Hi Danny. Firstly Is there any reason why you can't record straight onto
your PC hard drive or external drive? That would be your best option if you
can do that. assuming you can't then Re-writable CDs have a very limited
lifespan. You are very limited in how many times you can erase and record
any single disc. I know from experience that they are very unreliable and
bearing in mind they are kinda expensive they are not very economical in the
long run. I'm trying to recall something I read about them many years ago
but I can't fully remember. All I can recall was the problem lays with the
dye's ability to react to the laser and over time it's response becomes
ineffective and the disc becomes a piece of junk. I do have a few sealed
audio re-writables but only use them if I have no other choice but since
they have been in their sealed packs for a few years, I haven't been forced
to use them. I found the worst combination was to record something on my
Hi-Fi CD recorder, then take it to my PC and rip the contents and then erase
it in the PC. A couple of times of that and the disc died. I found the
best way to prolong the life of the disc as much as possible was if I
recorded the disc in the audio CD recorder it was wise to erase it in there
and if I burned the disc in the PC then, erase it there also. My preferred
means of doing the sort of recordings you speak of is to record onto mini
disc. They can be written on and erased a million times without
deterioration of the audio quality. If you can get hold of a MD recorder
with long play facility then you can get up to 5 hours 20 minute recording
time from a single disc. Of course, the quality is slightly lowered
compared to the stereo setting, probably similar to a PC file at 128kbs,
but for the spoken word it is perfectly fine.Some portable Mini disc
recorders can be connected to your PC via USB and you can transfer files
freely. Also, Mini Disc has a reasonable, if only basic editing feature.
Sadly, they are becoming quite hard to find though. The other option is
one of the Olympic digital recorders but I have no experience of these and
will have to leave it to others to explain whether such a device would suit
your purposes. Finally, as for examining the disc it's self? That is
something you would have to get a sighted person to do for you as there
isn't a way of telling how badly scratched a disc is. In any case, not all
scratches will adversely effect the playing of the disc. I have found some
discs have had large, even deep scratches and played fine but a disc with
extremely fine, almost impossible to see scratches just threw the player
into a panic. It really depends where the scratch, or scratches are and
how severely it interferes with the discs reflective capability. As a last
resort, you might think about using unbranded write once discs, they are not
very expensive. Walter.
-Original Message-
From: pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org
[mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org]on Behalf Of Danny Miles
Sent: 18 May 2010 23:35
To: PC Audio Discussion List; blindos-inn
Subject: CD Recording and Maintenance
Hi everyone. Sorry if this is rather random, but I hope that someone
can help. I'm currently recording audio from the radio and old
cassettes using a stand alone CD recorder. I'm using re-recordable
discs so that I don't have to keep buying new ones, but they seem to
pick up dust and scratches very easily, and the instructions for the
recorder are accurate in warning that any discs used will only
function properly if such issues are not present. Does anybody know
how I can check whether a CD is scratched (bearing in mind that I'm
totally blind, that scratches can rarely be felt on the surface of a
CD and that touching the surface would most likely damage the disc
anyway)? Also, does anyone know of a way in which I can safely ensure
that any dust is removed from a disc without running the risk of
scratching it? Finally, does anyone know whether re-recordable discs
are naturally more temperamental than recordable ones, or is anyone
able to name types/makes of re-recordable discs which aren't
temperamental? At the moment I'm losing recordings because the
machine stops recording and deletes what it's accumulated part of the
way through a session, and this is getting both awkward and
irritating.
Apologies for all of the questions - any help will be appreciated.
Danny
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