#945629 - 08/09/00 02:26 AM
CD Burning
|
Anonymous
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
Fellas:
Looking for advice on a SCSI CD burner for a PC based system. Windows 98 crashed tonight and after planning a long list of things to do to recover data (which was NOT backed up frequently enough), I have decided to buy a CD burner for backup and also for the audio CD I promised I would release this year.
Anything in particular I should look out for?
I have a Dell PII with SCSI running Acid, Soundforge, Wavelab as possible CD burning software. Probably ending up focusing on Wavelab for the audio CD's, but unsure how I will burn the data (backup) CD's.
Thanks in advance,
Jerry
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
#945630 - 08/09/00 03:58 AM
Re: CD Burning
|
Uh Clem
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 03/13/00
Posts: 3442
Loc: Atlanta, GA USA
|
Offline
|
|
Adaptec makes decent backup software - My Dell came with a Sony CDRW. I also added another Ricoh - they both use the internal IDE controller. Tascam makes some OK bundles for external SCSI.
I use Wavelab 3 and Sound Forge and they work very well. sonic Foundry has a list on their WEB of supported CDR(W)s you may want to check before you buy.
One thing that I recommend you do is look at the possibility of upgrading your system to Windows NT. Even "non-supported" computers usually run fine with it. A call to Dell would be a good place to start. Most of the really decent audio cards and software support NT and when they don't, I don't consider them to be professionally viable. I have been running my system that way for a long time and the stability issues will go away and you will have a system suitable for professional work. I have considerably more experience on this than you might imagine. Not having to reboot since...hmmm.... not sure - that is the way it should be.
That doesn't mean you won't have to back up your data, though.  CDRWs are better for backup since you can overwrite older information and reuse the disc.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#945631 - 08/09/00 02:53 PM
Re: CD Burning
|
Anderton
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 01/28/00
Posts: 7346
|
|
Offline
|
|
I've heard good things about Plextor drives. I'm using an HP IDE drive and it works fine for 4X copying.
One thing to watch out for is driver conflicts. This is a particular problem with the Creative CD-RW drives; their software doesn't like to have any other CD-burning software in the system. I haven't had problems with Wavelab and CD Architect on the same system.
Many CD-Rs come bundled with the Adaptec software, which works fine for data. The audio burning options aren't as good as CD Architect or Wavelab, though.
Also, when you're burning, don't do anything else on the computer and make sure you do all the digital audio-oriented tweaks (fixed vcache size, auto-insert notification turned off for the CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Office Fast Find disabled, etc.). Finally, it really does make a difference to defragment the disk holding the data you want to copy.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#945632 - 08/09/00 08:30 PM
Re: CD Burning
|
Dylan
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 02/28/00
Posts: 3671
|
|
Offline
|
|
You can't find a better burner than the new Plextor, IDE or SCSI. I'm waiting for my now 'ancient' 2X write/4X read CD-R to die so I can get one of these instead. My 12/20 Plextor CD-ROM has been amazing at ripping and copying CD's, so I'd expect nothing less from their burners. Although I don't recommend monkeying around on your PC when you burn CD's, I do it on occasion when needed and rarely have problems.
-Dylan
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#945633 - 08/09/00 08:47 PM
Re: CD Burning
|
Anonymous
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
Thanks for the help guys. I picked up a Sony USB drive since it was on the compatibility list for sonic foundry and wavelab. I couldn't find the plextors at the electronic stores I went to. It was also difficult to find external scsi drives. The sony is only 4X write, but I figured, since I have a laptop and a desktop with USB ports, it will serve as a backup device at the minimum.
I will look around for scsi drives (plextor etc.) when I get a higher performance drive later this year. In the meantime I can develop my skills on this.
Steve, I will look into NT at some point. I just need to do the math on the cost of the transition first. Also perhaps time it with some hardware purchases. BTW, I didn't realize you were with the Durians. Cheers.
Thanks for all the help. Now, its back to reloading software and finding drivers for me.
Jerry
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#945635 - 08/11/00 08:38 AM
Re: CD Burning
|
Anderton
MP Hall of Fame Member
Registered: 01/28/00
Posts: 7346
|
|
Offline
|
|
You might want to bypass SCSI and go directly to IEE-1394. Also, the USB 2.0 spec looks very promising. I wouldn't invest a lot in SCSI devices right now...want to buy my Adaptec board ?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#945636 - 08/11/00 03:25 PM
Re: CD Burning
|
JES
Senior Member
Registered: 04/02/00
Posts: 439
Loc: Montreal, PQ
|
|
Offline
|
|
I normally have no brand loyalty and am totally unsentimental about my rig. But the one piece that has a special place in my heart is the PLextor CD-R, and it's just an old 12/4. I don't really know why other than that it's given me no trouble at all in two years of use. Don't bother with anything else--it's worth the extra bucks. I call it "Mighty Plextor."
With the PC version, if you get one of their CD-ROM drives, you can actually dupe CDs while doing something else. Wish they had THAT for mac!
Best,
JES
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
#945637 - 08/12/00 08:15 AM
Re: CD Burning
|
Quin
Senior Member
Registered: 04/17/00
Posts: 286
Loc: Hampton/McDonough, GA, USA
|
|
Offline
|
|
Another alternative is to look at the new Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A. This is an EIDE device - that writes at 12X.
The novel thing about this unit is that is contains technology to prevent Buffer Underruns. If the recorder detects a buffer underrun situation, it stops recording, waits for the buffer to fill, the repositions itself at the apppropriate spot and starts writing again - all flawlessly. It has received great reviews.
The only real issue is going to be driver support from packages like CD-Architect - but it does ship with a copy of EASY-CD.
[This message has been edited by Quin (edited 08-12-2000).]
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
