[TriLUG] Sound recording/editing/archiving - where to start?

[William W. Ward]

Jeremy -

Each CD-R includes a prewritten area that describes to the burner various
information.  Some of it includes the capacity of the CD, amount of laser
power recommended, CD manufacturer and also includes an area for laser
calibration, where the laser burns a few test pits to check for
reflectivity.

CD's marketed "For Audio" have some additional bits set which the audio-only
recording equipment look for before burning.  This ensures that the user of
that equipment has paid their RIAA tax before recording.  As I understand
it, some of the home audio recorders can be fooled into burning to a
data-type CD-R by inserting a For-Audio disc, pausing (or something) and
then inserting the disc to be burned to.  In any event, this is how
technology ensures you are required to pay the tax.

As an aside, the Linux command line CD burn utility (name escapes me,) will
display the data from that pre-written track, telling you who the real
producer of the disc is (curiously, its not often the same manufacturer as
the label on the box,) and some other information about it, like lead-in and
lead-out points and laser wattage recommended.  That isn't to say that every
CD authoring program pays attention to this data.  One case I've experienced
comes to mind with a particular batch of PNY brand CD-Rs.  On a dual-boot
machine, Win98 and Slackware, a cd burned with Adaptec EZ-CD Creator v3.5
did not read on my Memorex CD-ROM drive, but the same machine, with the same
spool of media was fine when a CD was burned using the Linux burn utility.

I assume this may be attributed by the Linux utility using a more
appropriate setting when burning the disc.  This situation was repeatable
over several different attempts with the same ISO.

Check the Linux How-To on CD burning, one of them has the information about
that CD description track and what is within.

-b-


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Portzer" <jeremyp at pobox.com>
To: "TriLUG" <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Sound recording/editing/archiving - where to start?


> On 30 Jul 2002, Lisa C. Boyd wrote:
>
> > Jeremy: I think they buy pre-formatted cds especially for burning music
> > due to the equipment they are using (which is not a computer). They told
> > me that these special music cds are more expensive (as much as $.50 more
> > each). So they'd like to be able to store everything on a hard drive -
> > and pull off what's requested and burn to a regular cd.
>
> Hi Lisa,
>
> There's no such thing as "preformatting" a CD.  All blank CD-Rs are
> created equal (well, except for dye types and such).  The CDs marketed as
> specifically for audio use are more expensive because they include a
> licensing fee of sorts for the RIAA.  If you're not copying RIAA music
> (which you can only do for home use anyway), there's no reason to buy
> those.
>
> CD-RWs can be "formatted" for use with data files and a computer, but that
> really has nothing to due with CD-Audio or CD-Rs.  (For example, the
> Adaptec DirectCD product is popular for this.)
>
> Now, maybe you're talking about professional CD mastering and pressing
> equipment, which is a whole 'nother ballpark.  This would be the equipment
> used to make CDs that are sold in stores; very expensive start-up costs
> but overall the CDs are cheaper to create than any CDR.  Normally
> recording studios et al. outsource this to manufacturing companies that
> can do this and put the CDs in jewel cases, etc, automatically.
>
> --Jeremy, who does know something about CDs, I promise
>
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