Which CD brand do you burn to?

[PHILANDDON]

(1) What do you burn to?:

CDR Data or CDR Audio
(I burn off an Alesis Masterlink and to me the CDR data CD's sound a little cleaner; the downside is that not all CD players play CDR data CD's)

(2) What brand do you use?:

(I like Maxell. To me there's a definite difference. I A/B'd some songs on Maxell CD Audio's vs. Sony CD Audio's and I found the Sony's to be a little louder but also a little noisier/glassier. Has anyone else noticed this).

[mshilarious]

It's hard to say without knowing the brand of hard drive you are burning from. It's important to match the hard drive to the CD. For example, if you have a crisp-sounding hard drive, like a Seagate Barracuda, it's better to pair with a warm CD, like a MAM Gold. Whereas a quieter HD, like a Western Digital, would probably work well with those Sonys.

[Big Kenny]

And sometimes I can warm up a letter if I write it on a legal pad.

[jerfo]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

It's hard to say without knowing the brand of hard drive you are burning from. It's important to match the hard drive to the CD. For example, if you have a crisp-sounding hard drive, like a Seagate Barracuda, it's better to pair with a warm CD, like a MAM Gold. Whereas a quieter HD, like a Western Digital, would probably work well with those Sonys.

You've completely missed the boat. You'll get the warmest sound by burning directly from a TAPE drive. Duh.

- Jerfo

[sniixer]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

It's hard to say without knowing the brand of hard drive you are burning from. It's important to match the hard drive to the CD. For example, if you have a crisp-sounding hard drive, like a Seagate Barracuda, it's better to pair with a warm CD, like a MAM Gold. Whereas a quieter HD, like a Western Digital, would probably work well with those Sonys.

wAS this a joke?

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by jerfo

You've completely missed the boat. You'll get the warmest sound by burning directly from a TAPE drive. Duh.

- Jerfo

I don't think you're always after the warmest sound possible. The OP was using a Masterlink, which has a punchy sound, but is very clean, so it's OK to warm up the sound with the right CD-R. But you have to take into account the whole chain. Let's say you're using an MXL tube mic into an ART Pro Channel. You're going to cut that to tape and then DIRECTLY to a warm-sounding CD-R, like that MAM Gold? That's crazy talk!

[altitude909]

Um, why would any sort of digital media have any differences in sound? Its reading 0s and 1s, not actual sound. I would have to question your methods if you are A/B'ing brands of CDR and hearing a difference

[MadAudio]

Originally Posted by altitude909

Um, why would any sort of digital media have any differences in sound? Its reading 0s and 1s, not actual sound. I would have to question your methods if you are A/B'ing brands of CDR and hearing a difference

We have a winner.


BTW, sniixer, if you didn't notice, his screen name is mshilarious, not msdeadlyserious.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by altitude909

Um, why would any sort of digital media have any differences in sound? Its reading 0s and 1s, not actual sound. I would have to question your methods if you are A/B'ing brands of CDR and hearing a difference

Sure, maybe right after they are burned. But most CD-Rs don't age well. When those bits become unreadable, that translates into errors, which are read like a 0 or a 1, but not in between. That creates an instantaneous square wave burst, which in the analog world sounds translates to odd-order distortion, which is where that "crinkly" sound comes from. Just a little bit can be a good thing, like using an exciter, but in the digital domain. Too much is just like, no thank you!

But an archival medium, like the gold CDs, instead of becoming unreadable, has the dye layer polymerize over time. In that process, the individual dots of dye form larger dashes, which has the effect of connecting 1s together into 1111 (as an example--much longer chains are possible!) That smoothes out the peaks of the music, like a nice opto-compressor, but again, in the digital domain.

Black CDs are the most resistant to change, since no visible light can reach the dye layer. For that reason they are favor for car audio, where that fresh, just-burned punchy sound is desirable.

[kid klash]

The most dependable CDR brand that I've used is Taiyo Yudan. They're available in plain and injet-printable versions, and are what many replication houses use. I've never wound up with a coaster using them.

My least favorite brand is Maxell... FWIW. YMMV.

[PHILANDDON]

I'm telling you there's a difference. And it's not even subtle. Go ahead burn something to a Maxell CD-Audio and the same thing to a Sony CD-Audio and compare. If you can't hear the difference, you've been listening to your monitors at too high a volume for too many years...............

[altitude909]

Aging I can understand, and errors are normal for all audio CDs (hence error correction on all audio cd players) so either you have more errors on one CD brand that manifests itself audibly through the error correction (which I doubt) or your recording process varied from one to another (which would not surprise me). As far as one sounding warmer/clearer/better, no way. It's a digital file, end of story

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by altitude909

Aging I can understand, and errors are normal for all audio CDs (hence error correction on all audio cd players) so either you have more errors on one CD brand that manifests itself audibly through the error correction (which I doubt) or your recording process varied from one to another (which would not surprise me). As far as one sounding warmer/clearer/better, no way. It's a digital file, end of story

I don't think that contradicts anything you have written.

[Robert D]

I use Taiyo Yudan, exclusively. Unlike Mic pres and such, this is where the good stuff only costs a little more.

-RD

[Robert D]

Originally Posted by altitude909

Aging I can understand, and errors are normal for all audio CDs (hence error correction on all audio cd players) so either you have more errors on one CD brand that manifests itself audibly through the error correction (which I doubt) or your recording process varied from one to another (which would not surprise me). As far as one sounding warmer/clearer/better, no way. It's a digital file, end of story

Not end of story. If a read of that digital info is getting lot's of errors, that's information that's missing about how to faithfully re-create the sound . There's also the matter of jitter.

-RD

[altitude909]

Yes thats true but if there is data missing the CD will skip (same goes for jitter) beyond the digital clicks associated with those errors, the sound quality will be what ever the wav file was. Different brands will not color sound

All jitter/bit/surface errors only pose problems for reading the disk and related audio glitches, not actual sound quality.

[earworm]

i haven't noticed sound difference yet,,,cause i never "looked" for it,
but i do know that real cheap brands totally suck cause those cds "break" down after a while,
right now i burned some audio cds on EMTEC cds, and hell !!!!!!!
i'll never buy that brand again, lots and lots of errors on it,
and no, not cause the cds are dirty or have scratches...

isn't there a site online where they compared tons of cdr brands? that would be cool, like a harmony central for cds

[apl]

The cheapest I can find, but I try to keep my eyes open for reputable brands. Sometimes Big Lots has them, $10/100.

[heroics321]

i stay away from budget/no-name brands. i've had whole batches that won't play anything after, say, track 9. i usually just go for the memorex (cd-r 80 i think), they're cheap and i never have a problem with them.