Fastest way to a burned CD?

B

bkcaud

New member
My wife teaches voice lessons and has been recording her students lessons for them to practice at home on a cassette tape. Not surprisingly, many of her students are telling her that they don't have any way to play a cassette at home to practice. So, we would like to get her set up so that she can record a 30 minute lesson and then burn a CD for the student to take home.

Recordings don't need to be studio quality, but a critical factor will be speed. The cassette tape has worked well, because when the lesson is over, you eject the tape and the student is on her way. She has students coming one after the other and will want to minimize lag time while waiting for a CD to burn at the end of a lesson. Any suggestions for a set up (for less than $1500 or so) that would be able to record and then burn a CD quickly?

Thanks,

Bryce
 
Stand alone units work good, however you might get stuck with one needing the "music" CDrs (VS just plain data CDrs) which cost slightly higher and seem to be half difficult to find sometimes. Also, you'll need to "finalize" the CD which can take a minute or two....when she is finished recording.... (while they are packing up, maybe?). It'll operate similar to the casette deck, as you can "pause"..etc. She will just need a couple of uses to get used to it....not difficult.

Also, using a computer to record TO ME is just about as fast and offers so much more flexibility. Personally, I would go that route, UNLESS the stand alone unit pays for itself fairly quickly and that FOR SURE is all she will want to do...even down the line. Otherwise, pieces of equipment like that to me seem too "dedicated"...if you know what I mean. She may even find that playing back tracks is easier, as it is much faster (no rewind...searching for beginnings, etc), and I tend to think it may make her look a tad more 21st century and all ;) I believe that sometimes having someone listening back to themselves can be the best "guidance" and correction device you can use. You just sit there and let them hear for themselves. That really can give a new perspective too.

Anyrate...either of the options are available for WAY less than your posted budget.
 
a standalone unit could be very good for what she's doing. you could burn it all in real time, index things if need be and all you'd need is to hit the record button and then finalize (takes a minute or two)

with a computer, there is the added benefit of being able to run other applications on there which might help but i think its downsides outweigh the benefits...its big, takes much more time to set up for recording, eats up hard drive space, you'll need to buy software to record and burn the cd, you'll still need to wait quit a bit for it to burn... overall i just think this would take more time

if speed is the key factor, i'd go with the standalone. if you don't mind a bit slower turnaround time and maintaining a computer to free up its hard drive and make sure it all runs smooth then a computer could be good too. it'll probably be a little cheaper
 
A friend of mine had the idea of converting audio recordings to .mp3 files and putting them onto cheap, small memory, .mp3 players. Quick! Buying a few cheapo players is less expensive than a high speed CD recorder.
 
I think Foo-bu (!!!...nice name) has some good points.

I just want to reiterate, with the computer, IF you are comfortable with it, the time factor can be the same. Don't let it overwhelm you. I can also edit tracks (such as 5 minutes of silence) with a key stroke and move on. Not so easy with the stand alone unit. Being familiar with the computer and the related software is essential, especially if you don't want to look like a fool!! No reason things can't be setup before hand, and all you do is hit "record" with the mouse and walla!!

In my personal "studio", I have become so familiar and at ease with my equipment, time is actually at a minimum when it is spent setting up, etc.

I think it really is going to boil down to what becomes the easiest, and doesn't interfer with the lesson process. I actually tend to think, the computer recording can become part of the lesson down the line(with playbacks, singing along with another track, etc)...but maybe not in this situation.
 
bkcaud said:
My wife teaches voice lessons and has been recording her students lessons for them to practice at home on a cassette tape. Not surprisingly, many of her students are telling her that they don't have any way to play a cassette at home to practice. So, we would like to get her set up so that she can record a 30 minute lesson and then burn a CD for the student to take home.

Recordings don't need to be studio quality, but a critical factor will be speed. The cassette tape has worked well, because when the lesson is over, you eject the tape and the student is on her way. She has students coming one after the other and will want to minimize lag time while waiting for a CD to burn at the end of a lesson. Any suggestions for a set up (for less than $1500 or so) that would be able to record and then burn a CD quickly?

Thanks,

Bryce
Click to expand...

How about a used Korg D1200 multitracker with built-in burner? Should be just a few hundred bucks. Record to tracks 1 & 2. When the lesson is over, burn to CD-R as an audio CD and finalize. Might take a couple of minutes longer than a stand-alone burner (the quickest way to a burnt CD from what I have heard) but a lot cheaper.
 
Thanks all for your input.

I am leaning towards going to something computer based primarily to give more flexibility down the road. The voice lessons would be the primary immediate purpose, but I've always wanted to have a home recording setup as well. I think she would be comfortable using a computer based system. I have thought the standalone units would be a good consideration. Her brother (pro DJ and recording engineer) insists that Mac and Pro Tools is the only way to go, and didn't recommend a standalone system, because of its becoming dated, obsolete, etc. I'm sure eventually computer based systems would need upgrading too.

One more question. If burning from a computer, would a standard internal CD burner drive be OK, or would going to an external CD burner drive be significantly faster? How would computer CD burning speed (all other setup up being equal), compare to the finalize function on a standalone unit? Two to three minutes burning or finalizing time would probably be OK.

One last thought. Do the stand-alone units work with a CD-RW? Students would probably want to just keep their most current lesson and could erase and rewrite.

Thanks again for your help.

-Bryce
 
bkcaud said:
One more question. If burning from a computer, would a standard internal CD burner drive be OK, or would going to an external CD burner drive be significantly faster? How would computer CD burning speed (all other setup up being equal), compare to the finalize function on a standalone unit? Two to three minutes burning or finalizing time would probably be OK.

One last thought. Do the stand-alone units work with a CD-RW? Students would probably want to just keep their most current lesson and could erase and rewrite.

Thanks again for your help.

-Bryce
Click to expand...
Yes...you could use the internal CD burner, and typically, software CD burning programs IMO are a tad faster than stand alones. I only have limited experience with a Tascam stand alone...it works ok... but my computer makes CDs faster, all said and done. Easily under 3 minutes on my computer for an 80 minute CD..total. Small file CDs.. like a couple of songs only takes 20 secs or so.

stand alones do not use CDRW to the best of my knowledge, but at approx $25/100 count, blank recordable CDs aren't really that expensive in the scope of things. I might be wrong on the CDRW though....
 
Why not just use a Laptop and a PC mic...You can probably burn a 30 min CD in about 2 minutes at full speed on a Computer....
 
Record as you go with Waverepair in the computer & burn straight away OR convert to MP3 & copy to the students' own MP3 player. Neither would take long - burning these days is 5 mins for the disc - while the kid is packing up & the recorder is being reset for the next lesson. & if it's her job she can set up properly with a couple of mics, stands, cables, software, computer, discs etc & write it all off as tools of trade.
 
Thanks again for the links and suggestions. I like the idea of having the capability to put either onto a CD or be able to copy it onto the students own MP3 player. I'm sure before long, the students will be saying that they no longer have CD players to listen to their lessons on. Although a CD would still be nice for those who don't have MP3 players. Perhaps this would favor going to a PC based system that could burn a CD quickly or do a quick conversion to MP3.

Interestingly, my wife had a number of accompaniment tracks on cassette and a year or so ago we had the "21st century" discussion and she has since converted all (or most) of those recordings to an iPod which she uses for playback during her lessons. Of course she loves not having to rifle through dozens of cassettes, and cueing to the right place on the tape.

We used the PG Music program and an old Tascam 133 cassette player that we had used with a PA system 10 yrs ago and went in right through the PC soundcard. Quality is OK, but is expectedly limited due to the quality of the original medium.

I appreciate all the suggestions, I think at this point I am strongly leaning towards getting a laptop for her to use in the room where she teaches and now I need to lurk in the other forums to decide on the microphones and interface. We have an Alesis 12 FXD mixer that we have used for live stuff (her voice recitals primarily). This has a "digital I/O" which I believe is SP/DIF, not the USB version. I don't know much about SP/DIF and whether we could use this mixer as the interface or if the preamps in it are good enough for recording. Any recommendations here? Would I just need to get a soundcard or interface with an SP/DIF input to make this work?

Each answer seems to raise twice as many new questions. Thanks for your help.

-Bryce
 
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