CD ROM / Recorder question

[Richard Sinkler]

I'm thinking of putting a CD Rom/Recorder/RW in my compiter and have a question.

Is it possible to record from a cassette or record and how would you do it?

[b0b]

It's possible but it's very time consuming. You have to record each track into a separate WAV file on the computer, then assemble the files into a CD.

It's worth the effort if you're dealing with original tracks, but it would take a long time to convert your record collection this way. Also, the process uses a lot of disk space.

------------------
-b0b- ... Click Here for Forum Products
-System Administrator

[Greg Cutshaw]

I put a CD-ROM recorder in my computer and found that you have to buy the $80 Adaptec software to make it an easy process. The Adaptec software that comes with the drives is pretty archaic. The version you buy separately is just point and shoot. I have my old tape player, record player and the original CD drive to record from. Have to run the record player and the tape player into a stereo first then into the sound card analog input. The recording quality is excellent. I found that turning off all the scratch and pop filters gives you music with a lot more dynamic range.

Now!!! like b0b says, its such a pain to make recordings from records and tapes that I made a few and the novely wore off and the realization set in that it was too much work. The slight noise between tracks on tapes and records means that the software can't find gaps between songs so it will record a whole side a one blob. This means you can't skip around during playback, song by song unless you go to the trouble of recording an album one song at a time. On CD's, everything is done in the computer and you just load both CD's and Adaptec takes over, recording them as individual songs. The better Adaptec version also includes label making software and a label applier (is that a word?) applicator? but that's a lot of work. Whatever you record from, it is first coverted to a wave file then put onto the CD. Thus even CD to CD recordings are first converted to analog then re-digitized. Still with my computer the results are excellent.
If your're going to copy a lot of CD's get the new Philips CD-R double deck that has both an analog and a digital volume control. It makes direct digital copies of CD's and still has an analog input for other stuff.

I'm paying $1.20 for data CD singles but they can be had much sheaper mail order. The audio decks require CDR;s marked "audio" or "music". On many of the audio decks you can load an audio CD, push pause, open the deck replace the audio CD-R with the cheaper data CD-R, close the door and record on because the deck never checks the disk again. One other thing is that the data CD-R's will play on most CD players but will not play in a DVD player because they do not contain the formatting bits that the music industry wants you to pay for the audio CD's.

Greg

[Bobby Lee]

<SMALL>Whatever you record from, it is first coverted to a wave file then put onto the CD. Thus even CD to CD recordings are first converted to analog then re-digitized.</SMALL>

You can get around that by "ripping" the bits from the CD into a wave file, instead of recording it. There are quite a few inexpensive ripping programs available, most of them geared to the MP3 market.

------------------
<I>Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra S-8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)</I>

[Fred Murphy]

I have recently purchased two new computers. On them is already loaded, a program call music match jukebox. As it comes with the computer it says it records near CD quality. You can purchase a download from them that lets you record CD quality. I love it I have all of favorite recordings on my jukebox, which shows up on the screen just like a jukebox. You can record your songs in about 1 minute each if you choose to not hear them as you record. If you record with sound it takes as long as the regular CD to record. I have a tape player hooked to my line in and it will record analong as well, just select analog record. My old records I just record to tape and then record to my computer. I have at present probably 150 songs installed and it doesn't require a lot of memory. I have only used a little over 2 gyg and have 20 so I can all all I care to. The 2 gyg I'm talking about is for all programs I have not just my music. They are Hewlett Packards and I don't if they are the only ones coming with them already installed with windows. I think it is the perfect solution. You can look at them by album, by artist, by song, by genre and preprogram to play only 1 song or as long as you wish. If you want to copy just put in you CD and burn it. You might check it out.

[Bobby Lee]

Right. Music Match Jukebox will rip music direct from CD. It costs about $30. the demo version doesn't do it.

[Bill Llewellyn]

Here's a URL for a great CDR FAQ:

http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/

A long read, but very well organized (good indexing) and lots of very good information.