From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V5 #68 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Wednesday, March 22 2000 Volume 05 : Number 068 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs [lulfstedt@amadeus.net] Re: Alloy: seeking Chuck [RThurF@aol.com] RE: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs ["Krzysko, William" ] Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs [Chris Cracknell ] Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs [Chris Cracknell ] Alloy: Radio Non-Silence, or... ["Melissa R. Jordan" ] Re: Alloy: Radio Non-Silence, or... [Tony Rivera ] Re: Alloy: Radio Non-Silence, or... ["Kathleen T. Presser" Subject: Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs Hi Crackers, I've had pretty good luck with audio CD's being reliable. Heck, it knocked out many many discs for BDII project. I haven't heard of any of them being bad so far. The best advice I can give is to use the "disc at once" option in your software. You will need all of your music files on your hard drive to do this. This option will make a CD closer to the standard because the laser does not turn off between tracks. I found that CD's created using "track at once" play ok on most players, but the spacing between the songs can be off from the original because there must be a two second gap between the tracks. I have had trouble with CD's recorded this way getting "stuck" at the end of a track on a Sony portable when anti skip memory was turned on. Now, if you really want to find real frustration, try making a Video CD. I've been experimenting with the format using Easy CD Creator deluxe, and it took quite a bit of tweeking to get it all to work. But now I can make video CD's that will play on my home DVD player. The video quality is worse than VHS, but the audio is pretty good, and it stores in a small space. I've got some VHS music videos that I would like to convert to the format so that I can play them like an audio CD. Have fun. I think my CD recorder is one of the coolest gadgets that I bought in the past decade. - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Cracknell" To: Sent: Monday, March 20, 2000 9:46 PM Subject: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs > > Any tips from those of you on the list with CD Burners on how to make > reliable audio CDs? > > I just tried that audio CD I made from my Debbie Harry album in my > stereo and it would randomly sputter and skip. It plays back just > fine in both my CD-ROM drive and my CD-RW drive. > > I haven't tried it on my other stereo yet to see how it does there. > (my other stereo has a horribly unreliable CD player in it). > > The surface of the CD-R looks pretty clean. There's a wee, tiny little > mark that's very faint but no where near as bad as the scratches on some > audio CDs I've been able to play on my stereo without problems. > > Are some brands of CD-R better than others for making audio CDs? I'm > using Memorex CD-Rs. I've always been pleased with the quality of their > cassette tapes so I just figured their CD-Rs would be equally as good. > > > CRACKERS > (This is certainly frustrating from hell!!!) > > > -- > Collector of Atari 2600 carts - Accordionist - Bira Bira Devotee - Anime fan > * http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html | Crackers' Arts Base * > * http://www.angelfire.com/ma/hozervideo/index.html | Hozer Video Games * > Nihongo ga dekimasu - 2600 programmer - Father of 2 great kids - Canadian eh > > > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 08:35:07 +0100 From: lulfstedt@amadeus.net Subject: Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs Hi Crackers! Here's my ten-pennethworth,.. I tend to use Easy CD creator too. I always buy decent blanks,...you don't have to by expensive ones (Sony, Kodak and particularly Verbatim are good brands, for example), but in my experience, you can get a bad batch, especially if the blanks are cheapo unbranded ones. This you have to watch out for. At my previous firm, we did a run of over 200 promo disks, and at least half had to be thrown away, because the quality of the disks was so poor. We also had some problems with cheaper TDK ROMs. Sometimes, it would seem, paying a just a little more can get you a much better quality disk. Other tips,....burn on a slow speed. Even if you are able to burn at X4 or X6, you get better results if you burn at only X2. Also, when filling up a disk, don't fill it to full capacity. The outside edge gets damaged the most easily,...if you leave a good few megs free on the disk, the edge remains blank, ensuring your recordings stay safer in the coming years. Last of all, don't do anything else with the machine when you're burning. I lost countless disks this way until I realised how easily that can cock things up. If any program crashes or even coughs a little whilst you're burning, it can mess up the whole session. >I just tried that audio CD I made from my Debbie Harry album in my >stereo and it would randomly sputter and skip. It plays back just >fine in both my CD-ROM drive and my CD-RW drive. Ummm,...I'm no expert, but usually if something skips, it's the original disk skipping whilst playing that causes it,...however, in this case, if it works in the CD-ROM drive, I'd guess that your CD player is just rather sensitive,...perhaps cleaning the player (lense) might help? Also, see if burning on a slower speed helps. Hope this helps! Cheers, Lissu :-) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 07:33:56 EST From: RThurF@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: seeking Chuck Thanks, it's all taken care of now :) Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 08:43:58 -0600 From: "Krzysko, William" Subject: RE: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs A few more tips I have learned on making CDs... It may be better to copy the CD to hard disk first, if you have the space. The problem with going from CD to CD is that if the playback CD has a misread, and can't get the data fast enough, the record session can time out because it doesn't have any data to write, and you will ruin the whole disk. Hard disks usually are more reliable in data transfer. Also, are you using Windows? When you put a CD-ROM into the drive does it automatically run? This could be causing a problem. The OS will constantly check to see if a new CD has been inserted and if it can auto-run it. This is enough to screw up your recording session. Some CD burner software will disable this, but you may want to go to the Microsoft site, and find a program called TweakUI. Install this, and it will give you the option of turning off the autorun for CDs. This helped a lot with my recordings. Also, as Lissu says, anything running on the PC can cause problems. I run mine on Win NT, and I have to shut everything down, I go into the Services control panel and stop everything I can, Server, Workstation, Computer Browser, any virus protection software, everything. This seems to have helped a lot. - -----Original Message----- From: lulfstedt@amadeus.net [mailto:lulfstedt@amadeus.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 1:35 AM To: alloy@smoe.org Subject: Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs Hi Crackers! Here's my ten-pennethworth,.. I tend to use Easy CD creator too. I always buy decent blanks,...you don't have to by expensive ones (Sony, Kodak and particularly Verbatim are good brands, for example), but in my experience, you can get a bad batch, especially if the blanks are cheapo unbranded ones. This you have to watch out for. At my previous firm, we did a run of over 200 promo disks, and at least half had to be thrown away, because the quality of the disks was so poor. We also had some problems with cheaper TDK ROMs. Sometimes, it would seem, paying a just a little more can get you a much better quality disk. Other tips,....burn on a slow speed. Even if you are able to burn at X4 or X6, you get better results if you burn at only X2. Also, when filling up a disk, don't fill it to full capacity. The outside edge gets damaged the most easily,...if you leave a good few megs free on the disk, the edge remains blank, ensuring your recordings stay safer in the coming years. Last of all, don't do anything else with the machine when you're burning. I lost countless disks this way until I realised how easily that can cock things up. If any program crashes or even coughs a little whilst you're burning, it can mess up the whole session. >I just tried that audio CD I made from my Debbie Harry album in my >stereo and it would randomly sputter and skip. It plays back just >fine in both my CD-ROM drive and my CD-RW drive. Ummm,...I'm no expert, but usually if something skips, it's the original disk skipping whilst playing that causes it,...however, in this case, if it works in the CD-ROM drive, I'd guess that your CD player is just rather sensitive,...perhaps cleaning the player (lense) might help? Also, see if burning on a slower speed helps. Hope this helps! Cheers, Lissu :-) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 10:03:22 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Cracknell Subject: Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs In article <200003210114_MC2-9DEE-8D8B@compuserve.com>, you wrote: >You are using a PC. For PC, I've had the best luck with HP burners >and Adaptec software. What are you using? ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ I'm using a JVC burner and Easy CD software that came with it. All I can think of is that this one, ever so tiny and faint scuff on my CD-R (might have bumped it against the edge of the tray putting it in or taking it out of the burner) is what's driving my CD nuts. It's a 10 year old CD player but it will play CD-R Audio CDs. A friend has told me that CD-Rs are a little more scuff sensitive than regular CDs because the underside doesn't have a protective coating. I tried playing the CD in my other, crappy, hardly ever works CD player and it worked so I'm figuring the problem must be with my CD player. (Even though it doesn't have problems playing any other CD I have, including a very scratched second hand CD of cajun music). I tried cleaning the lense and it no longer randomly stutters, now it's just stuttering on the last two tracks which is more or less where this tiny little scuff is. Oh well, I'll just enjoy listening to "Koo Koo" on my computer. Luckily I've got a nice set of powered speakers on my PC. CRACKERS (Awwww fudge from hell!!!!!!!) - -- Collector of Atari 2600 carts - Accordionist - Bira Bira Devotee - Anime fan * http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html | Crackers' Arts Base * * http://www.angelfire.com/ma/hozervideo/index.html | Hozer Video Games * Nihongo ga dekimasu - 2600 programmer - Father of 2 great kids - Canadian eh ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 10:03:24 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Cracknell Subject: Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs In article <000f01bf9300$696d0a20$150ee33f@kstansell>, you wrote: >I've had pretty good luck with audio CD's being reliable. Heck, it knocked >out many many discs for BDII project. I haven't heard of any of them being >bad so far. The best advice I can give is to use the "disc at once" option >in your software. You will need all of your music files on your hard drive >to do this. This option will make a CD closer to the standard because the >laser does not turn off between tracks. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ I think that might be how I did it. I had all the files on the hard drive and created the entire CD at once. I'm leaning towards the "CD is overly sensitive to CD-R scuffs" theory right now. I guess I'll learn more when I burn the next CD-R audio from my ancient collection of cassette tapes. Hmmmm.... who to save next? Well I think my Flock Of Seagulls "Listen" cassette is second after "Koo Koo" as far as being in very fragile condition goes. I guess they'll be next. Then probably my original cassette tape of Thomas Dolby's "A Flat Earth" would be next to be saved (its condition isn't too bad because I've only been playing a copy of it the past 10 years to prevent the original from suffering wear and tear, unlike my poor original "Golden Age Of Wireless" which has been worn completely out... but I was able to buy a real CD of that one. Good luck finding a Flat Earth CD) ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ >Have fun. I think my CD recorder is one of the coolest gadgets that I >bought in the past decade. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ I've been pining away for SO long for a CD burner. Ever since they were $5000. Now here it is 10 years later and they're under $300 cnd (only 3 years ago my friend bought one and it cost him over $800 and it won't rewrite). I kind of felt a little melancoly when I bought it because it had been the object of my techno-desire for so long and now I had finally aquired it. There was kind of a big void where that techno-lust had been. Let's see, I've got the colour printer, I've got the colour flat-bed scanner, I've got the video capture device, and now I've got the CD burner. What new techno-toy should I lust after now? I guess maybe a better sound card. CRACKERS (Still giddy with joy from hell!!!) - -- Collector of Atari 2600 carts - Accordionist - Bira Bira Devotee - Anime fan * http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html | Crackers' Arts Base * * http://www.angelfire.com/ma/hozervideo/index.html | Hozer Video Games * Nihongo ga dekimasu - 2600 programmer - Father of 2 great kids - Canadian eh ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 10:03:25 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Cracknell Subject: Re: Alloy: Flakey Audio CDs In article <412568A9.0029B6DF.00@mta.amadeus.net>, you wrote: >I tend to use Easy CD creator too. >I always buy decent blanks,...you don't have to by expensive ones (Sony, Kodak >and particularly Verbatim are good brands, for example), but in my experience, ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Yeah I'm pretty sceptical when it comes to buying non-brandname products unless I actually know who the source is. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ >Other tips,....burn on a slow speed. Even if you are able to burn at X4 or X6, >you get better results if you burn at only X2. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ This one I had already heard about long before I bought my CD-R. I just burned them a 1x speed. Set them up to burn before going to bed then came back in the morning and my CD was ready and waiting for me. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ >Also, when filling up a disk, don't fill it to full capacity. The outside edge >gets damaged the most easily,...if you leave a good few megs free on the disk, >the edge remains blank, ensuring your recordings stay safer in the coming years. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Now there's a clever idea. Of course I don't have too many old cassettes to save that would actually fill an entire CD (except maybe a bootleg recording of a Kiss concert... if that cassette even works still. It's really old). ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ >Last of all, don't do anything else with the machine when you're burning. I lost >countless disks this way until I realised how easily that can cock things up. If >any program crashes or even coughs a little whilst you're burning, it can mess >up the whole session. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Yeah it didn't take me long after I switched from my Atari ST to my PC to learn that if you're doing any demanding and important task on your PC, don't multitask, you're just asking for a crash. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ >Ummm,...I'm no expert, but usually if something skips, it's the original disk >skipping whilst playing that causes it,...however, in this case, if it works in >the CD-ROM drive, I'd guess that your CD player is just rather >sensitive,...perhaps cleaning the player (lense) might help? Also, see if >burning on a slower speed helps. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Cleaned the lense and cleaned the CD-R itself. Got rid of the random skipping but now it continues to skip on one particular spot. I'm figuring it's the result of a tiny, faint scuff on the CD-R that my CD player is being overly sensitive about (even my crappy CD player would play this CD with no problem). CRACKERS (damn dadadadadadadadadadadadad CD play plplplplplplplplplpl er from hell!!!) - -- Collector of Atari 2600 carts - Accordionist - Bira Bira Devotee - Anime fan * http://www.hwcn.org/~ad329/crab.html | Crackers' Arts Base * * http://www.angelfire.com/ma/hozervideo/index.html | Hozer Video Games * Nihongo ga dekimasu - 2600 programmer - Father of 2 great kids - Canadian eh ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 20:39:40 -0500 From: "Melissa R. Jordan" Subject: Alloy: Radio Non-Silence, or... ...He Blinded Me By Surprise and I Almost Drove Off the Road. Driving home tonight from a dismal rainy day in Washington (where my employment has been extended 'til the end of the month), I turned on my radio to the really raunchy drive time "Don and Mike Show". (Childish, inane, and mostly appropriate for 14-year-old boys, but damn funny all the same.) As they head to a commercial set I hear a snippet of "Science" followed by a wonderfully familiar voice saying, "Hi, I'm Thomas Dolby Robertson..." Yikes! I just about freaked out! It was a commercial/testimonial, done by Thomas for iXL (www.ixl.com), talking about their partnership with Beatnik to make it the little Internet powerhouse it is. It was so cool. Made my day - and that's a tough mark to hit in recent days. Cheers, Melissa - -- Melissa R. Jordan Owner/Artist/Rubber Maven, Compass Rose Studios (http://crstudios.com) Chief Navigator, Compass Rose Consulting (http://askcrc.com) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 18:00:39 -0800 From: Tony Rivera Subject: Re: Alloy: Radio Non-Silence, or... It is playing here in the Bay Area too!! On the local 80's station, Channel 1049 (channel1049.com). I heard it twice today and was pleasantly surprised. If you go to that station's web site, you can listen to the stream live. So for those that can't here it elsewhere... there you go. No clue how often they play it, though I heard it twice in 3 hours. Take care Tony >As they head to a commercial set I hear a snippet of "Science" followed >by a wonderfully familiar voice saying, "Hi, I'm Thomas Dolby >Robertson..." Yikes! I just about freaked out! It was a >commercial/testimonial, done by Thomas for iXL (www.ixl.com), talking >about their partnership with Beatnik to make it the little Internet >powerhouse it is. It was so cool. Made my day - and that's a tough mark >to hit in recent days. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 17:58:45 -0800 From: "Kathleen T. Presser" Subject: Re: Alloy: Radio Non-Silence, or... Don't you just love those random moments?? Melissa R. Jordan wrote: > ...He Blinded Me By Surprise and I Almost Drove Off the Road. > > Driving home tonight from a dismal rainy day in Washington (where my > employment has been extended 'til the end of the month), I turned on my > radio to the really raunchy drive time "Don and Mike Show". (Childish, > inane, and mostly appropriate for 14-year-old boys, but damn funny all > the same.) > > As they head to a commercial set I hear a snippet of "Science" followed > by a wonderfully familiar voice saying, "Hi, I'm Thomas Dolby > Robertson..." Yikes! I just about freaked out! It was a > commercial/testimonial, done by Thomas for iXL (www.ixl.com), talking > about their partnership with Beatnik to make it the little Internet > powerhouse it is. It was so cool. Made my day - and that's a tough mark > to hit in recent days. > > Cheers, > > Melissa > > -- > Melissa R. Jordan > > Owner/Artist/Rubber Maven, Compass Rose Studios (http://crstudios.com) > Chief Navigator, Compass Rose Consulting (http://askcrc.com) ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V5 #68 **************************