Problems with cd burning

[brandondrury]

I used to have problems with cds that I burned for people skipping. I haven't had one complaint in over one year now. I'll tell you how I did it.

1) I only use name brand cd-rs. I'm talking about Sony, HP, TDK, or whatever. Just go ahead and get the good shit. In the end, the piece of mind is well worth the $0.05 you'll save each year by buying the cheap junk. Actually, it may be cheaper to buy the good stuff. I stop by Staples when I'm in town quite frequently. They almost always have some amazing deal on cd-rs. If they don't, no big dieal.

2) I burn at half speed. I've heard a million rumors, but my experience shows that burning at half speed is the way to go. If your burner is a 40x, then burn at 20x. If your burner is a 16x, burn at 8x. From my tests, it's the way to go.

3) Choose your software wisely. I'm not sure how big of deal with is. I use Prassi Primo DVD 2.0. It came with my Primera Bravo cd / dvd burner, but I often use it on my Toshiba DVD burner which is just your standard internal DVD burner.

4) I quit using cheap, shitty cd-r drives. I burn with a Toshiba. It wasn't that expensive and I bought it probably 3 years ago. Just don't buy the cheapest thing out there. Your cd-rs are too important.

Brandon Drury

[onceaguru_records]

When I worked as a computer tech, people would call in daily with cd writing problems.

The solution that solved 90% of issues?

Restart the computer on a regular basis...at least once a day.

[brandondrury]

Restarting a computer will fix ANYTHING.

Once a buddies mouse wasn't being detected in the BIOS. We simply restarted the computer 9 times . It fixed it.

Brandon

[TimRP]

So what free windows programs are you guys using to burn audio CDs with?

[TranscendingMusic]

And along with what Brandon mentioned, here's some additional guidelines which can be found on my site as well:

1. The actual chemicals used to create CD's is crucial, believe it or not. Without getting into chemistry, basically, one should look for a goldish/silverish coating on the bottom-side of the cd rather than the green/blue coatings.

2. Try to use 74-minute blanks. The extra space they implement on higher running cd's creates room for bit errors. It's crazy. But that's our quantity over quality mentality, right...

3. use ?disc at once? mode for a smoother continuous pass. This presents less buffer under-runs and errors. When you write a data disk, it's a different process. For data disks, the burning program, normally, runs a cyclic redundancy check. If it finds a discrepancy it will revert back and re-write that portion until it matches the source. Not the case with audio sessions.

4. Try not to use paper labels on pre-master. Use good ole sharpie. So there is no weight differential.

hope it all helps,
Take Care