Burning reliable Cds

[jonathansorensen]

Hi all,

The last 2 conferences I went to I had a problem with playback on my CDs. In one meeting, they all played back fine on some random boombox and in another, not a single song or CD would play even though we tried two different boomboxes and went through no less than 8-10 Cds.

So a of questions:
What software and hardware do you use to burn CDs?
Are you burning in realtime or something slower than the max?
Do you use a certain type or quality of CDs when it's an important situation (pitching a production or song)
Do you master to broadcast waves with metadata or are regular waves/mp3s/aiff's just fine?

Any and all info is appreciated.

Jon

[Casey H]

Very unlikely it's the software used to burn the CDs. The most likely culprit is the CD drive in the computer you are burining on-- it could have an alignment problem, putting it on the edge with respsect to other drives. Drives are cheap so I'd replace the one on your computer.

So far, for me, I haven't had problems with any brand of CD-R's. DO NOT use CD-RW! They are notoriously bad as far as readability from drive to drive. If you are concerned, you can stick to name brands such as Memorex, etc.

The source file, whether it be wav. mp3, etc shouldn't matter either since the burning software converts everything to CD audio format. If the CD can be played on ANY drive, there wasn't a problem generating the CD audio file.

Casey

[mojobone]

I use Nero burning software, CD-Rs and disc-at-once mode, and have never had a compatibility problem that I'm aware of. If you want to be dead certain, you need fully Red Book-compliant software, such as Soundforge (PC) or Toast, and a compatible drive. (MAC)

[jonathansorensen]

Cool, thank you for the info. I'm assuming wavelab is a good one too? I've been using Nero as well which seems to be fine. For some reason Wavelab just won't recognize my drive and I haven't sorted it out. Maybe I do need a different drive.

JS

I use Nero burning software, CD-Rs and disc-at-once mode, and have never had a compatibility problem that I'm aware of. If you want to be dead certain, you need fully Red Book-compliant software, such as Soundforge (PC) or Toast, and a compatible drive. (MAC)

[Len911]

Yes wavelab is good if you download the fix from the steinberg forum site or knowledge base I believe. I had all kinds of trouble with it and finally it just started working. I used the nero I got free with some program I had until I got the wavelab working. Forget the new drive, it probably won't work until you get it fixed. If you have wavelab6 you can upgrade to wavelab7 for $99 which should fix it also.
http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=9253

[Casey H]

iTunes also burns CDs and is free. You simply arrange the tracks in a playlist and burn.

If you use any of the major CD burning software programs on the market-- iTunes, Nero, Roxio, etc. it shouldn't matter at all. The process of converting audio to CD format and burning is standard. I'm more suspicious this is hardware related.

Good luck!
Casey

[yammer107]

....
....

You Know I was actually told something different few years back - that all CD's are not alike and you can have trouble with standard store grade CD's. Something to do with country of origin, I think 90% of them come from same place regardless of what brand is stamped on them. A tech at Roland Corp turned me on to these http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... yo%20Yuden I imagine you can find them on other sites if needed.

Anyways all my problems went away. It's not to say other things arent playing a role in your troubles..... but my burn & playback success ratio went way up almost %100.

~ Chris

[Len911]

+1 on Taiyo Yuden, which are JVC now

http://www.polylinecorp.com/manufacture ... =JVC-Taiyo

[mojobone]

+1 on Taiyo Yuden, which are JVC now

http://www.polylinecorp.com/manufacture ... =JVC-Taiyo

Yep, Taiyo Yuden are tops in the CD media game, but there are others just as good; you need to know what works with your burner.

[rnrmachine]

There are a number of factors that can result in home made CDs not working on multiple systems. Not "closing" an Audio CD will cause a problem on MANY systems. When the playback device tries to read what is all on the CD it can't find the end (close) the result is... it just doesn't work. You also need to be sure you are burning to cda format, not mp3 nor wav when writing. MOST software does this automatically... burning to cda that is. If you put 10-12 songs onto a CD... preparing to burn... and you still have a bunch of room for more songs then chances are you are burning to MP3 and not cda.

It very well could be what Casey said, a problem with the writer itself. There are soo many cheap writers out there, just like there are a ton of cheap CD players. Maybe your writer needs a firmware update. But that is just another possibility.

As far as burn speed... always burn SLOW. The slower you burn, the less errors make it onto the CD. Burning at max speed it is VERY common to have errors. Since these CDs, you are sharing at conferences and obviously are very important to you, I would burn them at the slowest speed your system has. This is a VERY common thing to do when making a CD to hand over to a duplication house for CD runs... to keep the amount of errors to a minimum.

This is yet another aspect of mastering that many people do not take into account when not using a mastering service. Not only having songs that sound balanced and sound good on multiple systems, but that the CDs they make even work! LOL

Rob