suggestions for a cd recorder

[artisan]

I'm currently using a tascam 424 mkIII, and have been for quite some time now. It's held up pretty well. I'm looking into getting a cd recorder to do my mixes, the tascam cdrw700 and 750 have so far caught my eye. Does anyone have any suggestions on any others?...

Thanx a heap

[Seeker of Rock]

Several people may tell to get a soundcard for your computer, hook your 424 into that, and burn to CD via your computer (if you have a CD burner...if not, they are like $20 nowadays). MOst people are gung ho on computer recording which is good advice, but if you're not consider this: I have a 488 MKII at the heart of my home recording studio and use a CDRW-700 to convert the final analog signal to digital. The CdRW-700 works great for this. The AD converters on the 700 maintain the quality of the original cassette "master", and the 700 has some really useful features like digital gain, variable timing automatic fade in/out for songs, RAM buffer for false starts, etc. Very nice machine and they seem to hold their value well. For around the same price, I have heard people mention good things about the HHD burnit, too. These are suggestions if you plan to keep this setup awhile and perhaps build on it a little. A $150 Philips (or Sony, JVC, RCA, etc.) consumer-grade burner will do a decent job as well, but will only use Audio CDR discs, where most professional-grade recorders such as the CDRW 700 and 750 will use data discs.

[artisan]

Thanx for the info...

But you mean to tell me that for 20 bucks and a soundcard, I could make cd's? If so, then it presents another option.

This is fun...

[Blue Bear Sound]

Alesis Masterlink - hands-down......

[The Ghost of FM]

Originally Posted by Blue Bear Sound

Alesis Masterlink - hands-down......

More like "hands up!" as in this is a stick up!

Certainly more of an investment then a CD burner or stand alone CD recording deck.

I use a Pioneer PDR777 which is a consumer machine that uses the dreaded CD-R music discs which at one point in time were like 19 bucks a disc. Now they can be had for as little 75 cents a disc at Office Depot and similar big box retailers.

Cheers!

[artisan]

Yeah, I've checked up on that Alesis, it's kinda pricey, at least for me. I checked this one consumer rig though, the sony cdrw500c, ($300) but I didn't consider it because of what I read about consumer stuff. I've checked a few of Ghost's other posts, you seem pretty adept at this, maybe I'll look into the sony. And if I get a burner for my computer, what type of software do you guys recommend?

thanx again...

[Seeker of Rock]

Blue Bear nailed it. That machine is sweet. I thought my CDRW-700 was pretty nice and always felt good about it. Now I feel like I own a Yugo. Anyway, with a Portastudio (though I love mine and still think they are great machines) you probably don't need that much machine, unless you plan to upgrade to a reel or something (nothing against cassette, but the masterlink is probably a bit of an overkill for Portastudios). A consumer-grade burner would be fine. You would probably never notice the difference unless you were recording digitally, in which case may not be wanting a stand-alone burner anyway because you would already have converted your analog signal to the digital realm with a good quality converter. Anyway, computer is the cheaper way to go in getting your recordings onto CD. I am still analog, the irony being I'm a bit of a computer geek but still record on tape, cassette at that Anyway, yeah a soundcard with two rca ins should be all you need to get your L-R outs into the computer and turn your tunes into a bunch of ones and zeros. Maybe someone will chime in and confirm or correct what I am saying and recommend some cheap cards to you.

[artisan]

Ok, I've been doing some poking around. I could get a soundcard for something like $30, a burner for my pc ($30-$50), and I saw Nero software for like $50. So for $150 (give or take a little more or less), I could have my computer up and running. That's not bad, not bad at all

Hey, any suggestions on software, Nero's the only thing I've come across so far.

thanx

[The Ghost of FM]

Hey, any suggestions on software, Nero's the only thing I've come across so far.

Nero is pretty good. Many say it's the best but, I haven't tried it myself.

I use Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator 6 and it seems to work for me. Version 7, the newest one is problematic and I ended up returning it because of too many errors and bloatware in the install. Version 6 is discontinued but if you can find a store that still has it, I would get that, and did!

Cheers!

[new388]

I bought one of the older sony home based CD recorders on ebay for $60 bucks a souple years ago. I simply plug the outs of my 388 into the analog ins of the burner, press record and I'm done. I was all set to buy a higer end pro unit when a producer friend of mine said.. Don't waste your money, you aren't going to hear a difference, and I haven't ... I had one of my demos sent out to get copied in bulk on high end recorders/burners.. Brand names I never even heard of and the one's a recorded with the sony at home sound the exact same.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally Posted by new388

...when a producer friend of mine said.. Don't waste your money, you aren't going to hear a difference, and I haven't ...

Some people can't hear the difference between a ART Tube MP and a Great River either.......

[artisan]

Well, I've decided to go the computer route. I'm waiting for my burner to come in the mail, and a friend of mine is gonna get me the nero 6 software. Hell, I haven't even spent $75 yet. That's not too bad. Just have to get it up and running and see how it turns out. Just one question though... what's the big deal with the consumer grade vs. pro audio? Some say there's no difference, some say there is. If there is a difference, what makes it so?.

[Benreturns]

Just got an Alesis Masterlink and seriously reccomend it as an all in one solution without bothering with computers. Storage/mastering/Cd producing - this box rocks!

[manning1]

my wife just got me on a rebate for 19 bucks a benq cdrw. came with nero express. frankly i'm ecstatic with it. works like a charm.
the cd's it produces sound excellent to me.
imho the technology changes too fast to invest in a standalone expensive burner that might be obsolete in the near future.
artisan the only way to tell any SOUND DIFFERENCES is to burn using a computer cdrw and a standalone. i dont think the normal man in the street will hear a diff. maybe a top AE might. but i bet its infinitessimal.

[Kramer87]

Hey Blue Bear,


I have a masterlink and was wondering if you were using its internal converters(AKM) for 2-track mix down or is it better to use external ones.
I heard some external converters at Sam ash the other day (Lucid)
And they sounded great compared to the ones on the masterlink.
Not that the ones on the masterlink sound bad,but the lucid's
were less grainy on cymbals hh,etc.


I have Motu 24i/o going to a analog console and was wondering.

Like you said "If Roger Nicols uses them, they're good enough for me."


Thanks

george