Low volume CD-R

[Century L100]

Can anyone tell me why some of the things I record on CD-R media come out sounding weak?

I'm using the CD-RW drive in my Dell Dimension 4700, and whether I use the Sonic software or Windows Media Player, the Imation CD-Rs seem to have a lower volume level than other brands (Sony, Verbatim). Is it just the Imation brand, or am I doing something else wrong?

[Geoffcin]

Can anyone tell me why some of the things I record on CD-R media come out sounding weak?

I'm using the CD-RW drive in my Dell Dimension 4700, and whether I use the Sonic software or Windows Media Player, the Imation CD-Rs seem to have a lower volume level than other brands (Sony, Verbatim). Is it just the Imation brand, or am I doing something else wrong?


Recording a CD is not like recording on analog magnetic tape where the recorded volume is input dependent. The volume of a recorded tone on a cd is a function of a digital code. Theoretically it should be the same for any CD-R media your recording on. Of course this also assumes a direct copy. If your using editing software to copy then this may impart a different volume. Is this problem only when ripping to mp3, or does it do it on a direct copy too?

[Century L100]

What I've been doing is ripping tracks from CDs to my hard drive where I save them as either WMA lossless files or WAV files and then burning them to CD.

The reason I wonder about the particular brand of CD media is that the Sony ones I've used seem to come out more uniform in volume than the Imation. None of them seem to be nearly as loud as commercially produced CDs, though. I guess that's to be expected, though...correct?

[noddin0ff]

Like Geoff said, if they are direct copies then the media should not make a difference. If you just copy the files to the hard drive rather than ripping them and then burn, is there still a problem?