The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone know the real difference between the two...if any?

Do you mean the Audio CD's that are sold for you to record on?

The biggest difference is that you're paying a royalty on those Audio CD's.

On a computer, either one should work.

On a stand-alone CD-recorder (like one that goes with a stereo system), I think (not very positive, really) that you may have to use the Audio CD's.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

The "Audio" CD's have a file encoded on them. David pretty well covered the rest. Most standalone "music" CD recorders have to see the audio file or they won't record.

The "data" CD's, that are used in PC's do not need the audio track and if you record music on them they will play back in almost all CD players.

The third type, CD-RW (rewriteable) will not read in most audio cd players. PC Recording software such as Adaptec will recogize the CD-RW and will not even allow you to record audio on that type. (there was a recent thread on here about the RW types - check it out).

<SMALL>Recording software such as Adaptec will recogize the CD-RW and will not even allow you to record audio on that type.</SMALL>

I use Adaptec's EZ CD Creator 4.02e and have recorded audio to CD-RW's many times. Most CD players won't play them, but I have no trouble recording them, and they play fine in my computer's player.

<SMALL>The "Audio" CD's have a file encoded on them. David pretty well covered the rest. Most standalone "music" CD recorders have to see the audio file or they won't record.</SMALL>

I wonder if that file would be easy enough to copy onto standard CD-R to "create" audio CD-R's for use on the stand-alone systems?

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Jim, I V4.03 but I think I tried it in an earlier V4.XX version. I have an HP 4/4/24 internal CD writer (8250i I think).

I've only tried one from EZ CD Creator and it gave me the CD-RW message. I haven't tried any others since.

Here's what I know about it. I too use Adaptec. I also have Nero, but the Adaptec is idiot proof, so I use it more often.

You CAN burn audio to CD-R, and it WILL play in your CD player in the car. You CAN NOT record audio on CD-RW and expect the same.

It has to do with the type of data. I too believe that the audio/music is encoded.

Thank y'all for all the good info. I kinda figured as much. If you want to hear some good ones, go to Circuit City, Best Buy or some other electronic retailer and ask a salesman ot technician the same question.

CD-RW disks give you a much smaller read-back signal than CD-R or conventional mass-produced audio CDs. Your regular CD boombox or car player cannot make heads or tails out of the weak optical signal they get from the CD-RW disks, which is the primary reason you cannot play an audio CD-RW disk on a regular CD player. If some software will not let you burn audio onto a CD-RW, that's is another question. If some software won't, it may be because the software manufacturer expected you wouldn't be able to play that CD on your boombox and so they prempted the recording thereof in the first place.

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<font size=-1>Bill (steel player impersonator) | MSA Classic U12 | Email | My online music | Forum birthdays</font>

My Adaptec software will let me record audio on CD-RW, but it gives a that prompt says that it can't be played on most car or home systems, and do you still want to proceed? As I mentioned in another thread, my (admittedly cheap) boombox and even my decent portable CD player wont play CDRs, though they work in the car and in the home stereo. Must be some threshold of scanning sensitivity to be surpassed that lower end toys can't deliver.