Burning music CD's. Product advice please.

[sunstruck]

Ok so as a lot of you know I work in Community Radio. We have a CD library at the station for DJ's to choose from (though most play their own music as well) and one of our biggest problems are popular CD's going "missing" from the library.

Our latest defence is to make copies of the CD's we consider flight risks and keep the originals locked up.

What I'm looking for are names of high quality music CD's we can burn to. I'm disappointed in Memorex. They are affordable but unreliable.

Any suggestions?

 

[Ask For More]

Try TDK's.

To be honest, most cd's are made exactly the same, with a different brand stamped on the top.

 

[sunstruck]

Right but isn't there supposed to be a difference in the colors on the bottom?

 

[Draco]

I agree with A F M, I use TDK Gold a lot and also Imation.
Most brands are similar anyway. Some companys make "Audio" CD's but I have yet to find any difference, other than price.

TDK Gold are the only ones I have found on the New Zealand market that are a reasonable price and fast enough to let me burn at 48X . I have an LG Internal 48x16x48 burner and use either Nero 5.5 or CD-Mate or CloneCD, depending on source data.

 

[The Heretic]

Try TDK's.

To be honest, most cd's are made exactly the same, with a different brand stamped on the top.

Agreed, I have never had problems with the CD media itself - just the burners or the burning software. If the CD actually burns without errors then it works just fine even if I buy the cheapest media I can find. Optical media isn't like magnetic media; it is a lot more reliable once it is burnt error free - but that is the trick if you are making a copy; getting it error free. The software that comes with my new burner has a "verify" phase that compares the new to the original.

Magnetic media is a lot more finicky, especially removable media; once when I was working on a DOD project I had backed up a lot of important data to 5.25" floppies (it was over 15 years ago). When I got home from Alaska about a third of floppies were bad (no they didn't go through a scanner - they were hand carried on the plane and kept away from mag fields including the flap motors on the plane). The brand was 3M - a rather well known and respected brand.

 

[Saint Peter]

Go back to 8track tapes. All the DJ's really loved those bad boys.

 

[modest mouse]

TDKs are the standard really. Avoid Sony at all costs.

Persoanlly, I use Imation because they are more affordable and i have never had a problem. For your purposes Imation might be the ticket.

You may want to see if you can get a deal on them as a community-based business.

The other option is to commit it all to memory.

 

[sunstruck]

The other option is to commit it all to memory.

I already have the complete scores to over 30 musicals in head. I'm full. lol

See the problem we are having is this: One of our DJ's wrote and recorded a song with Julie Wannamaker (local folk legend) and we were selling them (or rather giving them away with pledges, lol).

We burned and tested them at the station and there were a few people with older stereos that had problems playing the disks. Someone suggested it might be the quality of the disks themselves so this is why I'm checking into it.

Thanks for your help boys. I'll try the TDK and the Immation.

 

[Belilica]

I use Maxell for CD-R's... It sounds like the burn program itself. Sometimes a CD I make will work on an old stereo, but another won't (same brand of CD). Good luck.

 

[Jim_Henson]

We burned and tested them at the station and there were a few people with older stereos that had problems playing the disks. Someone suggested it might be the quality of the disks themselves so this is why I'm checking into it.

Some players refuse to play burnt discs at all, and some of course just have the lazer wearing out so they wont work.

Pioneer used to make the best, but they priced themselves high now... Your best bet is a deep green CD or a deep blue. Make sure you cant see through the disc to the writing on the other side, its a sure sign of a cheap/shitty disc. My pioneers are 6 year old now and still outstanding.

DONT buy BASF/Emtec...

Basically colourwise... the deeper the colour the better, even with the golds... silvers you need to be wary of... its usually a light reflectivity thing.

 

[ShamelessFlirt]

Go with the "Black Diamond" CDs. A couple of companies make them. I get the PNY brand from Staples. I choose them because it's the reflective properties that make a CD play, and the black makes the highest contrast.