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Setting Levels

Editors Note: This months installment of "Setting Levels" explores the world of the relatively, new medium in live audio collecting, C.D. recording. Nate Mordo explores the basics of this format and its pros and cons.......

Digital Decision-- to C.D. or not to C.D.
by Nate Mordo edited by Ryan Richardson - levelseditor@hotmail.com

Just a few scant years ago no one but professionals could dream of possessing the ability to record their own CDs. In the past two years, CD recording technology (CDR) has come into its own. With the cost of a CDR drive pushing into the lower $300 range, anybody with a computer can afford to get into the game. However, with this shift in paradigm from analog recording and trading to digital recording and trading there is a corresponding shift in the way we carry out these tasks.

While we may shed such analog-era concerns as tape generations and poor archival lifespan, we face a different set of issues such as analog soundcard conversion and transfers from compressed files. This article is intended to provide beginners and newcomers to the CDR trading scene with the basic information needed to get started.

The Drives

CDR drives work by using a laser to imprint or "burn" a pattern onto the blank CDR surface. So that normal audio CD players and CD-ROM drives can then read these as normal. Despite the compatibility between CDRs and CD players there is an important difference between CDRs, which have been burned and CDs which have been pressed.

One difference is that pressed CDs can contain up to 4 more minutes of music, up to 78 minutes, compared to 74 minutes with CDRs. That may not sound like an important difference but it is tough to burn a copy of a recording which has been pressed only to find that you cannot fit that last few seconds of the encore onto the disc. Another important difference is that some DVD drives do not have the ability to read CDR discs, despite the fact that they can read pressed audio CDs and CD-ROMs. This is due to the difference in which CDRs and pressed CDs are produced.

Things to look for in a CDR drive are speed and DAO capability. CDR drives that are capable of writing at 4x can commonly be found. Therefore, a 60 minute recording can be "burned" onto a disc in 15 minutes. Some say that faster CDR drives cause a higher occurrence of errors when writing the disc. Others claim that a faster laser is more stable and thus produces less errors.

The other important feature to look for in a CDR drive is disc-at-once or DAO recording. When CDR technology first starting getting cheap, a whole generation of CDR drives came out which were incapable of writing CDRs with no pauses between tracks. Older CDR drives and some current ones are engineered so that after each track the laser which writes the data stops, inserts a two-second pause, and then begins writing the next track. For data CDRs (i.e. non-audio) audio CDRs this is not a problem. However, when one is recording a live show which is intended to flow as one piece, this two-second pause is annoying for those who are interested in jam bands and the accompanying musical transitions. Non-DAO drive users are left with two options ; leave the entire contents of the disc as one, long track, or cope with that tormenting two-second pause between songs.

Fortunately, for the nascent CDR trading community, there soon came a new generation of CDR drives which enabled users to eliminate this pause. This feature is implemented by not letting the CDR laser turn off between track writings; thus disc-at-once. However, you may be surprised to find that a treasured Grateful Dead disc you've been looking for has interruptions between "Scarlet Begonias" and "Fire on the Mountain". You may also have to fast-forward through 45 minutes of music to find the song you want.

One trap that is easy to fall into is the CDRW feature. CDRWs are rewritable versions of CDRs with one important difference. CDRW discs can be recorded, erased, and re-recorded many times over. However, only CDRW drives can read CDRW discs, unlike CDR discs, which can be read by audio CD players and CD-ROM drives. This means that there is no way to use CDRW discs for trading and that they are many times more expensive than blank CDR discs, which are in the $2 range per disc.

The Discs

CDR discs are manufactured by many companies that you may or may not recognize. There are some collectors who adamantly claim that one brand is better than another and others say that they are essentially all the same. Because a standard has yet to emerge, it is up to the users to decide what is best for them. I will say though that Mitsui Gold discs have received more than one vote of approval from audiophiles.

Limits

CDR discs can only hold a maximum of 74 minutes of music. Music recorded to a CDR must be in fully uncompressed .aiff or .wav format. This translates into a 44.1 KHz, 16-bit, stereo signal. It is important to note that store-bought CDs are capable of containing slightly more than 74 minutes. Non-burned discs (AKA tore-bought, or "pressed") can hold somewhere around 78 minutes.

Soundcards

Disc-to-disc, CDR creation is easy with a CDR drive, but how about when your source is anything besides another CD or CDR? The most common method is to plug a DAT or an analog decks, into a computer's soundcard and capture the signal as an uncompressed .wav or .aiff file. From there you would break up the entire recording into tracks using a wave editing program, such as Sound Forge, before burning it onto a disc. One would intuitively think that since DAT tapes are digital, and computers are certainly digital, that the resulting CDR would be a pure digital recording. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The fact is, just about every factory-installed PC or Mac soundcard has an analog input. This means that your crispy DAT signal is getting funneled through an analog channel, cutting off certain higher frequencies, before becoming digital file residing on your machine. The way around this problem is to purchase a digital I/O (input/output) card which plugs into one of your PC's expansion slots and allows you to record through a digital input. These cards are in the $300-range. It is possible that people who are trading DAT > CDR shows with you don't realize this, and the shows most likely went through an analog input. Generally, the sound quality is highly listenable despite the losses in quality which inevitably occur.

Mp3s

The latest fad in online audio delivery is definitely the Mp3 file, short for MPEG Layer-3. Unlike Real Audio that is so highly compressed that it is virtually unusable for archival recording purposes, Mp3 files can deliver high-quality audio. The 10-to-1 compression ratio of Mp3s make these files much easier to download and transport compared to uncompressed audio files. The problem with Mp3s is that they are only as good as their source files. Also, considerable audio information is lost when an uncompressed file is compressed to Mp3 format. This may be of concern to the music listener. You may want to watch whether a CDR you are trading for was recorded from Mp3. Some may be unhappy with the results.

In summary, there are many reasons to collect CDRs, rather than analog tapes but there are also disadvantages. Getting started in CDR trading is considerably more expensive than analog trading and DAT trading. Ultimately the trader has to decide for themself what is the best course to follow. Having traded CDRs for several months now I can say that I couldn't be happier. I can listen to my collection in all its digital glory at home, in my car, and at the office.

"Nate can be reached at nmordo@ix.netcom.com unless there is good music around to be seen."