After mastering, which burning speed, help?

[psongman]

HI, I have been burning my own cd's still, so I went out and bought another Liteon Cd writer. LO and behold, I went to burn a CD and it only went as low as 12 or 16X. My other one went down to 4X, wow. Can I burn audio cd's at this higher rate? You know, it didn't even give me an option to burn at a higher rate like my other Liteon drive did. Is this a cheapie, or what? So, will await your expertise. I know this is a mixing mastering forum but am sure you have a viable answer, thanks, psongman

[Massive Master]

*Generally* (as in "Studies have shown, but YMMV") somewhere around 20-25% of a drive's rated speed is the "sweet spot" as far as "clean" burns go.

So 12x on a 48-52x drive is most likely the ideal speed.

I'll save the wonderful experiences (and I mean that sarcastically) I've had with Lite-ON drives for another time though...

[Reggie]

I don't know what kind of jacked up drive you got, but in most situations I have found that 8x is ideal, 16x is adequate, and anything between is also good. Above 16x, things have a tendency to get a little "sloppy"...

I suppose that being a run-of-the-mill consumer drive, the makers just didn't bother with a writing strategy for slow speeds. Probably thought they were doing you a favor (fewer choices = less confusing).

[psongman]

Haha, funnnee, MM, you are right, about it being all right, most of the cd's sound better than even my last batch on older computer. What bugs me though, is that they don't give you an option. As far as Liteon goes, I have tried and my friends too, lots of other drives and for the money, hands down, it works the best for the money, unless you spend and buy like a Plextor Premium which has been discontinued by the way.

I called Plextor up and talked with a guy early this year about this problem of not having special drives for those that make CD's, esp. with the advent of all the DVD drives. He was very cooperative and listened but bottom line, the home CD maker is being phased out just when we figured a few things out. If you know of a particular drive that would fit this recording scenario please direct me. CD drive makers out there, please make us a drives that we can use to burn our cd's, esp. audio ones, thanks for the replies, psongman

[Massive Master]

Maybe you didn't understand... 1x burning is outdated. It's not as good, it's less accurate, it's more prone to problems, etc. Newer drives absolutely kill the older 1, 2 & 4x technology of the "good ol' days."

I recall one relatively new (and ludicrously expensive at several $k) 1x burner that someone introduced recently... Can't remember... Sony maybe? Sonic Solutions?

But the tests were typical - The error rates were *higher* and the data nulled out perfectly against a high-speed burn. I'll see if I can't dig something up - But if there was *any* perceivable, provable advantage to burning at 1x -- Even if the drive was $5k, there'd be one here. But there isn't. So, there isn't one here.

I wish I would've read this a month ago - It wasn't two weeks ago that I tossed out (as in, threw into a garbage can) a perfectly good Plextor 1420. I think the top speed was 2x. I would've sent it to you for nuttin' (but maybe S&H I guess). But it's old, outdated, SLOW, etc. If it could touch a newer Plextor at 8 or even 16x, I'd still be using it.

[masteringhouse]

Here is an old review of the Lite-On SOHW-1213S:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/sto...on-sohw_3.html

Unfortunately the charts aren't visible. According to page 5 of the article:

"Successfully handling CD discs overall, the Lite-On had the best results when writing at 24x speed. At the maximum burn speed, there are problems with land lengths and a deviation of symmetry out of the acceptable range. 16x burn speed also produced some strange results: the same symmetry-related problems, although less evident than at 48x speed, and the same problems with land lengths. So, the total result is somewhere between “satisfying” at the maximum to “good” at 24x speed"

[Reggie]

Wow, that drive sounds a little sketchy...At least it is cheap!
My favorite drives at the moment are the Plextor Premium (of course) and the PX760. The PX760 would be my fave if it had an option for 24X CD burning. It goes 8x to 16x to 32x; 32 being just a little outside of my comfort zone, but 24x is fine for me for quick refs.
Most of these "errors" we are talking about shouldn't affect the sound, so you may be tricking your ears into thinking newer drive "sounds" better. We aren't talking about digging grooves on vinyl here. However, the fewer errors you start with, the fewer errors you should end up with over time as the materials deteriorate. So the lower you can get these first level errors initially, the better starting point you are giving yourself as far as long-term usage.
If you are getting the higher level errors on a fresh disc, either your burner/computer is defective(junk) or your CDR is damaged/defective/poor quality. And these CAN be audible glitches.

[bkkornaker]

WOW!!!! a Lite-on's best write speed is 24x???? i just recently got a Lite-on DVD-r/CD-r burner (dirt cheap).......and i have the same problem as the original poster.....its lowest burn speed is 16x.

Ive burned a few mixes with this speed, and the album was a bit troublesome. certain spots would 'skip', and the occasional 'static crackles' would show up here and there. Never had this problem with my old burner burning at 4x.

i guess ill try it at 24x, and see what happens.......im assuming it wouldn't hurt to try it....

[masteringhouse]

You guys prob already know this, but before you blame the burner make sure that you're using good media (Taiyo Yuden recommended). A CD-R produced using a good burner will still produce a CD-R with errors if the media is bad.

[bkkornaker]

when you say "good media"....do you mean burning software?

if so, im using nero 8 for typical stuff,...... but Wavelabs 5 for burning my mastered songs/ over all CD compilations.

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by bkkornaker

when you say "good media"....do you mean burning software?

if so, im using nero 8 for typical stuff,...... but Wavelabs 5 for burning my mastered songs/ over all CD compilations.

No, by good media I mean good CD-Rs. This is the brand that seems most popular among MEs:

http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo...table-52x.html

[SonicAlbert]

I use Taiyo Yuden media with a Plextor burner. No coasters, it has worked really well.

[bkkornaker]

interesting.......ive been using off the shelf brands like memorex from "best buy". I have been trying and using those "lightscribe" discs, mostly cause i have a "lightscribe" burn feature that etches images/photos on the disk without having to use those stupid sticky labels, or ink dyes.

i never knew a lower quality disk could be the root of the problem.........

[psongman]

Another interesting thread, haha, started by me. Well, I just finished mixing and hopefully home mastering my 3rd CD. I am going to burn some CD's and listen to them on my boom box and car stereo. From my experience, that is what most people actually use in their day to day listening environments. I made a Christmas CD like 4 years ago and it sounded great on those 1,000 monitor and Pro Tools system. NOPE, sounded terrible on the aforementioned playback devices and on my computer. Went back and set different levels and stuff, sounded great afterwards.

Back to the thread, sorry about the diverging. I was burning at 8X on my older Liteon and it sounded sweet(and I tried the slower settings). Others are right about that slower ain't that much better idea, must be the max speed causes a relative thingie. I still am not pleased that they don't make a decent CD burner for those of us in here that need to send out for glass mastering, etc. Thanks for all the constructive comments, over and out, psongman

[Massive Master]

I still am not pleased that they don't make a decent CD burner for those of us in here that need to send out for glass mastering, etc.

I *still* don't understand where you're coming from here -- There are *dozens* of drives out there that will give acceptable results. Burning at 1x doesn't mean hoot. It's WORSE most of the time (as mentioned, over and over now).

Grab almost *any* Plextor drive - Whether it runs PTP or not - and you're going to get a clean burn.

[MCI2424]

Originally Posted by psongman

HI, I have been burning my own cd's still, so I went out and bought another Liteon Cd writer. LO and behold, I went to burn a CD and it only went as low as 12 or 16X. My other one went down to 4X, wow. Can I burn audio cd's at this higher rate? You know, it didn't even give me an option to burn at a higher rate like my other Liteon drive did. Is this a cheapie, or what? So, will await your expertise. I know this is a mixing mastering forum but am sure you have a viable answer, thanks, psongman

You want to burn at the fastest speed to avoid tape hiss.

[cusebassman]

Originally Posted by MCI2424

You want to burn at the fastest speed to avoid tape hiss.

that made my afternoon

[masteringhouse]

If I burn at half the speed isn't that half speed mastering?

[NYMorningstar]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

If I burn at half the speed isn't that half speed mastering?

That'd be halffast mastering.