.
The Sony Vaio computer came with Prassi Primo 2.0, made
by Veritas Software as the CD burner. The CD burner is a
Pioneer that will burn up to 8x.
I installed EZ CD Creator, as that is what other people
have, and if I am to learn from them, It is something they know.
Found out that version 4 does not know about my CD burner (it's
to new), so I have version 5 installed.
The PC also came with Sonic Foundry Sound Forge XP 4.5 as
an editor (not the complete version, it only gives me 24 or so
free conversions to .mp3). A rather good editor. Shape fades
as one likes. Process selected or overal volume adjustments.
Fixes DC bias problems on demand. It's pitch control is in
musical terms, and I played with it some--I found a formula
to make it sound like a 33&1/3rd rpm is spinning at 45 rpm;
mostly by fiddling with things until the processed track came
out at the calculated percent. I found that it does read .mpg
(MPEG *video* files) and can leave me with a .wav file--that's
what I used to take the PC recorded 'A Tribute to Heroes'
concert and used it too make an audio CD for myself out of the
songs.
In putting together my (Halloween) Creepy Collection
(see recent item), I found the first compilation disc made up
of extracted CD cuts and line-in recorded tracks had some
clicks at track change time. Is there something in that a
.wav file should really be some multiple of 1/75th of a second?
if it is to be recorded to CD that has 75 frames (or sectors)
per second? I was wondering if that lack of a totally filled
frame might be giving me an end of track click, particularly if
the missing part is about 1/150th of a second? I got the click
when I recorded using Disk-At-Once using the Prassi software, but
did not when I used the Roxio software. Could it be filling in
the missing bits for me? Again using DAO, so that I may record
with CD-Text as the drives support that. (My new CD player for
the stereo system also shows the CD-Text, as does the Roxio
portable).
I also had fun with clicks and such during the song.
On one, I found the click in the .wav file. I don't know if
it came during the digital recording from the cassette tape, in
the original material. However, using the editor, I found out
I can put up with a two-thousands of a second hole more than
I can put up with a two-thousands of a second click.
I am having fun yet?
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other
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response 88 of 119:
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Nov 3 19:03 UTC 2001 |
I'm having defective prodcut trauma with a CDRW I just received from
Formac Electronic Inc. in Berkeley, CA. They want me to bear the cost of
shipping it back to them for replacement when it arrived in damaged
condition.
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tpryan
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response 89 of 119:
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Nov 8 16:53 UTC 2001 |
I discovered that the Sony 5 CD changer I got earlier this
year is capable of playing an audio disc burnt onto a CD-RW. Great!
Now I can make a test-listen CD before a final version.
The Roxio portable player also plays CD-RW discs.
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krj
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response 90 of 119:
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Nov 13 05:08 UTC 2001 |
Either the Iomega Predator USB drive, or the USB drivers on the laptop,
have started malfunctioning badly. For a while the CD writing process
would abort somewhere in writing the first track. I was blaming
this on the Imation CD blanks I had switched to, and so I picked
up some more TDK blanks, the ones I'd used with good success.
Tonight, problems have worsened to the point that one does not even
get around to putting a blank CD into the unit.
On my first try, the CD-R drive would not recognize that it had a disk
inserted, and after a reboot the computer does not recognize that
it has the USB drive attached. I suppose we'll de-install and
reinstall the software that came with the drive and see where
we get.
I've also now got a friend who bought one of these devices, so
if he gets his up and working, then we can swap drives to
on his machine to try to rule out hardware problems.
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flem
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response 91 of 119:
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Nov 16 19:08 UTC 2001 |
Hmm, this might be a good place to ask a question that's been on my back
burner for years.
My family has this (vinyl) record that is traditionally played at Christmas
time, when decorating the tree. We've had this record for something like 30
years, and it's getting pretty gruesome. I've tried to find a newer copy of
the music, but it seems to be a doomed effort. The record company that made
it no longer exists (well, actually, a record company by the same name does
exist, but seems to be a small seattle-based company specializing in
bleeding-edge hip-hop. Probably not the same people), and no one seems to
have any secondhand copies of the record kicking around. I did run across
one reference to it, on the playlist for a late-night radio show on a Berkeley
station in 2000, which might be worth tracking down if it turns out that our
copy is too trashy to use.
What I'd like to do, obviously, is get this music to a digital form.
Ideally, I would run it through some kind of cleanup process to extract as
much as possible of the original sound.
The question then becomes, how do I go about doing this? I have no real
knowledge of these matters. Are there professional services that could do
this sort of thing for a non-astronomical price?
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micklpkl
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response 92 of 119:
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Nov 16 19:24 UTC 2001 |
You might try the following websites who will convert LPs to CD:
http://www.lp2cd.com (which appears to have been hacked at the moment,
alas) http://www.vinyl2CD.com
As far as guidelines for doing this yourself (which I have never done, nor
have I experience with the above-listed companies) you might try the following
sites:
http://www.technocopia.com/read-20000206-cdfromlp.html
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~abcomp/lp-cdr.htm#record
I'm sure there are others with more direct experience in this.
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scott
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response 93 of 119:
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Nov 16 19:30 UTC 2001 |
I've transferred vinyl to CD, but not done cleanup aside from trimming. Greg,
I'd be happy to at least get it onto a CD for you.
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orinoco
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response 94 of 119:
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Nov 16 19:48 UTC 2001 |
(Out of curiosity, what's the recording?)
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rcurl
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response 95 of 119:
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Nov 16 22:03 UTC 2001 |
I was going to say...the first step is reading the label.
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flem
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response 96 of 119:
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Nov 18 20:47 UTC 2001 |
A Children's Introduction to the Nutcracker Suite. Narrated by Captain
Kangaroo. :)
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tpryan
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response 97 of 119:
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Nov 19 19:18 UTC 2001 |
If I record a CD (on a CD-RW this time) then re-extract those
tracks to .WAVs and record them again, am I getting any loss?
I am using this routine to use the volume Normalizer in
Audiograbber, as the Normalizer in Roxio EZ CD Creator seems to
add an additional DC bias to the .WAV file. (I can see DC bias
in the WAV editor, as the center of the wave being above the
center point/zero point of the viewer.) I also use the technique
to get .WAVs that are an even multiple of one CD audio frame long.
Fractional frames seem to leave a click at the begining or end of
a track.
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krj
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response 98 of 119:
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Mar 11 01:32 UTC 2002 |
After several months of total discouragement, we tried to start working
with the Iomega Predator USB cd writer again. The first step tonight
was to attempt the firmware upgrade which Iomega recommended for
the unit. Unfortunately after the firmware upgrade, which by all
appearances ran successfully, the CD writer is no longer recognized
by windows, at all. We can't find any sign that it's connected
to the computer. Uninstalling and reinstalling the supporting software
doesn't seem to do any good.
This is probably the last straw. We've wasted $300 and a year screwing
around with this outstanding product; we got about 10-15 good
CDs out of it in a brief period around May and June 2001, and that
was it. Right now we're fighting the urge to smash it into pieces and
ship it back to Iomega.
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dbratman
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response 99 of 119:
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Mar 11 22:26 UTC 2002 |
And another "early adopter" bites the dust.
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krj
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response 100 of 119:
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Mar 12 05:46 UTC 2002 |
Hah. Leslie went out today and bought a Plextor brand "Plexwriter."
This appears to be a CD writer designed for tower case mounting, which
has been stuffed into a a stand-alone case with a USB connector
attached. $199, about 25% cheaper than the (*expletive deleted*)
Iomega unit from last year.
We have not yet tried making a music CD. However, Leslie dumped a
bunch of photos to CD -- she has a year's worth of pictures piled
on her laptop hard drive -- and it worked fine, first try.
Since most of our failures with the Predator involved problems
with getting the drive to accept the CD-R blanks, or getting the
laptop to communicate with the drive, I regard it as a very good
sign that these basic functions work with the new unit.
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mcnally
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response 101 of 119:
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Mar 12 17:35 UTC 2002 |
I doubt I'll ever waste my time by purchasing another non-Plextor
CD burner in the future. My experiences with the Ricoh combo drive
(DVD/CD-RW) I've got have been so frustrating and so time consuming
that any money I saved by not buying a Plextor in the first place is
insignificant compared to hassle, expense, and wasted time incurred.
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ea
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response 102 of 119:
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Mar 14 05:10 UTC 2002 |
Count me as another satisfied Plextor user.
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dbratman
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response 103 of 119:
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Mar 14 17:44 UTC 2002 |
Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
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krj
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response 104 of 119:
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Mar 18 21:45 UTC 2002 |
Steve Andre' had an amusing story for me this morning. He met someone
who had nothing but dismal failure using a Plextor USB CD writer,
and who is now a happy user of a Iomega Predator unit: the exact
opposite of the path we travelled.
The Plextor writer is built like a Soviet truck -- it's in a solid
steel case and weighs more than the laptop which drives it.
The Easy CD Creator 5 which came with the Plextor has a few odd
glitches. The two most annoying ones:
when reading from a CD, it does not tell you what track number
it's on.
we no longer seem to have control over where the temporary
disk copy goes, which is a problem because our C: drive is
crammed full. The program insists on using C: for a "copy CD"
function but seems smart enough to use D: (without giving us a
choice) for "music CD" creation.
At least this version of Easy CD 5 fixed the system-killer bug which
was discussed earlier...
The "utility" software which came packaged with the Plextor is
from a company called Oak. I haven't played with it yet, but Leslie
was able to turn some mp3 files back into CDs without any difficulty.
What are some good options for MP3 editing? Or does all editing
have to be done on files in the WAV format? I'm looking
for the most convenient ways to handle one-hour blocks of audio
recorded off the radio -- both for archiving, and to extract the
best bits for compilations.
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tpryan
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response 105 of 119:
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Mar 21 06:21 UTC 2002 |
I have an MP3 editor made by Data Becker. Found it at the
store for something like $19 or $29. It does keep things in the
MP3 format without going to intermediate wav format. I use it
to get rid of the commercials at the end of radio show segments
I get. Think I got it at Circuit City, as I have not seen it
at other stores. It is crude, the fades are pre-programmed
and the help text not edited by someone who speaks English as
their first language, but it is there, worth the $19, I would
consider it a rip-off if it was more expensive. Come over to
test run it on something you have if you want.
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jazz
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response 106 of 119:
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Mar 21 07:25 UTC 2002 |
The Iomega Predator in question has some odd problems; it seems to
be a one-off, most of Iomega's products, and most external CD-RW drives,
aren't that buggy.
A friend of mine did buy the Philips CD duplicator; he was unhappy
with it, since it was unable to burn at high speeds and made mixing
difficult, and since spent the money on a tower system with a burner.
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krj
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response 107 of 119:
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Mar 23 00:08 UTC 2002 |
We saw a product tonight which made it tough to resist an immediate
purchase. The Creative Soundblaster people have an outboard USB
sound card, the Extigy, for $150. This seems ideal for laptop users.
Mickey told me about this a while ago and for some reason it did not
fully register. It has lots of connectivity, including minidisc options.
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