Easy Cd And Dvd Version 9

[Latch 48]

I have had a number of versions of Easy CD and DVD. My most recent purchase was Easy CD and DVD Version 9.0.554. Is it the same as EMC 9? I am not crazy about the Labeler, it is not as good as previous versions, however I can live with that as I have others I can use. This does a GREAT job when copying CD to CD. However, I bought this to copy all of my casette tapes and LPs to CD's. I have had mixed satisfaction on the quality of these. I am copying from a high quality casette player, with good cables directly into the PC sound card inputs. Some of the copies are good, but others have been poor and obviously "digital" problems. I have checked the tapes, and the "garbage" ending up on the recordings is NOT on the tapes. Someone told me to copy as Wave files and save on the hard drive then convert to digital. Is this a better quality? I know I could simply try it, but hope to save from reburning and wasting a bunch of blank cd's only to find out it isn't any better. Are there any "tricks" to improve the quality I am receiving? I am an old audiophile, so I am familiar with the analog side - I keep the heads clean, etc. I need ideas on the digital side.

[sknis]

I have had a number of versions of Easy CD and DVD. My most recent purchase was Easy CD and DVD Version 9.0.554. Is it the same as EMC 9? I am not crazy about the Labeler, it is not as good as previous versions, however I can live with that as I have others I can use. This does a GREAT job when copying CD to CD. However, I bought this to copy all of my casette tapes and LPs to CD's. I have had mixed satisfaction on the quality of these. I am copying from a high quality casette player, with good cables directly into the PC sound card inputs. Some of the copies are good, but others have been poor and obviously "digital" problems. I have checked the tapes, and the "garbage" ending up on the recordings is NOT on the tapes. Someone told me to copy as Wave files and save on the hard drive then convert to digital. Is this a better quality? I know I could simply try it, but hope to save from reburning and wasting a bunch of blank cd's only to find out it isn't any better. Are there any "tricks" to improve the quality I am receiving? I am an old audiophile, so I am familiar with the analog side - I keep the heads clean, etc. I need ideas on the digital side.

 

Try going into Windows, Start, Run, type in dxdiag, then OK. Go to the Sound Tab and turn the acceleration down to minimum. Try that. If it works, you can raise the acceleration until it gives you problems.

 

Always capture as wav since that is a non-compressed format. If you want to change them to mp3 later (I'm not sure why you would) then it can be done as needed. Standard CD use wav type files, MP3 players like most portable phones and the like use mp3.

[ogdens]

I have had a number of versions of Easy CD and DVD. My most recent purchase was Easy CD and DVD Version 9.0.554. Is it the same as EMC 9? I am not crazy about the Labeler, it is not as good as previous versions, however I can live with that as I have others I can use. This does a GREAT job when copying CD to CD. However, I bought this to copy all of my casette tapes and LPs to CD's. I have had mixed satisfaction on the quality of these. I am copying from a high quality casette player, with good cables directly into the PC sound card inputs. Some of the copies are good, but others have been poor and obviously "digital" problems. I have checked the tapes, and the "garbage" ending up on the recordings is NOT on the tapes. Someone told me to copy as Wave files and save on the hard drive then convert to digital. Is this a better quality? I know I could simply try it, but hope to save from reburning and wasting a bunch of blank cd's only to find out it isn't any better. Are there any "tricks" to improve the quality I am receiving? I am an old audiophile, so I am familiar with the analog side - I keep the heads clean, etc. I need ideas on the digital side.

 

 

The Easy CD and DVD Version 9.0.554 is a re-make of the Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 (done to make it Vista compatible) and is not the same as EMC. Its a cheaper version, however it should do what you are trying to do.

 

What program within the suite are you using?.

When you have the problem does the whole CD have "garbage" on it or just certain tracks?.

Could you describe what you mean by "garbage" is it a clicking sound or noisy, screeching?.

What brand of CD media are you using?.

 

You also could try to copy as Wave files and save on the hard drivel. just use a CD-RW for testing then you can erase it after the test.

 

 

 

[d_deweywright]

I have had a number of versions of Easy CD and DVD. My most recent purchase was Easy CD and DVD Version 9.0.554. Is it the same as EMC 9? I am not crazy about the Labeler, it is not as good as previous versions, however I can live with that as I have others I can use. This does a GREAT job when copying CD to CD. However, I bought this to copy all of my casette tapes and LPs to CD's. I have had mixed satisfaction on the quality of these. I am copying from a high quality casette player, with good cables directly into the PC sound card inputs. Some of the copies are good, but others have been poor and obviously "digital" problems. I have checked the tapes, and the "garbage" ending up on the recordings is NOT on the tapes. Someone told me to copy as Wave files and save on the hard drive then convert to digital. Is this a better quality? I know I could simply try it, but hope to save from reburning and wasting a bunch of blank cd's only to find out it isn't any better. Are there any "tricks" to improve the quality I am receiving? I am an old audiophile, so I am familiar with the analog side - I keep the heads clean, etc. I need ideas on the digital side.

I'm not sure just which application you're using to record with, but does it have a level indicator displaying the input volume? If so, is that ever hitting it's highest indicator? If so, then there's a good chance the input is clipping, which would cause the garbage you're getting. Open the mixer for your sound card and get into the recording controls, find the one for the Line-In control, and turn that down some for your louder recordings. The goal is to record nearly as loud as you can without clipping.

 

As suggested above, record to .WAV files, and that is a digital format, it's just not a compressed format, no conversion necessary. Most of the compressed formats, like .MP3 or .WMA, or .AAC are lossy compression schemes, not as good as the original, unlike the .WAV format. So, you always want to work in an uncompressed format as much as you can, and if you're going to CD, then stick with .WAV files all the way.

 

Hope that helps.

[Latch 48]

Thanks for the info and tips. I will try the suggestions and advise if it gives me better results. The sound is hard to describe, but I am certain it isn't an analog issue as I have been recording on tapes for years and it is a sound I have never heard before. I guess It makes me think of what you see on the TV when the digital signal is garbled and you get those unassociated blocks on the picture. I understand the concept of clipping, as it works the same on analog recording. I set the system to "Auto" when I record, so there is little if any overpowering. I will let you know after I try rerecording the tapes that I ended up with this on. Didn't want to save in WAV format as I know it takes up a lot more room, but my goal is to convert all of these to CDs anyway, so if I do a few then burn to CD, and then delete from hard drive I should be able to get them all finished.

Thanks again and happy boating.

Latch 48

[d_deweywright]

Thanks for the info and tips. I will try the suggestions and advise if it gives me better results. The sound is hard to describe, but I am certain it isn't an analog issue as I have been recording on tapes for years and it is a sound I have never heard before. I guess It makes me think of what you see on the TV when the digital signal is garbled and you get those unassociated blocks on the picture. I understand the concept of clipping, as it works the same on analog recording. I set the system to "Auto" when I record, so there is little if any overpowering. I will let you know after I try rerecording the tapes that I ended up with this on. Didn't want to save in WAV format as I know it takes up a lot more room, but my goal is to convert all of these to CDs anyway, so if I do a few then burn to CD, and then delete from hard drive I should be able to get them all finished.

Thanks again and happy boating.

Latch 48

Hard drives are cheap, get yourself either another internal, or an external hard drive if space is an issue. A 500GB drive will set you back $150 ($110 on sale) and hold over 800 hours of music in uncompressed .WAV format. If you're trying to get the best representation of your music onto CD, then it's well worth sticking with .WAV files.

 

As for clipping, it works slightly different in the digital world because there's no "soft edge". During the A/D conversion, you have a finite set of values that can be used to represent the signal, -32768 through 32767. Once you hit that limit, there's no easing into a clipping range, it gets chopped off at those values, so the clipping will be hard. If that's part of your issue, then you should be able to see it fairly readily by looking at the wave form in Sound Editor. Just zoom in on a loud section and see what it looks like.

 

Good luck!