source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:31:06 -0700 Subject: Diary of a CDR novice From: John Starrett Ladies and Gentlemen- I finally have my CDR up and running. I gave in and bought my own unit from Media Source- a package from Smart & Friendly with a 2x Sony drive Adaptec SCSI Lite card, and EZCDPro software. I installed the software and it worked perfectly as soon as I rebooted. I proceeded to back up all my floppy software and the contents of my hard drive. I checked the discs, and they all read perfectly (I have used media by TDK, Verbatim and Sony so far). The one spooky thing is that until you close the disk, you get an "error reading disk" message several times before the disk will read. This is because, until the disc is closed, the CD reader checks each track separately and doesn't see the CD as being there until it checks the last track (& other stuff about which I know not). Then came the real test - recording music. I used my Windat recorder to maked .wav files from some of my old cassettes (I even found a usable recording of my high school band, and I'm 44 years old) and created an archive the CDR. Success! All the files read properly. I created several archives with no problems, and chose the ones I wanted to place on an audio CD. These cuts I placed in a directory on my hard drive. I then fired up EZCDPro and dragged and dropped the .wav file icons into the window. I pressed record, and the machine whirred and clicked away for about an hour(half an hour to do a test record, and half an hour to record at double speed). I now have a perfectly functioning and worthless CD chronicalling my musical development. Who wants to hear my high school band back to back with noise music? I have since made a couple of collections of favorite cuts for my wife and have experienced no problems. I am currently preparing the .wav files from last year's Microstock festival, and should have CDs ready in a couple of weeks. As to Brian M's concerns with the state of the art, I am in no position to rebut his quoted experts as my personal sample size is too small, but I believe he is being overly pessimistic. I can quote other experts (no less expert than his) who will give a higher success rate for CDR audio recordings. (If you want the quotes and sources, ask me and I'll be glad to post them). Although CDR technology is not perfect (which one is?) it is constantly being improved, and who cares if you burn a bad CD? Drop the $7.00 and burn another one!! The point I am trying to make is that I can now make my own CDs for an investment of $617.00 and $7.00 per disk. When I send my music to a radio station they can play it on the air with no hassle. When I give a CD to a friend, it won't jam in the cassette player and wrap arount the spindle. Check out my web site at http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret/ for .wav file excerpts from Microstock 1. They will be posted sometime this week, and will have been recorded on an old scratched Sony CDR disc before transfer to the web files. John Starrett Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 19:40 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA17249; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 19:41:21 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA17225 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id KAA27742; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:41:19 -0700 Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:41:19 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu