[pikawel]

Yeah, sure, I could go to a CD-R forum of some sort but I figure I'd ask the head-fi hombres for help. I'm going to make copies of all of my CD's and was wondering who here uses disc to disc.

First of all, do you have two of the same drive? What speed do you burn at? If a disc has scratches, do you reduce speed or does it not matter?

I don't want to burn all of these and then listen to the back-ups to make sure they're a-ok, heh. I'd like to have a little bit of reassurance previous. I only want to have to do this once so I'd like to do it right. If anyone here has gone through and done this and you have any advice at all, hook it up!!

Thanks guys!

 

[Odi_et_Amo]

Are you talkin' about audio CDs? If so, why back them up at all.

It seems that, unless you are the unluckiest guy or are extremely rough on your discs, it wouldn't be cost effective. Why not just buy another copy of a disc after it gets messed up rather than copying all of your collection?

 

[Dusty Chalk]

If you want a bit-perfect copy, you should rip using EAC, and then burn from the ripped image.

 

[dougbrad81]

Quote:

Originally posted by Odi_et_Amo Are you talkin' about audio CDs? If so, why back them up at all. It seems that, unless you are the unluckiest guy or are extremely rough on your discs, it wouldn't be cost effective. Why not just buy another copy of a disc after it gets messed up rather than copying all of your collection?

won't be cost effective huh? well let's consider a cd $14 dollars a piece. now two cd's are $28 dollars. a hundred blank cd's can be bought for $28 dollars. now i don't know what kind of math you're doing, but obviously it will be more cost effective to make cd-r backups.

Pikawel,
use eac to make a backup, then burn it with your burning program of choice. regarding burn speeds, there seems to be debate on whether slower burn speeds results in higher quality. personally i can't tell the diffrence in a cd burn at 4x or 40x, but i burn at 16x to be on the safe side. get a good brand cd-r. my personal favroite is taiyo yuden. you can buy these cheaply at rima.com
hope this helps you.

 

[Odi_et_Amo]

"... won't be cost effective huh? well let's consider a cd $14 dollars a piece. now two cd's are $28 dollars. a hundred blank cd's can be bought for $28 dollars. now i don't know what kind of math you're doing, but obviously it will be more cost effective to make cd-r backups."

If you have a hundred CDs, that's $28.00 for blank Discs.

If it takes 5 minutes/Disc, that's 500 minutes or 8.33 hours. Assuming you make $30K/year, your time is worth $15/hour .

$28 in CD-Rs + $125 in time spent ~= $150.00

Do you mean to tell me that you screw up 10% of your CDs where a backup would be needed?

(Change $/hour accordingly; it still works out that the % of damaged discs needed to justify copying is higher than a reasonable loss rate.)

 

[Sol_Zhen]

Odi_et_Amo

There are plenty of reasons to back up a selection of discs. I’ve never backed all mine up, but making good back ups of discs that you’re going to pack along for a trip or something makes perfect sense. Take the CD-Rs with you and leave the original CDs at home in their jewel cases.

 

[Odi_et_Amo]

Sol_Zhen

"... making good back ups of discs that you’re going to pack along for a trip or something makes perfect sense."

That makes sense...at least more sense than backing up the whole collection.

But Live Dangerously! Take the originals (as long as they're replaceable).

 

[Sol_Zhen]

Quote:

Originally posted by Odi_et_Amo But Live Dangerously! Take the originals (as long as they're replaceable).

But you never know what's going to go OOP.

 

[jaskin]

Wouldn't copying directly from CD to CD be 'purer' and resulting in better sound than ripping it and writing it again?

 

[zowie]

My CD-R drive died quite some time ago and I've just never gotten around to replacing it, so I've been making real time digital copies with a component CD recorder. I can hear a difference from the original on a high end rig, but it is subtle and with all my years of listening I can't quite even say what it is. Probably jitter related.

 

[grinch]

rarely do any of my cds ever leave my room. i will *always* burn a copy and take that to put in my car, or cd folder, or something to that extent. for me, it is worth the thirty cents it costs me. over the years i have had only a few cds die on me, and all were due to carrying them around in cases. the bottom side was never really scratched at all, but the foil pealed off leaving me with a busted cd. i love music and love buying cds, but spending money to buy a cd twice is just the epitomy of waste in my mind.

plus, i am very into giving people new music to listen to so that a) i don't have to listen to their horrible creed/disturbed/godsmack/rap/boyband ******** in their car/presence and b) so that they can try and get the idea that music can be good even if it's not on the radio. this makes it easy, as i can give them my copy and they can make the choice later to buy the album, or throw the copy away, or give it to somebody else, etc. again i don't do this too often, but the ability is always there when i'm carrying around burned cds.

my worst nightmare is having a cd folder stolen and losing like thirty cds at once. losing a cd folder filled with cd-r's isn't really a horrible thing, just a bit of time and like $20 wasted tops. it's up to you but i consider myself a collector of cds and i like keeping them in mint condition when i can.

rip and burn with exact audio copy as it is by far the best ripper on the planet. not all cd burners work with its write mode though, so then i'd recommend burning the cue/wav with nero or something similar. rip the full image (results in a 500mb-800mb wave file and 1kb cue file) and burn with the cue. the *best* way to go. also, if you setup eac properly and your burner supports it, it'll add cd-text to all cds and i find this comes in handy if you have an aftermark head-unit in your car. also most portable cd players support cd-text now.

anyway, that's what i'd recommend. i hope nobody flips out when i show up at the grado meet this weekend with a bunch of burned cds..

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by jaskin Wouldn't copying directly from CD to CD be 'purer' and resulting in better sound than ripping it and writing it again?

Yes, and no. It will copy the bad sectors (which are marked as such, and the CD player will skip over them) as well, but why would you want that? Read the EAC site -- he explains why he wrote it, because there wasn't a piece of software that could do a bit-for-bit copy exactly. I don't understand the mechanics of it (why wouldn't it do a bit-for-bit copy, digitally, isn't that the same as an inaccurate copy?), but I've had re-enforcement from other people that EAC is the only way.

 

[pikawel]

Quote:

Originally posted by Odi_et_Amo [B(Change $/hour accordingly; it still works out that the % of damaged discs needed to justify copying is higher than a reasonable loss rate.) [/B]

*shrug* I'll be backing up all of my CD's and keeping all of the originals minty fresh so they can still squeek when you remove the disc. If you see my 900 album MP3 collection, it's equally as anal retentive. Plus, it gives me something to do while I play X-box...

To each their own.

 

[Odi_et_Amo]

...Uncle!

Okay, I give. There have been several (halfway) decent reasons why someone would want to back up his discs.

The most compelling reason I heard was from Grinch: "I am very into giving people new music to listen to ... this makes it easy, as i can give them my copy and they can make the choice later to buy the album, or throw the copy away, or give it to somebody else, etc. again i don't do this too often, but the ability is always there when i'm carrying around burned cds."

This reminds me of a small quirk of mine: whenever I find someone who doesn't have MD's
Kind of Blue, I buy a copy and give it to him. There are few nobler goals than broadening other's musical tastes.

I also like Sol_zen's caveat that you never know when a recording will be OOP.

So, burn, baby, burn! I'll continue to take the risks of #%$^*$&*( up my original disc.

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Odi_et_Amo This reminds me of a small quirk of mine: whenever I find someone who doesn't have MD's Kind of Blue, I buy a copy and give it to him. There are few nobler goals than broadening other's musical tastes.

i've bought people copies of this album as well. it isn't for everyone though. i'm glad to say that i gave a friend of mine's baby their first cd, and that was it.