Recording Direct to CD or DVD?

M

Mark H.

New member
I'm still thrashing about trying to figure out where we are with the availability of inexpensive recording media. Is it practical yet to record direct to CD-R or DVD? For my multi-hour taping, I'm going to be trying not only cassette (dual well, auto reverse) but also a Hi-Fi Stereo VCR (they're down to $100 at Costco), minidisc if I can ever get my hands on a cheap used deck to try, and hard-drive recording to my home computer, although I doubt that I'll actually do any lengthy recordings on it to begin with.

As someone who has not followed the development and convergence of various media as closely as you guys have, can I go out and buy a 5-disc CD recorder for a reasonable price and fill up 5 hours worth of live recording yet? Would the sound quality be any good? I noticed at Costco yesterday that music CD-Rs were down to 80 cents a piece! (I'm sure this isn't news to you, but I was floored; it seems like yesterday that they were about $4 a piece.)

Can anyone fill me in on these fast-developing media? Should I be waiting six months or a year? What about 24/96 playback?

thanks for your help,

Mark H.
 
I didn't ask that very well.

Can you save 24 bit / 96khz audio that you've captured on your hard drive or DAW to something like compact disc?

And, are there players yet that will play back those recordings at full resolution?

I've seen a few recordable DVD players showing up in the Christmas catalogs (still pretty expensive, though), and I wondered if they are just for video or if they will capture and play back 24/96 recordings. Anyone know?

Thanks for your help,

Mark H.
 
To do what you want to do you will need a DVD-RW, which until 5 months ago still did cost thousands, now it is becoming readily available for about 500 bucks.
Apple broke ground with their new system which incorporates a DVD-RW drive. A good ource of info is the Apple website. Apple also have the best interfacing software.

A DVD-RW will allow you to record a significant amound of music. However, I would like to add that recording at 96 eats disk space. Most important, you really should ask yourself if it is worthwhile recording at 24/96. The benefits of doing so are apparent IF you have a superb, extremely high quality recording chain. This means a stable clock, high-end converters, high-end gear with a low noise-floor, and, apart from that, a good acoustic environment. Unless you have all that, 24/48 will save you space.
 
sjoko2,

Thank you for your assessment and advice. Lynn Fuston claims that oversampling rate has more to do with sound quality than bit rate (to his surprise).

Do you know how to figure megabytes per minute for music recorded at 16/96 vs 24/48, for instance? Lynn said he was surprised how good 16/96 sounded.

Thanks,

Mark H.
 
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