CD burning problem

[Mr Peabody]

I gave my daughter a CD burner for Christmas. It's a TDK outboard unit. I didn't really know that much about this area so I picked one that looked like it would meet the minimum requirements of the old computer. We have plenty of RAM and harddrive space but the USB ports are only 1.1 and will only allow 4x recording. She has tried to copy a couple CDs but when played back they skip. And to me they sound slightly slower than the original. Any ideas what the problem could be? Would updated USB ports cure this? She used both Narrow and Digi something that came with the unit and had the same results.

As side question, anyone know of an audio component cd recorder that has a bright display? I have RP. I was given a Marantz DR6000 or something like that and the display was so dim I couldn't read it. I am sad to give it up, it made the first CD-R that would play in my Krell cdp. It made great recordings from vinyl. The record level turned out great but there was some sound quality loss. If I get one I can use, this may be helped by using good cables. I used some cheezy ones just to see what the unit would do.

[DMK]

Try TDK blanks. I've found that CD burners tend to dislike certain blank discs for reasons unknown to me. I have a Marantz CDR500 (BTW, the display is plenty bright and it makes top quality recordings from both digital and analog sources) and it only likes TDK's. I went through more than a few mishaps with Maxell, Sony and a few others but I've only had one problem with TDK blanks in close to 400 dubs. Since your daughters unit is a TDK, it makes sense to me that TDK blanks would work. I get mine at www.jandr.com or any Best Buy or Circuit City usually carries 'em.

Good luck! CD's are sonically compromised enough without having to deal with skips!

[Jim Clark]

Well, I'm not a technical expert but have years and years of practical experience on the matter so I have a suggestion or two.

DAE is the hardest part of burning a CD so I spend the most time with this step. I strongly suggest using a third party program to handle the ripping. Search the web and download the freeware program-Exact Audio Copy and spend a little time figuring out how to use it. It shouldn't take very long at all. Rip the songs to the HD and then compile them in the burner software and burn. I'd start off with slower burns around 8-12x and check the results before speeding up the burn process.

As much as I love Nero, which is probably the software bundled with a TDK product, the "Copy CD" is iffy at best but this hold true for every single piece of burning software I've seen or read about. I think that by using Exact Audio Copy that you could see things improve with no additional cost to you.

If you have trouble understanding how to use the program there are tons of folks on the Rave Recs forum that are highly proficient with it.

jc

[arc_light]

Is the ripped image of the original saved anywhere on your hard drive? If so, does it skip in the same places as the copy when played? (The program may or may not, by default delete the image once it's been burned. You ought to be able to set it up to save it. You want it....save it somewhere. It can be dumped later.) Look for an option that lets you create an image first, then burn that, rather than just using a Copy Disc mode. This way you will have no choice but to save the image somewhere. Listen to the image before burning to avoid wasting blanks on a poor rip.
If you have the image and it skips in the same locations as her copy, it points to the rip. If it doesn't, it points to the burn.
A lousy ripper often can't make the distinction between an error it picks up from a scratch on the original from what ought to be there. This can mess up your image. Best to make sure your original is nice and clean before you start out as well.
If your burn is the culprit try slowing the burn speed down to as slow as it takes. The reason it is restricted to 4X is likely because USB can't deliver data to the burner any faster than that.
Slowing it down ought to solve it. If not, try other brands of discs. In the past TDK's burners were made for them by somebody else. I wouldn't bet it's any different today. The assumption it ought to like their blanks doesn't hold water.
Hope this is of some help.

[jack70]

I gave my daughter a CD burner for Christmas. It's a TDK outboard unit. I didn't really know that much about this area so I picked one that looked like it would meet the minimum requirements of the old computer. We have plenty of RAM and harddrive space but the USB ports are only 1.1 and will only allow 4x recording. She has tried to copy a couple CDs but when played back they skip. And to me they sound slightly slower than the original. Any ideas what the problem could be? Would updated USB ports cure this? She used both Narrow and Digi something that came with the unit and had the same results.

I generally agree with arc_light here. But there's not enough info above to give more specific answers (max rating of the external burner (it's firewire rating), OS, software used, chipsets, etc)... and what "Narrow" and "Digi something" refer to (?).
Here's some thoughts anyway...

Try TDK blanks. I've found that CD burners tend to dislike certain blank discs for reasons unknown to me.

I don't know why different brand blanks would make any difference... unless they were rated at different max burning speeds and you burned them at a "wrong" speed. What's a "wrong" speed? ...one that's outside the optimum system for the blank, software, and PC's hardware. Simply put, certain combinations are outside of what's possible for what you might be asking it to do. (Just like you can't make a 40-ton truck accelerate up a hill starting at 50mph, where you CAN do that with most sports cars.)

The USB1 ports would seem to be the issue. But depending on your OS/chipsets, it's not that simple to just add a new internal card to try to upgrade to USB2 or firewire speed... it (upgrade) won't always work (be possible). So unless you're going to be doing a LOT of editing, ripping and burning, I'd stick with the USB1 port for now. If all else fails, she could still use it with other people's (newer) computers (those who have USB2 or firewire ports).

I'd also make sure you turn off all un-needed background programs when doing this. It's also possible there are drivers that are not matched well. Again, that's a function of the PC, OS, hardware and software. I'd try burning at 2x, since 4x is the max limit that a USB1 buss can push out. That's pretty slow, but unless you plan on doing lots of burning it should work OK.

DAE is the hardest part of burning a CD so I spend the most time with this step. I strongly suggest using a third party program to handle the ripping.......
....As much as I love Nero, which is probably the software bundled with a TDK product, the "Copy CD" is iffy at best but this hold true for every single piece of burning software I've seen or read about.

Nero's "Copy CD" function works fine for me... it rips an "image file" of the CD to the hardrive first... a temp file that will disappear afterwards (unless you take steps to save it, which ain't that easy to do with this wizard). It then asks you how many copies you want, and at what speed. The rip (to hardrive) is done first... then the burning. You should be ripping from your internal CD-ROM, and this may be a source of the problem here... if it's trying to rip from the external/USB unit, it might be asking it to output data faster than the USB1 can handle. This issue (ripping FROM one drive, and burning TO another) may be part of your problem too. Again, it wasn't specified in the original post.

Although I use 5 other audio software products for various things, I think Nero's copy function (via the simple "wizard") is the fastest way to make 1+ quick copies of something. It optimizes the rip speed and burns the copies as fast as the discs rating is. Of course my burner is internal, so I don't have the speed-transfer issues of an external burner via USB port.

[arc_light]

Jack makes some good points.
I assumed Digi and Narrow were the programs the burner was bundled with, but I've never heard of 'em..
I agree that you'd probably be better off ripping with the internal CD-ROM. Your burner is likely just fine, but I'd want to take USB out of the equation.
I still don't think data transfer is an issue here though 'cause there wasn't any mention of coasters being made and that's why I didn't make mention of it.
I also would have touched on killing anything running in the background as well but that usually doesn't show you the symptoms Mr. Peabody gave us.
I made mention to trying other brands of blanks as an additional suggestion if burning slower didn't solve the problem. (Assuming of course, the rip didn't prove to be the source of the skips)
Out of range of the blank? I think one would be hard-pressed these days to find a blank CD-R that would have a problem coping with a 2X burning speed.
As I posted previously, narrow the problem down to either the rip or the burn. If it's the burn, do like Jack suggests. Kill the screensaver and anything running in the background that isn't required as a precaution....and don't go doing anything else on your PC once you've started the burn.
If the image is flawed, try using the internal reader to rip. Make sure the original is in good shape and clean. If that doesn't clean up your image, try a different program.
Too quick a burn speed is almost always the culprit for skips.

[Mr Peabody]

The burner came with Nero, not Narrow, and TDK Mix Master. She finally got the recordings to turn out by using the burners disc drive and transferring to the harddrive and then back for the burn. Maybe my cd drive is not comparible with the burner. Anyway the daughter is happy now. I went with an outboard unit so she could take it with her to college in the fall.

I don't understand why the recording industry is up in arms because the copy is noticably inferior to the original. I pressume better equipment may make better copies. But this brings me to another concern. My daughter will surely begin to download music. How do you know what you are not do download? Is all downloading illegal? I don't want the men in black to show up and sue me for thousands I don't have.

[Jim Clark]

I don't understand why the recording industry is up in arms because the copy is noticably inferior to the original. I pressume better equipment may make better copies. But this brings me to another concern. My daughter will surely begin to download music. How do you know what you are not do download? Is all downloading illegal? I don't want the men in black to show up and sue me for thousands I don't have.

Well, when done correctly the copy is not inferior to the original, it's identical, hence their concern. I've neither met nor heard of anyone who could distinguish between the two when it's done correctly. Hint-if you can tell a difference something has gone horribly wrong.

Downloads are not inherently illegal, there is an abundance of free material on the internet. Many band/fan sites have legal toons to sample and are usually marked as such. Additionally there are may sites created to promote new music and the offerings there are always risk free. Mp3.com used to be one, but it's now defunct. Others still exist like Ampcast, that do the exact same thing. In order to avoid future problems it would be best to make sure she doesn't install any Peer to Peer software like Kazaa, Winmx, Grokster and many others. If you don't install P2P software the chances of running afoul of the law is pretty far removed from reality.

Regards,
jc