which CD recorder to buy?

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jmorris

jmorris

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I need a CD recorder,yeah,ok I know RE speaks of just using you'r 'putor but mines upstairs, the kids exploring the world and all. I want a stand alone CD recorder. I've really considered the Alesis Masterlink but have read some I believe neg. things 'bout it here. So,My next choice is the SonyCDRW33. Its a basic recorder but has comp/limit and EQ. They sell it as kind of a mastering unit. It goes for $600.00. Any thoughts yall,Jim
 
Er... I can't imagine what kind of negative things that would be.... the unit's great?!?!?

I couldn't live without mine.......

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
Call for JJ MORRIS:

HHB or HHL, has a new unit on the pages of the latest EM, typically called "BURNIT."

Looks like a good unit for the bucks; a little less than the Alesis.

However, I like Bruce's comment about the Alesis being a good unit.

I've been kind of waiting a little to see if an "easy to use" unit arrives. Perhaps it already has.

Green Hornet
 
I bought!!

Hi, I bought a Phillips cdr770 today. Man I think I got a great deal. It works great for my needs. $399.99 less $50.00 rebate, plus 30 free cd-r's plus a free portable CD walkman thing. Yeah, Once you have finalized the CD you'r done no more recording on that baby,but I go fron DAT to CD recorder so its cool to me!!Sidebar, A guy brought over his minidisc recorder today to mix down to. They are really cool to. Great sound,JIM
 
same issue

OK, I have this phillips CD recorder I bought and all is well,except I dont think the voloum is as loud as it could be. I think I have seen others state the same problem. Should I run it threw a compressor on the way to the CD recorder? I think it needs eq'ing cause it does not seem as bright as the DAT I take it from. Your thoughts,Thanks ,Jim
 
You wouldn't have had this problem if you had bought the Masterlink!!!!

:D

Bruce
 
Howdy,
I have often read and discussed this very same complaint. This I feel is just one of the trade offs that you get when you don't buy pro gear. The phillips deck that you have is a -10 home stereo unit as are those like it.Now don't get your tail feather in a knot. I'm not saying that it's not a good home stereo deck. For the adverage person it is more than adaquate for making special mix CD's. They can acheive very good sounding recordings. The Tascam, Fostex, Alesis, ect.. Fall into the +4 pro and semi pro gear. They can record at substantialy higher VU levels and keep the signal clean. Louder signals + low distortion = louder playback.
 
Huh ?

I thought that any cd burner could burn at the same level. I have not heard the -10 db mentioned before on a philips burner. I thought the main difference would be in other features. I guess i'll keep looking.
 
We'll see how this this works out. At the least, it was $1000.00 less that a masterlink.I can give to my kids to mix Brittey Spears CD's. I can always get something else.Man You guys are tuff,Jim
 
Thinking about it,I agree with Stan.Why cant "home" CD burners hit the same level as "pro" unit. I s the cost so much more for a +4 "chip" or "processor" or whatever makes them louder????Jim
 
Things are not the way they seem...

+4 and -10 operating levels are only relavent to hooking up to other equipment. It has little to do with "how loud" your disk will come out. Example: If I was to run a mix to my Marantz CDR 630 (considered a "pro" unit) at +4, then run the same mix to your unit at -10, as long as the mixer had both +4 and -10 output, and I used the appropriate output, the difference in volume of the disk that was burned on either machine would not be different if played back on the same machine (both disks that is being played on the same machine). Yes, +4 operating level offers more head room for the sound to noise ratio, and will "possibly" sound cleaner as a result, but the difference would be very hard to tell.

More then likely, the main difference you would hear between the two units would be the A/D/A converters. The Marantz is going to have better converters (possibly) because of a higher price tag, and demand at that price tag that it contain better converters. But who knows. Without a side by side comparison, I can only speculate on the converters quality.

Next. There is no "chip" for the operating level. These operating levels are dealt with using a OP amp, or a pre amp built into the unit.

Next. Your DAT player may sound "brighter" because of a couple of things. You may have been recording at 48KHz with it, and that definately gives you a cleaner and brighter high end. Or, we are back to the above deal about the converters. DAT players are usually associated with "professional" equipment, thus, the demand for a better converter.

If you don't think the difference in converters makes a difference, try this little test. Plug in two different brands of CD players to the same system using the same monitors. Now, play back a professionally recorded (the same one) through either machine. Sit back and be prepared for a bit of a shocker! My gosh, the two machines sound a bit different eh? ;)

Next. Your CD does not sound as loud as professional CD's because of a lot of things. Possibly, it was not mastered. But, I can assure you that your recordings, and the mix you are trying to throw onto that CDR is nowhere as close to the same volume as the professionally recorded CD's are. It is not just the mastering that is making it louder. I bet you that a Pantera mix coming right out of the studio is louder then what you could possibly even get if you had your material mastered by the same guy. They just had the benefit of much better equipment to record with, and engineers that are much much more experienced then you. Those two things make a huge difference. So, the moral here is that you will need to lower your expectations on the appearent loudness of your product your are trying to record with maybe only a few thousand dollars worth of gear.

I was probably the biggest voice AGAINST the Masterlink, or any other unit like it. My reasons are very well documented now over in the Alesis forum, so I don't see a need to repeat them here. I use a computer to mix to, and use software and plug in's to master my mixes. I have not been getting complaints with this, and the versatility of this has been outstanding. I can use any number of converters that I want, and software I want, and any plug in I want, all those things are not available via the Masterlink. With that, you get what you get, and are a slave to Alesis providing software for it. I would not bank on the idea that Alesis is going to do a whole lot messing around to provide you with a variety of different software for that machine. Basically, you are stuck with what they provide, even if there is stuff out there that blows doors over the Alesis algorithms (which if history does in fact repeat itself, would not be hard to do....:(. Hell, listen to their reverbs if you want to hear the quality of their code....:()

Hope this cleared a few things up for you.

Ed
 
Ok, MARANTZ CDR500,MARANTZ,CDR631, TASCAMCDRW700. Which one do you guys think best fits my dreams?Jim
 
try it out

If you know someone with one of those burners, you could mixdown to it and compare with the mixdown on the philips. Or maybe take one out on approval to compare.If its in the mix, a different burner may not help,expensive trial.
BTW. Where did you get such a good price on the philips?
 
Oh my.....

Here is a must read about this kind of thing....

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=10426

I think you are throwing good money at a dated idea buying ANY of those things. A year from now, you WILL be disappointed that you didn't spend a little extra money and get the added versatility and variety of going the computer route. Too many before you have found this out the hard way.

You could buy a used computer for around $300, a Lynx One soundcard (www.lynxstudio.com) for just over $400, and find some, ummmmmmmmmm, "shareware" mastering software on the net, and, ummmmmmmmm, "shareware" versions of all the hottest plugin's, and spend another $200 for an internal CDR burner in that computer and do much better then any of the options you are considering right now.

You are looking at a $900 investment (without software) for a mixdown setup that offers 24 bit recording, the choice of just about any A/D/A converters you would want to use down the road (the Lynx converters are very very good, but it's AES/EBU digital I/O means you can use different converters later if you wanted to), and use a whole slew of great working and sounding plug in's to apply mastering eq and compression to your mixes.

Yes, your learning curve and hassle to get it all working just right is going to be a little higher, but what you gain in versatility and quality is totally worth the effort. This setup just allows you to do so many more things. If you wanted to send your product out to a mastering house, you can mix right to the computer and burn 24 bit data cd's to send to them. If you want to burn a disk right on the spot to hear it, you can do so at up to around 8X speed. If you want to do some creative editing of your music, you can. Read that link I supplied carefully, and see where the computer route offers much much more then even the Masterlink, and at a cost that is comparable. Certainly, it is far more versatile then the stand alone CD burners.

I paid $1300 for my Marantz two years ago! You know what I use it for now? As a way to digitally transfer music on CD's to my hard drive. That is it. It is totally worthless to me now except for that since I started mixing to the computer.

The sound quality upgrade from when I started using the Lynx One card was astounding to say the least! Compared to the converters in a stand alone DAT or CD recorder, it just blows them away. I would never go back to mixing straight to DAT or CD recorders, or ANY 16 bit format at all!!!

If you do choose to continue down this route of a stand alone unit, try to get one that offers the most options in In's and Out's (you want something with digital I/O possibly, and of course you want +4 analog I/O for that "pro" level of recording). After that, I doubt that you are going to see a whole lot of difference between them all. The A/D/A converters may sound a bit different between them, but probably not too much different, and you may not be able to tell at all.

My Marantz has been very dependable. No problems whatsoever with it. It is easy to use, and even looks pretty cool....;)

I just think you are missing out on an opportunity to do so much more with your mixes after the fact by not going the computer route. Hell, if you don't want to hassle with the computer route, at least spend some a few extra bucks and get something like the Masterlink so that you can at least apply a little compression and/or eq to the mixes after the fact if they need them.

Good luck.

Ed
 
Got the Phillips at Circut City.I have 30 days to bring it back, but at end price of about $300.00, I may just keep it. I'll see if anyone has another burner to test. I know enough people in the biz,wont be too hard,Thanks ,jIM
 
SONUSMAN, i THINK I get the point. I just feel that some of this 'putor stuff is beyond me,god look at my use of caps!!!. But ,i do feel I do good work recording,mixing and am easy to work with in the studio. So, maybe I should give myself the benifit of the dought(opps,spelling,see what I mean) and dive into the computor thing. I will print you'r link and study, tHANKS ,jIM
 
Howdy again.
Sonusman's words are very true. But for a novice the computer recording software can be quite confusing. What type of recording do you want to do and will the equipment that you have do the type of recording that YOU want. Generally speaking you should be able to get good volume levels on the phillips, You will just have to push it. In other words find out where the clip point is on the meters then back it off just a tad. It may take a few screwed up CD's but you will know. What you might do is mix down from your program source to the Phillips. The take the cd and rip it to the hard drive. There you can use some of the shareware that is on the net to compress, EQ, add reverb, ect.. play with it till your hearts content. When you are satisfied that it's the best it can be then put the track out to the Phillips on a new CD. Then listen to it till you and your family get real sick of it. Then put it away for a few weeks and listen to it again. Compare it to some simular music for loudness and mix. Then you can go back to the computer and work it some more, The tracks are already in there to play with. You can do amazing stuff without spending a fortune on equipment.
 
stop the presses!!

OK ,I went back to the studio, back behind the console, looked at that little black SOB and thought this does not make sense. So ,I pulled out the optical cable into the CDR fron the DAT and hooked up RCA analog in to the Phillips. BIG DIFFERENCE! Its at the level I had expected. Seems to be the same as other CD's. You see, I'm not really true digital as I see it. I go from 24 track ADAT into analog board, into DAT, into CDR. I will next try the RCA digital inputs but as of now the optical connection is not as loud as the RCA analog. Beats me!!! Damn, sounds preety good now. I'm happy for $300.00. Griz,good thoughts, Thanks,Jim
 
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