Burn technology burning me up

[johnbasalla]

I have access to many 16" radio discs from the 1940s that I'm transferring to CD.  Here's the problem which I would like an explanation of, if there is one, and a fix, if there is one of that too.  I'm dubbing these from a properly equipped record player directly into the Sony RCD-W500C CD recorder via RCA cables.  There's only one RCA out on the player, which I split to two RCA's going into the recorder.  I then record a program from the discs...(30-minute programs, approx. 15 minutes per side).  Afterwards, I finalize.  Now, a number of these CDs have a hard time, and in some cases, won't play at all on any other CD player I have, including other Sony units.  However, they play just fine on another RCD-W500C that I have.  On CD units they won't play on at all, when you press "eject", and the tray comes out, the disc is spinning real fast.  Is this a unit problem?  A CD problem?  Are there CD's that Sony units "like" better then others? 

[TomT]

May be more practical to use a computer with a good sound card & audio editing software to burn the CD's

[frankberry]

Try using Sony AUDIO CDs.  Standard CDs won't always work ... even after they have been finalized.

[chriscollins]

I would, without a doubt, use a computer for this project.  I hate the stand alones.

Also, you could go back and clean things up, etc, if you dump them onto a hard drive first.

[Cynyster]

Adding my 2 cents. I have never had good luck doing a 1 to 1 copy or live burn to CD. Most Audio CD players to not "over sample" and any defect  or delay in the data stream during the burning process can make a CD unreadable to standard CD players. The best option for me has always been to record to a software application. (Like adobe audition) Apply some sort of filter (to get rid of hiss, pops  etc.) Then burn it to a CD at single speed with a buffer under run technology.

[Kent T]

Use the PC and editing software or lose the Sony consumer standalone and get thee a Tascam for thy job. I use the Tascam for transfer work and mine works reliably.

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

There seems to be a "general concensus" here that the best route is to transfer to a hard drive,  do some kind of  "cultivation" and then burn to CD using a computer.

Several years ago I took over the task of burning a weekly CD for a house of worship.  Even using a computer I had problems like you are describing where bad, unusable CDs resulted.  I got thrown out of some of the best computer stores in all of Atlanta trying to explain the symptoms I was experiencing. 

In spite of the fact that six years ago the concensus was:  DIGITAL is DIGITAL and what you are describing "just cannot possibly happen!"  For a while I had a computer with two optical drives:  one that could read audio off of ANY CD you could hand me,  but would choke trying to write a CD.  The other drive was a lousy tool for ripping,  but (this is the line that got me thrown out of stores) but could burn tracks on a kitchen saucer if I asked it to.

CD drives are inexpensive and sometimes unpredictable.  You may end up replacing one or two just on a hunch.  One of the solutions that has served me well for six years now is driving across Atlanta to the only place in town that I know about that sells honest-to-goodness Taiyo Yuden blanks.  They may not be the BEST blanks,  but the are CONSISTENT.  Once you find a drive that will burn them and read them,  life may get a lot more predictable.

[W1DAN]

Hi:

If possible transfer flat to a computer. Keep this transfer and then cleanup a version for distribution using a SW package.

The ink in CD's fade over time. Try to keep audio on hard drives, duplicating to a new HD occasionally.

Dan

[johnbasalla]

I found out my problem CDs are MAXELL CD's.  These are not data CDs as the unit will not accept data CDs.   Sony-Audio, Memorex-Music and FujiFilm-All Purpose CDs have done well.  Thank you for the comments, I'm on an archive committee whose goal is to preserve certain historical items... including these records.  I'm going to bring all of your expert opinions to an upcoming meeting and see where it goes.  When pressed on poly-vinyl, most of these 16" Electrical Transcriptions sound near perfect.  Less so, when pressed on a less durable medium.  I'm not bothering with ones that are not understandable from the get-go.  Still, the fact that it seems the majority are at least reasonable, if not perfect, speaks well for the longevity of records/record players given that these are all from the 1940s. 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

My research six years ago brought out this information:  There are only a limited number of plants in the world that produce blank recordable CDs.  You can pick up MAXELL CDs at one store, drive across town and buy more MAXELL CDs and find they were manufactured in a different location.  Same for FUJI or any other brand.  And the FUJIs from one store may come from the same plant and be identical to the MAXELLs in the same store or another store.

I may have been victimized by some sources that are not as factual as they think they are,  but I got the same story from multiple sources, some of which I felt were reputable. 

The story I got about the Taiyo Yuden blanks was that if you buy from a reputable dealer who is actually delivering what he says it is, you will get consistent product, batch after batch.  That does NOT mean they will work well on all machines.  But once you try a few on your recorder and they work for you,  you can exptect future batches to also work.  I found that was not true of the highly recognizeable brand names and the store-branded CDs from the office supply big-boxes and others.  However,  when burning in a computer based drive.  I have had good results with whatever I find on the bargain table at the big-box outlets.  It is our live-to-disc-recorder that is hard to please and rejects and trashes some blanks.