Blank CD-R discs and CD-burning software
04-30-2006, 05:36 PM
#1
Blank CD-R discs and CD-burning software
When making your own mix CDs, what brand of blank CD-Rs is the best for sound quality? And which burning software is the best in terms of error-free burning? I already use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) for my rips and leave all my music in WAV format, but I'd like to know which blank media and software are the best for no loss in information from the original CDs? Thanks
04-30-2006, 09:18 PM
#5
Originally Posted by kpr10is
Sound quality and CD-R should never be used in the same sentence.
/postwhore.
/postwhore.
I use Nero though. I'd rather just that little bit of SQ loss than have to pay for CD's.
192kbps is pretty good IMO
05-01-2006, 04:23 AM
#6
Originally Posted by kpr10is
Sound quality and CD-R should never be used in the same sentence.
/postwhore.
/postwhore.
guys guys, I'm using Exact Audio Copy, which ensures error-free ripping and an exact copy of the original CD. And I'm keeping everything WAV, not converting to mp3s or downloading crappy music files from the internet. I'm not that stupid.
05-01-2006, 05:14 AM
#8
thread starter, the difference in CD-R's have nothing to do with quality, really, has more to do with scratches, some will scratch easier than others ive noticed.
why's that? if you're referring to mp3's, if they're encoded anywhere near 320kbps, i highly doubt you'd be able to tell the difference in quality from a real cd, if at all. tho you're right, an mp3 at 320kbps would take up so much space its practically pointless to use mp3 feature on any cd.
but if you're referring to songs in wav format, i don't understand, quality is basically the same (or minimal differnce) as any mass produced cd. At least CD-R's have better quality than RW's.
Originally Posted by kpr10is
Sound quality and CD-R should never be used in the same sentence.
/postwhore.
/postwhore.
but if you're referring to songs in wav format, i don't understand, quality is basically the same (or minimal differnce) as any mass produced cd. At least CD-R's have better quality than RW's.
05-01-2006, 05:41 AM
#9
Mp3's for life you. Jdm tyteeeeeeeeee.
I use Nero, and for the slight difference in SQ I'll still take the mp3 discs. The one problem might be the inconsistancy of the mp3's sometimes you get a ****ty one. Just need to keep looking for a better quality version
I use Nero, and for the slight difference in SQ I'll still take the mp3 discs. The one problem might be the inconsistancy of the mp3's sometimes you get a ****ty one. Just need to keep looking for a better quality version
05-01-2006, 06:31 AM
#10
Originally Posted by kpr10is
Sound quality and CD-R should never be used in the same sentence.
/postwhore.
/postwhore.
05-01-2006, 07:00 AM
#11
Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 43
I could write a thesis on this topic, but I'll try to be brief...
Every "manufacturer" uses multiple factories to manufacture their CDs... the better ones use the same factory MOST of the time, but even the best still outsource when prices fluctuate or demand exceeds their capabilities.
That being said, Memorex is consistently one of the best off-the-shelf brands you can purchase, showing the lowest number of bit errors (I'm talking pure single bit errors, typically masked by CRCs and other error checking). This isn't personal opinion, I'm going off of industry tests.
Personally speaking, I've found Imation to be one of the WORST on the shelves. Their data retention rate on data has been as low as 6 months in some cases (making coasters more often than I like to admit). I have a large stack of Imations which I now use STRICTLY for audio use only (read, throw-away discs left on the floor of my car)... those CDs will never again see valuable data.
Every "manufacturer" uses multiple factories to manufacture their CDs... the better ones use the same factory MOST of the time, but even the best still outsource when prices fluctuate or demand exceeds their capabilities.
That being said, Memorex is consistently one of the best off-the-shelf brands you can purchase, showing the lowest number of bit errors (I'm talking pure single bit errors, typically masked by CRCs and other error checking). This isn't personal opinion, I'm going off of industry tests.
Personally speaking, I've found Imation to be one of the WORST on the shelves. Their data retention rate on data has been as low as 6 months in some cases (making coasters more often than I like to admit). I have a large stack of Imations which I now use STRICTLY for audio use only (read, throw-away discs left on the floor of my car)... those CDs will never again see valuable data.
05-21-2006, 09:26 AM
#13
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,223
Originally Posted by djfrestyl
Trueness.
I use Nero though. I'd rather just that little bit of SQ loss than have to pay for CD's.
192kbps is pretty good IMO
I use Nero though. I'd rather just that little bit of SQ loss than have to pay for CD's.
192kbps is pretty good IMO
Not sure about your Nak, but the AVN downsamples your 192 to 128.
08-18-2006, 04:15 PM
#18
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 699
I've been using CDRs for 8 years now maybe?...ever since 4xs came out anyhow. Taiyo Yudens have always been one of the best. I WILL say I initially bought blue Verbatim CDRs from sams club (15 dollars for 10). I some of these in my car, and subsequently, they've been through many hot summers here in VA. I recently went on a roadtrip and -> these suckers still play with no problems! minus the scratches i've put into them over the years.
VERBATIM FTMFW (they were never exposed to long durations of sunlight btw)
VERBATIM FTMFW (they were never exposed to long durations of sunlight btw)
08-28-2006, 10:20 AM
#19
have any of you used Feurio! CD Manager? I use this to burn all my audio cds. more user friendly (to me) than nero... can edit tracks as needed, and can work on more than one project at once, also does cd text well.
08-28-2006, 01:11 PM
#20
Guest
Posts: n/a
Originally Posted by MacGyverS2000
I could write a thesis on this topic, but I'll try to be brief...
Every "manufacturer" uses multiple factories to manufacture their CDs... the better ones use the same factory MOST of the time, but even the best still outsource when prices fluctuate or demand exceeds their capabilities.
That being said, Memorex is consistently one of the best off-the-shelf brands you can purchase, showing the lowest number of bit errors (I'm talking pure single bit errors, typically masked by CRCs and other error checking). This isn't personal opinion, I'm going off of industry tests.
Personally speaking, I've found Imation to be one of the WORST on the shelves. Their data retention rate on data has been as low as 6 months in some cases (making coasters more often than I like to admit). I have a large stack of Imations which I now use STRICTLY for audio use only (read, throw-away discs left on the floor of my car)... those CDs will never again see valuable data.
Every "manufacturer" uses multiple factories to manufacture their CDs... the better ones use the same factory MOST of the time, but even the best still outsource when prices fluctuate or demand exceeds their capabilities.
That being said, Memorex is consistently one of the best off-the-shelf brands you can purchase, showing the lowest number of bit errors (I'm talking pure single bit errors, typically masked by CRCs and other error checking). This isn't personal opinion, I'm going off of industry tests.
Personally speaking, I've found Imation to be one of the WORST on the shelves. Their data retention rate on data has been as low as 6 months in some cases (making coasters more often than I like to admit). I have a large stack of Imations which I now use STRICTLY for audio use only (read, throw-away discs left on the floor of my car)... those CDs will never again see valuable data.
Preach. I was backing up my HD getting help from DELL. When I asked what type of CD's I should burn it on, they said and I quote....Anything but Imation.
08-28-2006, 06:38 PM
#21
im not 100% on this.. but i think its really simple.. when transfering any music to another media you will always lose a bit from the original regardless of it being wav file. If you make a duplicate vhs off another vhs then quality will be slightly lower than the original vhs u duplicated from. So any digital data going onto a physical media (cd-r) will lose accuracy because a mp3 will have more signal frequencies (not sure if im using the right word) then a CD-R becasue of the CD-R's physical limitations. I have not heard an mp3 player or ipod from my car.. but i would assume that the soundquality coming a digital device would sound better compared to a CD-R as long as the mp3 has been ripped properly and from an original cd.. duno if that makes sense to anyone.. or maybe im just talkin from my azz cuase im really stoned right now
09-01-2006, 04:11 PM
#22
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by djchinky
im not 100% on this.. but i think its really simple.. when transfering any music to another media you will always lose a bit from the original regardless of it being wav file. If you make a duplicate vhs off another vhs then quality will be slightly lower than the original vhs u duplicated from. So any digital data going onto a physical media (cd-r) will lose accuracy because a mp3 will have more signal frequencies (not sure if im using the right word) then a CD-R becasue of the CD-R's physical limitations. I have not heard an mp3 player or ipod from my car.. but i would assume that the soundquality coming a digital device would sound better compared to a CD-R as long as the mp3 has been ripped properly and from an original cd.. duno if that makes sense to anyone.. or maybe im just talkin from my azz cuase im really stoned right now
Digital copying is a godsend compared to the old analog days for the exact reason of no loss in quality (assuming your machine isn't screwed up). You'll lose quality when the method of transfer is lossy in nature, such as an analog channel. A prime example of this would be a VHS tape copied to another, or even a VHS copied to a DVD... you still lose quality as the VHS tape is read by analog components that aren't perfect (though to be fair, if the analog components are of a high enough quality as to be under the noise floor of the digital components you're using, the DVD will be (for all intents and purposes) as good as it gets).
A CD (or CD-R) means zip when it comes to quality level of an MP3 stored or transfered on it. The CD itself is a storage medium only, whereas MP3 is a lossy compression algorithm. Once the MP3 algorithm has encoded a song, it is in a digital format. Transferring that digital information to a CD has zero effect on the information itself, and therefore no quality loss can occur (except in the case of Imation CDs
n: ).
09-01-2006, 11:07 PM
#23
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 230
Sound Quality and CD's?!
I use TDK CD-R's because they have higher sound quality than Memorex CD-R's. TDK's write like: 00001110 00110001 And Memorex write like: 00001110 00110001 It's a difference that you can hear! w00t! Makes music go from waa waa to bau chic-a chic-a bau bau!
Seriously, convert your CD's to WAV then burn the WAV back to the CD-R and there is no change in the file. If you add CD-Text to the soung, the file changes it's size, but it's otherwise an exact copy of the original.
Color of the dye matter's some with being readable. I've had some Memorex "Cool Color" Red CD's that failed to burn properly on a Plextor. This is more of an unusual case than the norm. Your typical light green or light blue CD-R's will work just fine. I prefer the blue to the green since they are only slightly more readable in older CD drives.
I use TDK CD-R's because they have higher sound quality than Memorex CD-R's. TDK's write like: 00001110 00110001 And Memorex write like: 00001110 00110001 It's a difference that you can hear! w00t! Makes music go from waa waa to bau chic-a chic-a bau bau!
Seriously, convert your CD's to WAV then burn the WAV back to the CD-R and there is no change in the file. If you add CD-Text to the soung, the file changes it's size, but it's otherwise an exact copy of the original.
Color of the dye matter's some with being readable. I've had some Memorex "Cool Color" Red CD's that failed to burn properly on a Plextor. This is more of an unusual case than the norm. Your typical light green or light blue CD-R's will work just fine. I prefer the blue to the green since they are only slightly more readable in older CD drives.
09-02-2006, 05:04 AM
#24
Originally Posted by 9Nails
I use TDK CD-R's because they have higher sound quality than Memorex CD-R's. TDK's write like: 00001110 00110001 And Memorex write like: 00001110 00110001 It's a difference that you can hear! w00t! Makes music go from waa waa to bau chic-a chic-a bau bau!
09-11-2006, 11:14 AM
#25
Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by 9Nails
Seriously, convert your CD's to WAV then burn the WAV back to the CD-R and there is no change in the file. If you add CD-Text to the soung, the file changes it's size, but it's otherwise an exact copy of the original.
Color of the dye matter's some with being readable. I've had some Memorex "Cool Color" Red CD's that failed to burn properly on a Plextor. This is more of an unusual case than the norm. Your typical light green or light blue CD-R's will work just fine. I prefer the blue to the green since they are only slightly more readable in older CD drives.
09-11-2006, 12:45 PM
#26
You want absolute best SQ, convert your mp3s to wavs, then burn the wavs..Also I have had really crappy luck with memorex, I have found tdk, sony and verbatim to be the best. I too have been burnin cds since the 4x burners came out, back in the day you had to convert your mp3s to wavs, recording programs wouldn't take mp3s. Anyways I have found the above method to sound the best, and with all of your wav files, don't worry if they are >700mb, when you make an audio cd, it goes by length, not size.
09-12-2006, 08:27 AM
#27
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by cpuguy06
...and with all of your wav files, don't worry if they are >700mb, when you make an audio cd, it goes by length, not size.
Just being thorough
09-12-2006, 08:36 AM
#28
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by cpuguy06
You want absolute best SQ, convert your mp3s to wavs, then burn the wavs.
SQ will not change one iota when converting to WAV before copying to a CD (barring a poor MP3 decoder implementation, which unfortunately do exist). If you have an MP3 CD player, keep it as an MP3 and use the extra space.
09-12-2006, 01:12 PM
#29
Originally Posted by MacGyverS2000
To be correct, it still goes by size. The difference is with audio CDs the bitrate is exact (1 minute of audio = roughly 970kB), so 700 Megs gives you 74 minutes of music. Since MP3s use a variable length compression, you can sometimes fit 200 minutes of audio on one CD and 400 on another.
Just being thorough
Just being thorough
No, you cannot fit more than 80 mins of audio on one cd IF YOU BURN IT AS AN AUDIO CD. If you burn it as a data cd, then you can and it will go up to 700MB. And also there is infact a difference in SQ when you burn an audio cd with wavs..you all may think I'm crazy, but there is a difference..Kind of a subtle one, but still a difference none the less..and also on a 700mb disc you can fit 80mins, not 74
09-13-2006, 10:19 AM
#30
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 43
Originally Posted by cpuguy06
No, you cannot fit more than 80 mins of audio on one cd IF YOU BURN IT AS AN AUDIO CD. If you burn it as a data cd, then you can and it will go up to 700MB. And also there is infact a difference in SQ when you burn an audio cd with wavs..you all may think I'm crazy, but there is a difference..Kind of a subtle one, but still a difference none the less..and also on a 700mb disc you can fit 80mins, not 74
That mistake aside, I specifically mentioned audio CDs, not data (i.e., MP3), as having a 74-minute limit. If you use WAV files, as your post mentioned, you're limited by length (and also directly by size) of the WAV files. Your post suggested size of the WAV files made no difference to how much music you could fit onto an audio CD, which is incorrect... like saying a pole is higher standing up than it is long lying down, playing time and file size are directly related in WAV audio files, but not so in MP3 data files.
I have no idea why you think there's an SQ difference with CDs cut using WAV files, but there's obviously nothing I can say to make you change your mind. Digital data is digital data, and assuming the equipment doesn't screw up the bitstream, it doesn't matter how it gets from one unit to another, the bits don't change (I'm not talking about (de)compression algorithms here). Your statement of the difference being "a subtle one" brings back memories of golden-eared audiophiles claiming those $5,000 steel points holding their cables 3" above the ground give their music a cleaner sonic quality
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