OT - Recording.

[Cripes]

Can anyone inform me about CD recording and why some CD-R's and CD-RW's are rejected by recorders (burners). I bought some CD-R's and my equipment popped up a message saying it could not record to the disc. As suggested by the pop-up window I bought another brand of CD's and even changed the recording speeds. Nuthin'. Then, I just kept popping the same disc into the recorder after each (bogus) message and it finally accepted the thing. The resulting recording was fine. Sheesh. Almost threw in the towel. This was for the HCAG album.

 

The burner is an external 52X CD-R Write Speed, 32X CD-RW Re-Write Speed, 52X CD-ROM Read Speed with a 2.0 USB made by COMPUSA with Nero Software Suite driver.

[recordingtrack1]

Have you recently installed any new multi-media software on your computer?

 

Several months ago I installed a new DVD burning program on my computer and it wreaked havoc on my audio burning capabilities. It was a freakin' nightmare to resolve the issue. I finally figured it out after weeks of testing and reconfiguration, etc. I went into my Start>Run>msconfig>startup. I began to uncheck and reboot one at a time and suddenly my audio burning capability was corrected. I dumped the DVD program and it has worked fine every since.

 

Just remember that if you do something like this, first go into your System Restore Program and set up a restore point. That way if you screw something up you can go back and fix your error.

 

Just one of about ten thousand possible solutions.

 

Good Luck,

 

RT1

[Cripes]

The burner software has been in the system and successfully operating along with the OEM suite for a couple of years. What I did do is add an HP printer (driver) recently but that should not conflict. I've had various HP products installed on this (HP) cpu in the past without any glitches. Who knows. Like you say, there's probably a specific fix in the 10K available.

 

I've experienced this CD-R/CD-RW rejection scenario before. I just thought that it might be a common experience.

[brahmz118]

As RT1 says, could be one of a lot of problems. Make sure all relevant drivers are up to date -- from websites, not install discs.

 

Do you have iTunes? If not, could you download it from Apple and try to burn a disc with it? It's free, and easy to use -- just make a new playlist from the File menu, drag your recording onto the name of that playlist, and click Burn Disc. If it works fine, then it's a Nero problem.

 

Not sure what media you've settled on, but based on personal experience I'd avoid Memorex like the plague.

[kwakatak]

I have no clue but feel your pain. Ever since I started buying Windoze PCs I've had nothing but trouble with such things. It's affected my last 2 PCs and both times it turned out to be a mechanical issue with the drive itself. Goddamn stuff must be made in China.

 

I miss using my old Apple Power Macintosh. It still runs like a clock after 13 years but sadly it's obsolete.

[guitarist21]

I miss using my old Apple Power Macintosh. It still runs like a clock after 13 years but sadly it's obsolete.

 

At Berklee EVERYONE uses Mac and it is clear why. In addition to a ton of reputable music software on Mac, they run like clocks for thirteen years or more.

 

Except I've been using PCs all my life and now I have to get used to Garageband and Reason instead of Cakewalk, which is annoying. But I'm sure that once I get the hang of it, it will be better.

 

Ellen

[Stackabones]

I've had that happen, but not too often. I get at least one WTF CD-R with each pack.

 

BTW, I do everything on a Mac with iTunes.

[kwakatak]

At Berklee EVERYONE uses Mac and it is clear why. In addition to a ton of reputable music software on Mac, they run like clocks for thirteen years or more. Ellen

 

That is unless you've got a pre-G3 Mac like I do. When OSX came out they basically told every Apple user that they'd have to upgrade since no new software or software upgrades would be made or supported for the older OS, even by 3rd party software vendors. I couldn't even get a CPU upgrade for my model that would allow me to upgrade so I was stuck on OS9.1. At the time they also made the switch from SCSI to USB so all my peripherals were useless as well, so I was basically left with a $5K in paperweights. Thanks for nothing, Steve Jobs!

[sdelsolray]

That is unless you've got a pre-G3 Mac like I do. When OSX came out they basically told every Apple user that they'd have to upgrade since no new software or software upgrades would be made or supported for the older OS, even by 3rd party software vendors. I couldn't even get a CPU upgrade for my model that would allow me to upgrade so I was stuck on OS9.1. At the time they also made the switch from SCSI to USB so all my peripherals were useless as well, so I was basically left with a $5K in paperweights. Thanks for nothing, Steve Jobs!

 

Why would the SCSI products you already had become useless because of USB? They didn't.

 

The transition from OS 8 & 9 to OS X was announced 2 years in advance of OS X's release and OS 9 continued (and still continues) to run afterwards, provided you use what was available for it at that time. The transition by Apple was well thought out and well executed.

[brahmz118]

There are a couple of pro studios near me who are running ProTools on OS9. I know there were a lot of complaints about the transitions, both OS9 to OSX and PowerPC to Intel, but I agree with sdelsoray -- anything that worked on a Mac pre-transition still worked and worked well, except for web browsers.

 

kwak, you might be able to sell your old stuff on eBay. I'm keeping an old PB Duo for sentimental reasons, but I think there are quite a few Mac collectors out there.

[Queequeg]

 

Why would the SCSI products you already had become useless because of USB? They didn't.

 

right. The advent of USB did not obsolete scsi products @ all. It simply provided another option. All your old scsi peripherals still work.

I like simple and I like low maintenance.

The best burning software I have used is Nero. As I said, I think most of the burning software has improved some in the past 2 years.

Although as Stackabones mentioned iTunes burning software is very good/very easy. However it is somewhat specialized and not a complete burning package for all your burning needs.

A decent CD/DVD burner these days costs about $60. I expect to have to replace these every couple of years under "normal use" whatever that means. I dont use it as much as I used to so I guess it might last a bit longer.

[kwakatak]

You guys have given me food for thought with regards to my old Apple. With regards to getting a new Apple, since we just bought a new Dell laptop it ain't in the cards. I suppose I could soup the old girl up. Not to venture too far off-topic, but do you think a 12 year-old Power Mac 7500/100 would take a 200GB 7200rpm HD or is the system bus too far out of date? Right now I have the original 1GB hard drive in it. I'd also like to see if it can run Red Hat Linux.

 

As for the SCSI drive, it's a 5.25" SyQuest drive with 88MB capacity. I don't suppose they still make disks for that, do they? If not, then maybe I can swap out that old internal 2X CD-ROM for maybe an 8X CD-R drive.

 

BTW, for recording on my PC I like to use Reaper to lay the tracks and Audacity to edit them. For effects I downloaded some plugins as well as the MP3 encoder and everything seems to work fine. I'd still like to invest in a pair of decent mics though.

[Queequeg]

I don't know if it is going to accept the 7200rpm drive; probably will, but about the only thing a 12-year old mac would be OK for in my estimation is for Linux.

[guitarist21]

 

Not to venture too far off-topic, but do you think a 12 year-old Power Mac 7500/100 would take a 200GB 7200rpm HD or is the system bus too far out of date?

 

 

My gut is saying it won't work but I'm not sure.

 

You really do sound like a perfect candidate for a MacBook Pro with OS X. Except for that little part about the new Dell laptop. Perhaps when the Dell bites the dust, a Mac is next?

 

Ellen

[kwakatak]

 

My gut is saying it won't work but I'm not sure. You really do sound like a perfect candidate for a MacBook Pro with OS X. Except for that little part about the new Dell laptop. Perhaps when the Dell bites the dust, a Mac is next? Ellen

 

 

Nope. My wife is in IT and needs a Windoze PC for her job's VPN.

[recordingtrack1]

At Berklee EVERYONE . . . Ellen

 

Man, You feed them, you clothe them, you raise them up right and then they leave home and . . .

 

RT1

[brahmz118]

 

Nope. My wife is in IT and needs a Windoze PC for her job's VPN.

 

 

If that's the only hurdle you're in luck! The new Macintels can boot into Windows just like a PC -- i.e., natively, not through emulation or virtualization. Also, they should connect fine to a Windows VPN.

 

If the company specifically forbids the purchase of Apple products, that's another matter...

[Cripes]

 

BTW, for recording on my PC I like to use Reaper to lay the tracks and Audacity to edit them. For effects I downloaded some plugins as well as the MP3 encoder and everything seems to work fine. I'd still like to invest in a pair of decent mics though.

 

 

I do all this on the Acoustica Mixcraft software. It's a 7-day free demo download - $50.00 purchase now - but it handles tracks, FX and renders whatever format option you request at the mixdown. Plus, you can grab loops from their site and any fixes/upgrades as they further the product along in development.

 

As far as the mics are concerned, I think 2 small condenser mics and one large one would probably round out the field nicely. I have a large diaphragm Studio Projects B-1 for the spruce/EIR guitar and will be trying 2 small condensers on the Cedar/EIR guitar. I'm packing up to move right now but when I'm done I'll see about working up some demo recordings for posting here. That's my next experiment.