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Questions about burning CDs

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by TheFreak, Aug 13, 2000.

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  1. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    I'm hoping someone can help me here. Although I spend a lot of time on a computer, I really know nothing about them!

    I want to be able to record CDs and listen to them on my stereo (car or home). I've mainly thought about getting a recordable CD player, but usually when I bring that up someone tells me that a CD burner is much better, and cheaper. I've found that they are cheaper, around 200 bucks cheaper. That's great. But when I burn a CD, can I play that back on my car stereo? I was in Best Buy today, and one guy told me that the CD-R/W disks for the computer can be played back on your stereo, and that in fact he does it all the time. Another guy told me just the opposite, that you can't play these things back on your stereo. They both seemed to know exactly what they were talking about, which was kinda weird. This seems to be the main roadblock to me getting a CD burner at the moment, so if anyone could answer this first question, I'd appreciate it.

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    Metal Sludge
     
  2. MoonDogg

    MoonDogg Member

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    Piece of cake..... I know for a fact you can use the CD-Rs on most anything that will play an audio cd. Not sure about the CD-R/Ws though. You probably wouldn't want to use those anyway....more expensive. In fact...if your really picky about your music quality, CompUSA has a premium grade of CDR that's specifically designed for audio.

    One note though; if your gonna burn some MP3s, then you need to convert them to wav format first. Winamp can do that in a snap...as can lotsa other apps.

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  3. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    MoonDogg -- thanks a bunch.

    I have another question. Let's say I want to record a bunch of songs from different CDs onto one CD. I was told I'd have to first convert the songs from the different CDs to a wav file, and then copy them onto the disc. Sounds okay. Now the CD-Rs that are 74 minutes in length, also say 650 MB on them. Does that mean in order to fill 74 minutes of a CD, the wav files of the various songs are going to take up 650 MB of hard drive space on my computer? From what I gather, I'd fill up my hard drive (or zip drive, whatever) with 74 minutes of music, that would comprise 650 MB of wav files, then copy them onto one CD, then delete the files. Is that right?

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    Metal Sludge
     
  4. dc sports

    dc sports Member

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    The confusion is probably due to the fact that the same term is used to describe the drive, and the disk.

    Pretty much all disk burners now can handle either Read (CD-R) or Read/Write (CD-RW) disks. They are genrally called CD-R/W's and you can tell for sure by the fact they have 3 numbers, indicating the Read, Write, and Re-Write speeds (ex. 16 X 8 X 8). The first disk burners coudn't use the RW disks, but all RW drives can use either disk.

    CD-Rs can be burned in audio format to play on any audio CD player, or on any computer. The software will most likely come with the drive to either copy audio CD's, or burn them taking audio formated songs from other CDs or your computer. CD-R disks can only be burned once. You can add more info when used for computer files, but once you burn a CD for audio, you're done with it.

    You will need a converter program to change MP3 files (which are compressed) to audio CD format in order to play them on your CD player. (If you just want to play them on your computer, you can put 10 times as many songs on a CD). You can get a good converter program for $20-30.

    The confusion probably comes with CD-RW disks. These disks cost about three times as much as a CD-R, and can be used only in a CD-RW drive. In fact, they won't work in a traditional computer CD player anyway. You wouldn't use the CD-RW for audio files anyway. FYI -- the most common use for these is to back up information from the computer, because they hold a lot of info, and can be re-written.

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    Stay Cool...
     
  5. fadeaway

    fadeaway Contributing Member

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    I have another question. Let's say I want to record a bunch of songs from different CDs onto one CD. I was told I'd have to first convert the songs from the different CDs to a wav file, and then copy them onto the disc. Sounds okay. Now the CD-Rs that are 74 minutes in length, also say 650 MB on them. Does that mean in order to fill 74 minutes of a CD, the wav files of the various songs are going to take up 650 MB of hard drive space on my computer? From what I gather, I'd fill up my hard drive (or zip drive, whatever) with 74 minutes of music, that would comprise 650 MB of wav files, then copy them onto one CD, then delete the files. Is that right?

    Yep.. That's what you've gotta do.

    74 minutes of music usually equals around 650 MB of hard drive space. Some waves are larger than others though, so it's possible for one 3 minute song to take up more space than another 3 minute song.

    There are also 80 minute CDRs on the market now. I have never used one of those yet, though.



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    My dream job is to be a Houston Rockets towel-boy.
     
  6. SirCharlesFan

    SirCharlesFan Contributing Member

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    You can get CD-RWs to work in SOME car audio players...but I havn't found many. The only cd player I've ever gotten to play an audio CDRW was the one in my car, and I have to put the cd in and out a few times before it works. CD-RWs work just fine in regular CD rom drives, though.

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    Who's ya daddy?
     
  7. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    TheFreak,

    CD-R's burned on your PC-based CD Recorder can be played on stereo equipment. I do it often when I take trips down to Houston; I make compilation CD's of some of the stuff I have to take away from the monotony.

    Older stereo equipment may have trouble reading many CD-R's, but for the most part, using modern CD players and recorders, you shouldn't have a problem. CD-RW's (rewritable cd's) are another story... there aren't very many audio CD players out there that can read them. Without getting too geeky, it has to do with the dye and reflectivity of the material used in CD-RW's versus CD-R's. It is possible that you can burn a CD that won't play on some stereo equipment, but I have yet to run into that problem.

    If you buy a good CD recorder/burner (such as those manufactured by Plextor), you can get software that does everything you need. If you have MP3's you want to burn, the software that comes with the CD-R may be able to do the conversion and writing on the fly. My Plextor uses Adaptec software that does this. What I'm saying is that you may not need to go out and buy a separate program. Wait to see what you get with the CD-R first, then if that software isn't enough, go looking for something else.

    Don't bother getting a CD recordable player. It doesn't do anything different than a PC CD recorder (to my knowledge). They also record slower than the fastest pc-based CD-R's on the market today. The one thing I think they may have an advantage in is that the A/D converter in them is probably better than the one in most sound cards today (but not sure to what extent that's true).

    When you buy a CD recorder, try to get one with something called "burn proof" technology. It will help you not make "coasters". If you don't know what that means, I can explain. [​IMG]

    MoonDogg referred to a "premium" grade of CD that is specifically for "audio". You don't necessarily need to buy those... they cost more for a reason... the RIAA gets a piece of that extra money. The RIAA makes up for some of their lost sales due to disc duplication by having the CD manufacturers pay "royalties" (not sure if that's the correct term) to them. Guess where they're reflected? In the cost of those audio cd's. I've used standard Verbatim DataLife (not the ValueLife) CD-R's for audio and have had no problems whatsoever.

    Your next step is to find which brand of CD-R's you need to buy. Don't let anyone talk you into necessarily buying any particular brand. There are some you should avoid, but not based on the name on the CD, but rather who manufactures that CD for them. No, Sony doesn't manufacture their own blank CD's... [​IMG]

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    Just shut up and post

    [This message has been edited by Dr of Dunk (edited August 13, 2000).]
     
  8. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    You basically have the gist of it. After converting them to wav files, you can use your burner software to convert them to audio format. With Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, all I do is select the songs I want, drag and drop them onto my CD, and it keeps track of how many minutes and seconds I have left to add to the CD.

    A note of caution : there are 74 and 80 minute blank CD's out there. Stick with the 74 minute ones for audio. That way you know there won't be any compatibility problems with stereo CD players.

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    Just shut up and post
     
  9. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    Thanks so much everyone for your insight. I now own an HP CD burner, and some Memorex CD-Rs.

    I've semi-got it working, but I think it would be much more efficient if I actually knew how to make wav files out of my CDs! I told you I didn't know anything about computers. Can anyone help a moron out on this one?

    Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate this.

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    Metal Sludge
     
  10. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    Guys, I already figured that last question out. Turns out the software that came with the burner I bought basically walks me through making a wav file. I just had to find the right help file. Thanks.

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    Metal Sludge
     
  11. Space Ghost

    Space Ghost Contributing Member

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    ya need a "CD ripper" Many of them out there, but a free one is White Tiger. Im not sure where you can get it though. Just do a search at download.com or shareware.com.

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    ...out with the old, in with the new...
     
  12. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Contributing Member

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    Sometimes Best Buy has a deal on Maxell CD-Rs
    10 CDrs for $21.00. But u get a $20 rebate. Cool huh, thats how I bought like 80 CDrs


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  13. TraJ

    TraJ Member

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    What makes you think I need help freak? [​IMG]

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  14. dc sports

    dc sports Member

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    The best deals I've found are at Microcenter. You can get 10 generic CD's with the cases for $8.99.

    Just FYI -- I've heard from two different people that they had problems with Maxell CD-R's burning audio CD. According to these, they seemed to have a high number of bad disks burned with audio (1-3 per ten pack) with audio, but for some reason didn't have the same problem with data.

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    Stay Cool...
     
  15. Rockets R' Us

    Rockets R' Us Contributing Member

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    There a really good program just for turning MP3's to wav's. It's called MP3 to WAV converter. WOW! lol You can find it for free at www.mp3towave.com It's a 33 day trial version. It's only $15 for full registration and that's well worth it.

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    Francis out top, 9 seconds on the clock, he gives a no look pass to Cuttino Mobley, 4 seconds left, Mobley passes to an open Langhi in the corner with 1 second left! Langhi at the buzzer.......YES!!! How Sweet It Is!!
     
  16. MoonBus

    MoonBus Contributing Member

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    Freak, if you are creating a compilation CD from CD's (no mp3's), you don't have to convert them to wav's. In Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, you can create a list of all your songs thru drag-n-drop (from mulitple CDs). When you burn the CD, it will prompt you for the specific CD to be read. One problem you may encounter is that your other CD-Drive (source) may be too slow, so you have to record at 1x speed. There is a system test in Adaptec. Another problem with this approach is that you have to sit next to the computer to do the swapping. I usually do this while watching TV or reading a book.
     
  17. TheFreak

    TheFreak Contributing Member

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    Moonbus -- I've tried it both ways so far. It looks like the advantage of converting the songs to wavs is that I can just do it at my leisure, and then when I'm done just record them all at once. With the swapping method, it looks like I have to do it all at once, and am unable to pause the recording. I could be doing it wrong though. Thanks for the tip.

    I've noticed that some of the songs I've recorded come out with a slight crackling noise in the background. Like this one song, I've tried recording it multiple times, and there's always this crackling noise when I play it back. It's quite noticeable on this one in particular. This doesn't happen on the original copy. Has anyone experienced this? Is it the CD-Rs I'm recording it on?

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    Metal Sludge
     
  18. insideout

    insideout Contributing Member

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    I'm trying to hook up my burner (Plextor)

    I have it set up as a slave to my hard drive. Now the problem is my original CD-ROM. What do I do? I heard that I should connect it as a slave to my hard drive also.. but my cable for my hard drive only has two slot: one for the hard drive itself and one for the primary port.

    The cable for my burner connects from the burner to the secondary port.. so now what do I do?



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    barkley for president
     
  19. dc sports

    dc sports Member

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    I'm confused. Did the directions on your model tell you to slave it to your hard drive? How did you do this? Are you sure you didn't hook it to a second hard drive attachment?

    Mine attached on a second attachment on the same gray ribbon that feeds to the primary CD - Rom. It also came with a spare "ribbon" cable, with two attachments, in case the origional didn't have two.

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    Stay Cool...
     
  20. RKMAN

    RKMAN Member

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    I have a question,

    The cable from my Motherboard to my Primary CD-Rom is too short. So, I cannot attach a slave to the cable. Is there a longer cable available? If so, where can I get it?

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    RKMAN

    Proud believer of the 2001 World Champion Houston Astros.
     

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