[Jap]

[size=medium]As the title says. I have a couple of records I need to copy (both by Esther Satterfield), and I want the best to do this lady justice. Her music is not available on CD/SACD/DVD-A although she has guest appearances on some album tracks (e.g., Chuck Mangione's "The Land of Make Believe").

Does anyone have recordable CDs they are especially enamored with?[/size]

 

[lan]

I like using discs made by Taiyo Yuden. There other rebranded ones like Fuji made in Japan that are from them.

There really isn't such a thing as higher resolution CDRs. They're all the same resolution but it's just that some may last longer. Media compatibility is really a shot in the dark because it depends on your burner and what you're playing with.

Now if you want to really make a higher resolution disc. Record in 24/96 and burn to a DVD-R as a DVD-Video disc with 2 channel 24/96. You'll need a DVD player to play back though and appropriate software to record. Search vcdhelp.com and doom9.net to maybe help you with this.

 

[Jap]

[size=medium]Thank you very much, Ian.

I just wanted the very best I could get. Durability is a very desirable thing. Even so, I'll probably make two copies each of the two Satterfield recordings: "Once I Loved" and "The Need To Be."

It would be ideal to have a recordable hybrid SACD with CD and SACD layers. However, I supposed such a beast is not available to the general public.

I will have to have someone else perform the recirding as I don't own a turntable. I just need the raw recordable CD material so the recorder can do his thing.[/size]

 

[Demolition]

Following up on what Ian said, CD-R quality is tied to its longevity. At this moment, I believe that Taiyo Yuden and Kodak make the longest-lived CD media. A study (admittedly done a fairly long time ago) suggests that Kodak Gold Ultima CD-Rs should last up to 100 years. Gold Ultimas were discontinued recently, but the technology is still present in Kodak Ultima media.

Also, Taiyo Yuden and Kodak use Cyanine/Phthalocyanine dyes with gold reflection layers. These dyes create gold/greenish-gold CDs which have much higher reflectivity than blue-coloured CDs. The higher reflectivity makes them less susceptible to read errors in CD players/drives.

D.


p.s. Although, Taiyo Yuden does market its CDs under its own name, they also OEM for other companies such as Imation, Philips, Sony, and others. Kodak makes Kodak-branded CDs, of course.

 

[Jap]

[size=medium]This is all greatly appreciated, believe me! Demolition and Ian, you both have provided me with solid starting points in my quest to preserve a truly golden voice and outstanding singing talent. I may very well take up Ian's suggestion to go the DVD-R route: I think that much of Ms. Satterfield's vocals.[/size]

 

[Anders K.]

I have spoken with people whom have starting to have problems with their CD-r´s. The ones that seems to have lost information are all cheep noname discs and older than five years. I´m talking data here.

I myself have not had any problems yet. I have always used branded CD-r´s and maybe they hold a higher standard and quality!?

There are special CD-r´s dedicated for musicburning in audio burning machines looking like a cd-player with an extra tray for burning. Maybe this media is of higher quality? They have always been more expensive. Worth checking out.

If you have a record you really would like to hang on to, the best thing is to save it on the HD as an discimage and burn a new CD-r every fivr years or so. Having lots of favourite records this adds up to fill the HD

Time for a bigger HD

 

[Jap]

[size=huge]Thanks, Anders. I fully intend to burn to HD. Aren't the music CD-Rs designed to prevent copying of commercial releases? Maybe I'm mistaken here.

I haven't even played these records yet; they are still sealed in the transparent wrapping. I have enjoyed older versions of these albums and taped them years before to cassette. However, my Sony professional Walkman (WM-D6C) needs an overhaul, and I always wanted CD versions of these albums anyway. Since no commercial CD pressings were ever done, I have to have it done myself. I grabbed some of the last remaining album copies off the Chuck Mangione website.[/size]

 

[Anders K.]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jap [size=huge]Aren't the music CD-Rs designed to prevent copying of commercial releases? Maybe I'm mistaken here. I grabbed some of the last remaining album copies off the Chuck Mangione website.[/size]

That rings a bell here to. There can be some kind of limitations in these music CD-r´s.

But I do not know exactly what that is.

By the way, one of my favourite records all time is Chuck Mangione- Feels so good. That is music

WOW!

Good luck with the LP´s.

 

[davei]

The "special" CDRs for use in standalones aren't any better than regular CDRs. In fact they may be worse. The only difference is they have a flag/bit set in them that allows them to be used in a standalone (i.e. a generic 25 cent data CDR cannot be used in most standalones.) The "special" CDRs are more expensive, supposedly because some of the price goes to the artist as compensation (here in Canada, anyway.)

I've used Kodak CDRs for around 4 years now with no problems whatsoever. I haven't had that many problems with cheapies either, though - a few refuse to read in one drive, but put it in another drive and I can at least extract the data and burn a new copy. PITA which is why I always use good CDRs.

 

[markl]

Here's a great paper on this written by Genesis Labs: http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/w...Black_CDs1.pdf

In short, for a variety of reasons, they recommend black CD-Rs.

 

[Welly Wu]

MarkL:

No offense man, I respect you and the man who wrote that Genesis "white" paper but what he's talking about is just bunk. There is no logical way that a copy of an original can sound "better" than the original since a computer optical drive reads and duplicates bytes of data (this is of course talking about strict duplication methods without the usage of noise shaping, the usage of equalizers, etc. before burning the duplicate copy). I tried out what he said. I even got the PNY diamond brand black CD-Rs. I heard no difference and I have been at it for months. Yeah, I got to backup my music onto a durable medium that will last longer than those very inexpensive (read: cheap) branded blank CD-Rs but that's just about the only upside or benefit to the whole process. Granted, I don't have as much listening experience with equipment as you Mark but I have pretty decent gear and at least 1.5 years of listening experience.

Of course, I could be wrong but I just didn't hear any differences even when I had my brother do a strict double-blind testing of various original CDs vs. black CD-Rs duplicates.

 

[Brad Harper]

In theory, black CD-Rs will reflect less erroneous light back into the laser, which should result in fewer errors and less error correction needed. For whatever it is worth, most recording studios in my area have switched to black CD-Rs.

Brad

 

[markl]

Welly, I'm skeptical too that there's any way you can improve sound with burning a copy. His argument is that burning results in deeper, more defined pits than the process of stamping through which our commercial CDs are made. Deeper pits = better reads = more accurate playback.

But I do buy into his explanation of black CD-Rs reflecting less light and enabling more accurate reads.

 

[Anders K.]

If the original CD is in bad condition with scratches the circuit that compensates the errors must work hard and the sound gets worse.
If you load that record into your computer the cd-rom can read over and over again at the same place and maybe get a correct reading. When you burn that discimage the result is a CD which is easier to read and will teoretical sound better. If you add that sertain CD-r´s have a special reflecting color that makes reading easier for the CD-player, maybe a burned copy will sound better than the original. This is if the original CD is in bad condition.

Well, correct me if I´m wrong but this reasoning seems logical

 

[Music Fanatic]

Quote:

Originally posted by markl Welly, I'm skeptical too that there's any way you can improve sound with burning a copy. His argument is that burning results in deeper, more defined pits than the process of stamping through which our commercial CDs are made. Deeper pits = better reads = more accurate playback. But I do buy into his explanation of black CD-Rs reflecting less light and enabling more accurate reads.

But this is what error correction is for!