Help: Making CDs

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 09:50 PM

I've learned one thing since I started this thread..I dont know nothin' I dont even suspect nothin'

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 09:45 PM

Kendall,

You only need a good sound card when you are importing old analogue audio signals ... and then you need good connections, good source deck &c as everything contributes to the final sound. Existing CD tracks are easy-peasy but you aren't ripping off some one else'e CD, so that's irrelevant.

IvanB mentioned DAT - to go straight in as a digital signal needs a special interface (uses infra red, rather than signals down a wire, apparently) and this is only warranted if you are going to keep downloading DAT tapes. I needed one track from a an existing DAT-recorded session for a CD set I put out this Easter and I paid for someone to do the transfer to a CD and then just picked them up and put them in the new CD master.

Ritchie's suggestions of Mini Disc and "put them on the net" (MP3 coded files available from a web site) are all very well for the techno freaks but, if you want to get your songs out to Joe Public you are making a safer bet staying with CD - it may be 20 years old (shock horror!) but it's working and out there in most homes and computers.

Mini Disc already looks like being superseded by the next hot kid on the techno block and MP3 is great for distribution at acceptable levels of quality but it exists and is utilised in a free space ... you are not going to get a penny out of! (The latest hot MP3 gizmo lets you load ... and play back ... 100 - 150 CDs onto a box the size and shape of CD "walkperson"! ... And it is also a digital recorder.)

Ho, hum ... back to working out how to make all this work, in practice, on my gear, at my place ...

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: IvanB
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 01:20 PM

Bernard, I agree that, from the standpoint of professional appearance and disc weight and durability, a CD printer is the way to go. But, oooohhhh, the cost!

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 01:11 PM

Ritchie, I have no clue what you are talking about! What boat? American English please. Rick, you damn well right you will get one!

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 08:07 AM

I'm okay - I persuaded the firm I work for to buy a CD printer. No messing with labels, which can too easily pull the recording substrate off the top of the CD. Only snag - the printable CD's are about twice as much as the plain ones.

Anyone in the UK who wants printed CD's - I'm yer man!!

As for inlay cards, I made my own templates using MS Word (ugh! Microshaft - ptui!), which is adequate. I trim them to size with the guillotine I persuaded the boss to buy...

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Ritchie
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 07:56 AM

You could also try looking up this thread as there is some good advice which may also help RE: Help: transferring vinyl to CD or computer.

Still think Napster is the way though !

ritchie

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Ritchie
Date: 15 Nov 00 - 07:50 AM

Kendall, push the boat out son and put them on 'mini disc' or go one better and 'put them on the net'.I had a demonstration last night of Napster and that's definitely the way to do it. Good luck ritchie

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 11:10 PM

Glad to hear you're doing it big guy.

I've had some folks suggest I put a couple of albums I did about 15 and 20 years ago on CD, and I'm thinkin' about it. There wouldn't be enough sales potential to ask Borealis to do it, but I'm sure a few would move at gigs (if for no other reason that one of them was a country album) so I'm checkin' the advice yer gettin'.

Do I get one for floggin' the shit out of your damned cassette?

Rick

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: GUEST,harp
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 10:42 PM

I think you already have SoundBlaster, Kendall...harp

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: IvanB
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 09:17 PM

Frankly, kendall, if you can get the digital files on to your computer, the sound card is immaterial. The audio files on a CD are, for all intents and purposes, WAV files, and a computer needs no sound card whatsoever to burn a CD of WAV files. If, on the other hand, you want to do any editing of the sound files, then a decent sound card is necessary for you to get a good idea of the results from any editing step.

What kind of sound card do you have on your computer? If it's SoundBlaster compatible and has what you consider to be acceptable sound, it'll probably do the job.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 09:13 PM

Right you are..they are new to me. Sorry. Been up too long I guess.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Anglo
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 06:19 PM

>From: kendall >Date: 14-Nov-00 - 04:29 PM

>Who, or what is Fiolar and Nynia?

They are people who answered your questions earlier in the thread. Have another cup of coffee.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 06:15 PM

I talked to a salesman at Circuit City, and he said I would need a $100.00 sound card. Whats wrong with the one I have?

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: IvanB
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 05:50 PM

If you buy a burner, you'll get some sort of CD making software with it. The ones that include Adaptec's Easy CD Creator are probably a bit more, but worth it in my opinion. I've used a Neato CD label kit for several years. The basic kit comes with label making software, including a collection of artwork, the spindle for getting the labels on straight and without wrinkles, and a small supply of blank labels. After that, you can buy just the labels in larger quantities. You can also find free artwork for CD labels many places on the Web. The prime factor in labelling CD's is balance. That's why centering and avoiding wrinkles are very important. In fact, the mailing label solution mentioned above could cause problems on some CD readers due to the greater weight on one side (not too unlike driving on unbalanced tires).

If you've got DAT tapes, hopefully there might be some way of copying themn to the computer as digital files. I don't know if there's software for that purpose or not, but if there is it would avoid the digital to analog back to digital conversion which is almost guaranteed to add some noise.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 04:29 PM

Who, or what is Fiolar and Nynia?

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 04:21 PM

I love on line spelcheque. Good luck Kendall, I have only saved the photo album to CD-R to save hard disk space. Looks like Fiolar and Nynia are the ones to ask how to transfer audio tape.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 04:21 PM

WORD OF CAUTION:

CD STOMPER Home/Made labels may come UNSTUCK after prolonged use/handling and hang up the CD Player

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Anglo
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 04:10 PM

Kendall, it sounds like labels are really the least of your problems if you don't have a burner yet. With a PC, you'll probably need a soundcard, and some of the software mentioned above.

(I use a Mac, so my problems are different, and the software selection is much smaller - I haven't bought into any of the packages yet, in my spare time (!) I'm slowly trying to evaluate from semi-functional demos before I invest the clams.)

There's a good CD-Recordable FAQ at:

http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/

There was also a mudcat thread earlier this year. Good luck.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Anglo
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 03:59 PM

Pounds stirling are only used in scotland of course. You would use pounds sterling in the rest of the country.

:-)

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 02:56 PM

To confuse foreign tourists we call our pounds stirling -quids !
So two pounds is two quid !

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 02:37 PM

What's a quid?

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Grab
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 02:32 PM

The problem with pens is getting ones which'll write to the CD. Your typical fibre-tip doesn't work properly (the ink just forms into blobs), so you can get special pens for it - check out your nearest computer shop or office supplies place. I'm sure it's all a con and they're just normal pens sold for a higher price with "CD" written on the side of them, but even so it only cost me a few quid for a pack of 4 different colours.

Label gadgets may or may not come with the rewriter - cheaper ones don't. They're only a few quid anyway - computer/office supplies shop again. Label-printing software often comes with the rewriter, or you can get any amount of freeware, or even just clag it together in Word.

Speed-wise, mine works fine (dual-speed write) on a 233 Pentium.

Grab.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 02:11 PM

Guest Russ. I hardly know the difference...most of the CDs would be for sale, so, I dont want them to be too cheap..

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 01:55 PM

Thanks Roger..I'm in the USA. If you got the label gizmo with your rewriter, wouldn't I also get it if I buy a burner? Would I need special equipment to transfer tapes to CDs? I could get the original DAT recording, but then I would need a DAT player..yes? It is all so high tec. Also, my computer is a 400..is that fast enough?

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 01:51 PM

Kendall, do you want plain or fancy labels?. MMario and Anglo are pointing you towards fancy. I create fancy labels for copies of CDs I want to give to friends. For archival CDs I simply use ordinary plain white mailing labels. Any word processing program will probably include templates for the varieties of Avery labels.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 01:10 PM

I got some of the label printing gizmo's with my rewriter, you could have them as I don't use them, but I think you are a long way off
I seem to think the contention is that only 'special' labels have adhesive that won't eat into the CD and likewise only 'special' pens use solvents that don't eat in either. I just write on the CD with the 'special' pen that came with the rewriter but haven't worked out what to do when it runs out
Roger

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Fiolar
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 01:09 PM

For transferring tapes to CDs try "Digital CD Recording Studio" from Macmillan Software. A breeze to use. I have just finished transferring some 200 odd tapes to CDs. An alternate program is Easy CD Creator 4 which is another great program. For printing labels one of the best programs is "Surething CD Labeller." For labels try the ones manafactured by Fellowes. Details on their website. Good luck. M

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: Anglo
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 12:57 PM

At OfficeMax I've seen labels specifically for CDs, and they sell a kit, with templates and such, so you can do the artwork and churn them out on your printer, and also, I think, a little doohickey to help you actually place the label in the middle. With a scanner you could probably adapt the original artwork and make a sleeve and a CD label for a fine end-product.

(Then of course, a label costs about as much as a blank CD, and printing full color on an inkjet printer will use up your ink pretty fast.)

I admit I haven't tried any of this yet myself, but I'm thinking of adding one of those combo scanner/printer/copier jobbies to my office equipment.

Or you can use a Sharpie fine-point permanent marker.

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: GUEST,Nynia at Uni.
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 12:50 PM

Sorry about the triple posting Uni computer system I think

Nynia

:-(

-(

(

---

A manual recount shows only a single message, 'cause I deleted the duplicates. :-) --JoeClone

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 12:47 PM

If you want to "clean up" the sound form tape/records before you burn to CD I can highly recomend Steinberg Clean. I've been using it for about two months and the results have been fantastic. I must admit that it's not cheap about £100 but if your serious about sound quality it's worth it.

All the best

Nynia

:-)

-)

)

Subject: RE: Help: Making CDs
From: MMario
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 12:37 PM

kendall - there are labels sold specifically for CD's - and there are freeware, share ware and commercial programs for printing them. Which one you want to use will take a little research, and MAY depend on what labels you can find. But the labels are available via web as well, so ...

They work just about like any label you would print out. You design the label in the program, print, then apply the label to the CD.

Subject: Making CDs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Nov 00 - 12:24 PM

*I'm trying to figure a way to transfer my tapes to CDs. It seems that the biggest problem is labels and artwork. I was told that it was possible to make labels on my computer, but, I need a program to do it. Any suggestions? What exactly, do I have to do?