Which CD-R's suck?

S

stubhead

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The last hundred I bought wouldn't play in a lot of machines, which sort of limited their usefulness. I can't find a brand name on them... there are some Philips and Maxell (80-minute, 700MB) ones available that cluster around $22-$23 per hundred. I'm just wondering if anyone knows of specific brands that do, and don't, work in a wider variety of drives and machines. (my CAR....  :dontknow: :sad1:)

I'll pay more, if something works better... :hello2:
 
Did you just copy and paste mp3 files onto the CD's, or did you actually write to them in audio format?
 
Yes - remember to burn in audio format. And to close the disc.

And it actually helps to burn it slow - rather 4X than 278X or what your drive is capable of.
 
I've used Cakewalk, Window Media Player and iTunes to burn Cd's... is there something in the burn settings that affect their playback on different devices? I normally choose the AAC coding because I can hear over-simplified Mp3 coding, but the main need I have is for song-learning discs for me & the mates, and stuff to listen to in the car.
 
If you burn AAC-files directly you end up with a Data-CD which only computer drives and _some_ cd players can play.

You have to make a (Red Book) Audio CD to make it compatible with all standard CD-players.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_%28CD_standard%29
 
Well, that is informative! I need to use a certain standard, and:

The standard is not freely available and must be licensed from Philips.
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They get you coming and going, huh. I don't care who I have to threaten and/or sleep with, can I steal it somewhere?  ???

(PM's better...) :help:
 
In my experience, Verbatim disks are the most reliable and consistent. I used to know why - and there are good reasons - but they escape me now. For all I know, those reasons may not even be valid any more. But, I still use their disks to good effect.

Quite often, write speeds are optimistic. Sometimes wildly so. Your best bet is to buy as fast as you can afford, then drop back about 20%-40% or so in actual use.

Also, as has been mentioned, format matters. There's a difference between an audio vs. data CD. I can't tell you how to get around it in Windows, although I know it's possible. I used to do it. it's been too long, though, so I don't remember the secret spells. I use Linux now, so few things stand in my way when it comes to the industry's various shenanigans.
 
Try TAIYO YUDEN Golden Ultra CDR's and http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ program. Don't burn quicker than X4 for music files.

CDR's I made in a good CD recorder are long lasting and I prefer them from the ones I made in computers. My trusty Sony W33 has made a few hundrends CDR's in X1 that still play as new.
 

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I'll second the write speed.  I get more errors with faster speed burns.  I usually go 8x or 16x.  Even then a disc takes less than 10 minutes.
 
Kostas said:
Try TAIYO YUDEN Golden Ultra CDR's and http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ program. Don't burn quicker than X4 for music files.
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Also note that *some*, but not all, major brands will sometimes sell Taiyo Yuden CDs under their own brand name. So you'll see, say a color of JVC brand CD-Rs, and it will end up really being Taiyo Yuden.  There are lists on the internet of which SKUs are actually rebranded TY cds.
 
StubHead, I'm not sure the thread's been totally useful to you yet.

If you haven't been burning the CDs in audio format then no, they won't play on most CD players, but they'll play fine in a computer.

Compare, for instance, two things that I could use a notebook full of thin paper for. Firstly I could paint a frame of animation on each page. Then we could shine a light through it, and flick through the pages, to see an animation take place on a screen.

Or, I could write out the story on the pages. The same information is stored on the paper, but shining a light through it and flicking through the pages will result in a meaningless jumble on screen.

Writing AAC or MP3 files to a CD is like the latter case. That information is on the disc, but, for the method that a normal CD player uses to play music, it's useless.

As for the RedBook standard - don't get too hung up on the licensing and things. You don't need to worry about this at all; the software you're using will already have the licensing taken care of, and it'll likely just call this "Audio CD". To burn an Audio CD, the software will need to take your files, whatever format they're in, and convert them to an uncompressed stream. That stream is what gets burned on to the CD. Usually this will take place transparently, in memory, so you get the impression of burning your AACs straight to the disc.

With this method, much less music can fit on the disc - 74 minutes, usually.

iTunes can do this and I believe WMP can do it too. You need to be sure you're telling it to burn an Audio CD though, not just a computer-formatted disc full of files that happen to contain encoded music.

Personally, I use this software for pretty much all disc burning. It will do the process I've described above just fine. It's not the most intuitive software ever, but you are definitely intelligent enough to use it. There's a guide here on how to do it with this software.

[Note that some standalone CD players do support looking at a disc full of MP3s or whatever, and playing the tracks - but this is an extra feature and not one that manufacturers must implement in order to be allowed to call their unit a "CD Player".]
 
Jumble Jumble said:
Compare, for instance, two things that I could use a notebook full of thin paper for. Firstly I could paint a frame of animation on each page. Then we could shine a light through it, and flick through the pages, to see an animation take place on a screen.

Or, I could write out the story on the pages. The same information is stored on the paper, but shining a light through it and flicking through the pages will result in a meaningless jumble on screen.

Writing AAC or MP3 files to a CD is like the latter case. That information is on the disc, but, for the method that a normal CD player uses to play music, it's useless.
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This: +10. Excellent analogy for how the data is stored. One other note here, the process of converting data into a stream that can be read from a CD is called ripping. If you're just copying files to a CD, then you're just copying them, not ripping them into a format that can be read by a CD player.

Also, Roxio makes some good ripping and format conversion tools in their Creator suite of tools.
 
Well, I know about the audio stuff, and iTunes does what it's supposed to. I tried the IMG thing with what seems to be the same results. I have a high-end boombox (if there is such a thing) from Sony, 2006ish, and it will play anything I make; I have a medium-grade boombox from Toyota, 2000 Camry, and it won't play anything I make. The bigger problem is when I make CD's for other people, either because they really need to hear the music in order to Become a Better Person, or more likely, because it's songs I want them to learn to play in a band context. The acid test for these is to take them out to the Toyota, but it won't play ANYTHING, whereas 2/3 of the time, those CD's will play elsewhere... much nonhilarity ensues. When the only way you can find out a CD won't work is to send it to somebody, and then you have to explain to them that it's THEIR fault the CD's you gave them don't work.... I may just bag it all, move to Tehran and start a new career as a stand-up comedian telling raghead jokes. Oh the stress of it all.

So Pat Robertson, Jesus Christ, Adolph Hitler and three Q-Tips get on an elevator....
 
Some older cd players are very picky about what they'll read.  I have a 1999 Chrysler 300M that plays retail cds just fine but has a very difficult time reading cdr discs.  If I'm persistent I can get one to work, but mostly I've resolved to just use my limited selection of tunes.
Pretty much anything made after 2004 should read cdr discs just fine.
 
StubHead said:
Well, I know about the audio stuff, and iTunes does what it's supposed to. I tried the IMG thing with what seems to be the same results. I have a high-end boombox (if there is such a thing) from Sony, 2006ish, and it will play anything I make; I have a medium-grade boombox from Toyota, 2000 Camry, and it won't play anything I make. The bigger problem is when I make CD's for other people, either because they really need to hear the music in order to Become a Better Person, or more likely, because it's songs I want them to learn to play in a band context. The acid test for these is to take them out to the Toyota, but it won't play ANYTHING, whereas 2/3 of the time, those CD's will play elsewhere... much nonhilarity ensues. When the only way you can find out a CD won't work is to send it to somebody, and then you have to explain to them that it's THEIR fault the CD's you gave them don't work.... I may just bag it all, move to Tehran and start a new career as a stand-up comedian telling raghead jokes. Oh the stress of it all.

So Pat Robertson, Jesus Christ, Adolph Hitler and three Q-Tips get on an elevator....
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If it will play in SOMETHING, but not in your Toyota, then your car's cd player is the problem. A different brand of CD is unlikely to help.

This may not work for you, but I've just about totally given up on cds for everything. Dropbox is a super convenient and free way to share files, including music files, among computers. Some people seem to have a hard time setting it up, but once you and your buddies do, there is no more convenient way to share any kind of music, notation, whatever. You just save it on your computer in a certain spot, and it automatically shows up on your buddies computer as soon as he is online. No more "I sent it, blah bla" - it's just there already. It's the one application that really sold me on this whole "cloud" "Internet 2.0" thing. Really changes how I work.

 
I know people who are using Reverb Nation and SoundCloud for that, and it may end up being the only thing that will "work." It then become necessary that everybody have a computer setup in their music room, their kids aren't using to blow up aliens or ogle Ms. Boom Boom LaRue & her many skills. There are so many platforms... a few months back, Premier Guitar mag had an article about sharing files between different DAW's, and this month the letters to the editor are all about how you have to have the exact right version of so-and-so and even if your plugins are the same as his plugins you have set the fromuncular zeeberflatch at the same pitch altitude and stuff. Long gone are the days where you just throw the Marshall in the trunk, go over and bang their heads... everyone's sitting at home in front of their computer spending six hours to make a three minute song that works. It really is revenge of the nerds time, all the goofy fat kids from high school are sitting at their tech jobs going
"wait'll they get a load of THIS! NO one can figure it out!"
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It was bad enough when they were in the package design department =
"E-Z-Open pull tab! Just pull here!"

And there you stand, with a tab in your hand... now they're into our MINDS.... :eek: :eek:
 
I know what you're saying. I went to a non-computer recording setup (Boss BR600) so that I could spend more time playing and less on the computer. But for trading music (and lyrics, chords, sheet music) around the band? Dropbox (or similar, but I think dropbox works best) saves time and simplifies life.
 
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