recommended CD Burner

[Graemme]

Franck, thanks a lot for your explanations about the DDP. I think it'll be the way to go with this label.

Here in Canada, DDPi is about as popular as the bubonic plague, especially since Sony DADC in 'Tronno closed down. My experience is that DDPi is more widely accepted in Asia and Europe. Is that other's experience as well?

Another weird thing happened yesterday:
- I sent them 2 master CD using Gold Plated CD "Ultradisc" and on one CD there is a lot of Text missing (ISRC, UPC etc...) and in the second CD master everything was there excepting the artist name was missing after the track 4.

That is really weird, the 2 master Cd's where burned with exactly the same setup and the same day.

???

You're assuming that the people who received your discs know what they are doing...Preston's (Perfect Record) advice is the way to go...also check your disc image by reloading it into Pyramix and or any other reputable application that can read CD-metadata:

Sequoia
WaveLab
iTunes on Mac (with CD-Text script add-on)
Mac OSX (drutil commands)
Exact Audio Copy
etc...

Best Regards,

Graemme

[fl]

Here in Canada, DDPi is about as popular as the bubonic plague, especially since Sony DADC in 'Tronno closed down. My experience is that DDPi is more widely accepted in Asia and Europe. Is that other's experience as well?

I've found that the brokers around Toronto are slowly adapting. Just today I sent off my first FTP transfer of a DDP to a broker in Thornhill: Duplium. Music Manufacturing advertises on their website that they'll accept DDPs. I think that RDR will too. Before they went out of business, World accepted all the disks I made for a client of mine as DDPs. I'm thinking that once the brokers twig that they will be less likely to be on the hook for liability due to faulty rips, they'll get on board with DDPs.

[Graemme]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for that info. I wasn't very clear in my question. I'm mostly interested in delivering DDPi via FTP. I've been doing that with Sony and EMI for some time now and it's been both reliable and very convenient. MMS, to my knowledge, don't accept DDPi via FTP. They want it on a physical disc. Yeah, it's better than CD-R from a potential disc error point of view, but I'm lazy and want to do it via FTP. I'm glad to hear that Duplium will do it and I know that SLI does glass-mastering from DDPi as well. Several larger Canadian replicators use SLI for glass mastering, so that's encouraging.

The other 'gotcha' for me is the stupid release forms that some replicators want me to sign...absolving them of *any* responsibility when DDPi via FTP is used. I'm fine to take responsibility for my end of the job, but not theirs as well.

Cheers,

Graemme

I've found that the brokers around Toronto are slowly adapting. Just today I sent off my first FTP transfer of a DDP to a broker in Thornhill: Duplium. Music Manufacturing advertises on their website that they'll accept DDPs. I think that RDR will too. Before they went out of business, World accepted all the disks I made for a client of mine as DDPs. I'm thinking that once the brokers twig that they will be less likely to be on the hook for liability due to faulty rips, they'll get on board with DDPs.

[fl]

Before the moderator comes down on us for hijacking this thread, let me just add that there was no release form required by Duplium for doing the FTP transfer, although they do have one for disks with a duration longer than 77 minutes, absolving them of responsibility if the long CD won't play in some machines. Sounds fair enough, but I wonder if it doesn't become a blanket absolution for any and all problems.
http://www.duplium.com

[Thomas Grubb]

And while we're hijacking, I recently had a "failed" master come back from Sony Australia, only to find that it had a "ring of death" scratch mark around it, and it of course wouldn't play. Sony had the classic Bart Simpson response of "I didn't do it", though they were the only ones to touch it between here and there! Mind you, their reliability with DDP files is not that great either...

Cheers,
Tom

[Larry Elliott]

The hijack items in this thread are most informative. Maybe the moderator could transfer them to the Cellar!

[Graemme]

As soon as he has a moment, he might... :->

Graemme

The hijack items in this thread are most informative. Maybe the moderator could transfer them to the Cellar!

[Paulo M]

Coming back to the topic(yes, you hijakers will be prosecuted...) on Friday I burned two CD Audio for a client, through Diskwrite, using a Lite-On drive (once recommended by Merging), only to find out that the discs were completely unusable after burning.Tried with Nero as last resort, the drive ejected the disc everytime I pressed Burn. So I ended up having to burn the files at home, using my non recommended drive, an LG external, that did the job without a glitch.

So, all in all, sometimes I miss my old 2 track tape machine. It had certainly more magic when recording the output of weeks of hard work and good music, than this bits of plastic that nowadays we rely on.

[Graemme]

Well, the Lite-On drives are great...for about 15 minutes...

The OptiArc 7241 that I've been using for a while now is fine. According to one poster in this thread, his new Plextor works (so far). At least one thing about them being cheap now is that you can try a few and discard the ones that don't work.

Cheers,

Graemme

Coming back to the topic(yes, you hijakers will be prosecuted...) on Friday I burned two CD Audio for a client, through Diskwrite, using a Lite-On drive (once recommended by Merging), only to find out that the discs were completely unusable after burning.Tried with Nero as last resort, the drive ejected the disc everytime I pressed Burn. So I ended up having to burn the files at home, using my non recommended drive, an LG external, that did the job without a glitch.

So, all in all, sometimes I miss my old 2 track tape machine. It had certainly more magic when recording the output of weeks of hard work and good music, than this bits of plastic that nowadays we rely on.

[maikol]

Hello everybody,

As our old good PX 716s are now dying, we'd like to replace them on our PMX Systems.

As there are new models every day, would you share what you are using now ?

Also, is anybody using Bluray discs to archive work ?

Thanks, and all the best.
Maikol

[Perfect Record]

...Also, is anybody using Bluray discs to archive work ?

Maikol

Had exactly the same question on my mind today.

[Thomas Grubb]

I had a strange thing happen the other day. I sent a reference copy of a master I was about to send off to the musician for a final listen, and she called back saying it sounded different to the previous discs I'd sent (she has a very good system, as opposed to most who listen on their laptops!). I said that wasn't possible and perhaps her ears were tired because she'd had just gotten off a long flight from Europe and it was 3am. The only difference between this and the previous disc was that a few gaps had changed, but the audio and levels were the same.

For her peace of mind, she came over in the morning and we made a master using the expensive TY media which produces the lowest error rates on the 716 burner, had a listen and all was fine. We then put on the other 'problem' disc and it did indeed sound different...slightly phasey perhaps and a little cold. I compared the original image file of this disc and the previous one and they nulled, the media, a cheaper variety of TY disc, had similar error rates (though much higher and far less consistent than the more expensive media). The only thing I can think of is that I burnt the problem disc on my other burner, a Plextor 750 (which is a Liteon one), though I'm not sure any more.

I was surprised at how different they sounded, so I think I'll only be using the one burner from now on, even though it has become fussy with which disc formulations it will accept.

Cheers,
Tom

[Graemme]

I think it bears mentioning again: There is a sort of 'Holy Trinity' in CD-R burning: Burner; media and burning speed. If I can get those three balanced, I have consistent results. If I change any one of them, then a whole new round of testing may be required.

Currently running OptiArc 7240 / 7260 burners and using PlexTools on a Premium or 755.

gb

I was surprised at how different they sounded, so I think I'll only be using the one burner from now on, even though it has become fussy with which disc formulations it will accept.

Cheers,
Tom

[MikeP]

Agree with Graemme with the emphasis on media and speed. We use Samsung SH-222/223xx or Optiarc 72** with Taiyo (now JVC) printable media directly from Microboards. Speed is the issue. I tried using 24x on the Samsung and error rates were fairly high, but when I went to 32x, error rates dropped dramatically. We have a Clover CD check system here for error checks. The Optiarc is only slightly higher at 32x, but unacceptable at 24x.

At any speed other than 32x or 24x for either burner, the Clover lights up like a Christmas tree with 'FAIL' blocks everywhere.

We also have a Plextor Premium burner and its error rate at 16x / 24x is higher than either DVD burner at any speed. Massive errors at other speeds.

I also use 'Opti Drive Control' software for error checks, and it matches the Clover. They wrote the Plextools package. I just go to the horse's mouth.

Mike

[maikol]

Hello every body,

Thank you for all your good advices.

I've eventually bought 2 Sony AD 7261S 's to replace our old PX716's.

I did try different speeds with the same media (TDK 52x cheapos), and was surprised to find the lowest C1 rate @ 40x speed. That lowest average is also still pretty high (around 6 C1 per second). It's certainly ok for editing checkup CD's or rough mixes, but probably not good enough for ref CD's!

By the way, those 7261's are Lightscribe capable. Would be great to use this feature to have this nice professional looking ref CD's, instead of the dirty permanent marker written thing! Is anyone here doing this ? Which Lightscribe CD-R would you use (i"m afraid there aren't that many around) ?

All the best,
Maikol