CD Burners?

Re: CD Burners?

Justice C. Bigler said:
What do you guys like for CD burners these days?

I'd prefer XLR inputs, and to not have to use those cockamamie "music CDRs" that I have to use for my HK burner right now.
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I don't really like any dedicated CD burner, including the Masterlink. They are a horror show when your program runs longer than a single CD. Record to a flash recorder or computer and burn to CD from there. You can divide the file sensibly if it runs overtime, and there is less time used up starting and finishing.

Mac
 
Re: CD Burners?

mackerr said:
I don't really like any dedicated CD burner, including the Masterlink. They are a horror show when your program runs longer than a single CD. Record to a flash recorder or computer and burn to CD from there. You can divide the file sensibly if it runs overtime, and there is less time used up starting and finishing.

Mac
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My Masterlink has a 40GB hard drive, to which it can record for days, and burn whatever to CD whenever I want. IMHO, CDs are a dead technology; I only keep the burner around for those that won't take an mp3 on a flash drive or a link to my FTP server.
 
Re: CD Burners?

I haven't taken a CD player/burner to a show in 3 years. Most everyone that has something they want me to play has an iPod. The LS9 prints to a thumb drive, but I can record to the Smaart laptop if someone wants a higher resolution.
 
Re: CD Burners?

Justice C. Bigler said:
What do you guys like for CD burners these days?

I'd prefer XLR inputs, and to not have to use those cockamamie "music CDRs" that I have to use for my HK burner right now.
Click to expand...

Tascam CDRW901, XLRs in and out, plus the usual assortment of other analog and digital IO. Depending on your expected use, I don't see CDR technology as dead. Case in point, Asbury Audio covers several club level venues. One, the Stone Pony, regularly does local showcases and Battle of the Band gigs as a way to (make money for the club/ fill slow nights :) ) find bands to open/ support larger shows. We have a better than 70% acceptance with bands recording their 1/2 hour sets direct to CD for $20.00. Hence, the trusty 10 year old CDRW700 (it was already used for a couple years of touring, and has NEVER needed service beyond running a lens cleaner through it a few times) that we put into the room when we first took it over in 2002 has returned NO JOKE over $80,000 through the years, split evenly between the club, monitor and FOH techs, and my company. We have no other piece of equipment with even close to the same ROI, not to mention the techs that have to deal with the BOTB locals are more than happy to leave with an extra 20-30 bucks cash in pocket each time.
 
Re: CD Burners?

Silas Pradetto said:
I only keep the burner around for those that won't take an mp3 on a flash drive...
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Which is the exact reason that I need a new one. Most of our clients are computer and electronics illiterate and just want a recording of their recital or talking head event. It's easier to hand them a CD that they can play in their stereo or car or whatever 10 minutes after the show comes down, than to say, "here's your .mp3 file or hard drive with the raw audio files on it. Now all you have to do is find someone to edit it and burn it to a CD for you".

I have other recording media delivery methods at my disposal should I encounter a show that runs longer than 80 minutes per half, which is rare in our building.
 
Re: CD Burners?

I use a couple of HHB burners, xlr i/o (1 for myself and another for the music director/conductor/talent etc...) + a 500 gb drive /reaper combo for multitracks........or, longer programs.... most of our shows also have dvd+HD video recording as well .........

Ray
 
Re: CD Burners?

Justice C. Bigler said:
Which is the exact reason that I need a new one. Most of our clients are computer and electronics illiterate and just want a recording of their recital or talking head event. It's easier to hand them a CD that they can play in their stereo or car or whatever 10 minutes after the show comes down, than to say, "here's your .mp3 file or hard drive with the raw audio files on it. Now all you have to do is find someone to edit it and burn it to a CD for you".

I have other recording media delivery methods at my disposal should I encounter a show that runs longer than 80 minutes per half, which is rare in our building.
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This is the reason I fired my two Masterlinks - I got sick of waiting for the actual burning to take place after the recording. I've gone to a Sound Devices solid state recorder for my stuff, and have access to a cheap Tascam for the outlying situation where I need a CD NOW, which isn't often. Normally it's easier for me to rip the CF card out of the recorder, slam it through Audacity and burn than to remember to grab the standalone burner.
 
Re: CD Burners?

I have the older Tascam CDRW700 that has has always worked great and will burn to any CD. It better work great this Sunday...a church has booked me for the audio production at their large community Easter service and the CD of the service
will be used on their weekly radio broadcast the following week.
My CD recorder has paid for itself many times over!!!!!!
I am looking at getting a Tascam DR2d flash recorder soon.
 
Re: CD Burners?

Ricky Lighthall said:
I like the Alesis Masterlink.
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I despise the Masterlink. If we're talking a recording studio where all that editing and rendering equates to billable hours that's one things. But on the road, no way. It is too clunky and time consuming to get a simple archive recording. In fact, it is virtually impossible for me to leave the venue with a finished cd without putting the local crew into an overtime situation.

I still carry a cd player/recorder at FOH for the odd venue that has a mandatory fire/emergency exit announcement. Many venues are now willing to provide a thumbdrive with the announcement so I could load it into QLab. I choose not to because I'm not real big on editing that file once it is set.

For the hardware? Any Tascam flavor with XLR I/0 should be fine. I think I usually try to get the model with the AES outputs but I'm always fine with XLR analog out if the shop doesn't have it.
 
Re: CD Burners?

The flash drive recorder or laptop either to sd or cf then into computer load to audacity (from the card don't load it onto the machine 1st) cut in half if reqd save as WAV (s) then burn from laptop is my way of doing that service now, you can usually get it burning by the time the audience is 1/4 the way out and it'll be done before the rest are out unless you burn it really slow. G
 
Re: CD Burners?

I understand completely that handing off a CD is much simpler for the end user, and it is exactly what I do most of the time . . . but after experiencing so many disasters over the years trying to record (to) CD during a show, I have decided that it simply is not a media that meets my needs for professional on-site, live event recordings.

I have used every different brand of CD burner you can imagine over the years... Tip-top of the line products from Tascam, Fostex, Denon, SuperScoper, Marantz & HHB (if I'm not forgetting a few)... and every single one has screwed me at some point. It's not the recorders themselves, but the fact that you can get one bad disc in the box you buy and you won't know it until you are 60mins into a super critical recording. The Tascam units will just stop recording... spit out the disc and flash REC ERROR at you... it is SO frustrating!!!

So now I have a Mac Mini that lives in my FOH rack, I record everything to Audacity (sometimes Logic... but Audacity works GREAT for simple stuff) at the end of the event I simply save the recording to the desktop and then open it with iTunes in order to add track names etc and then burn a CD. The bonus here for corporate clients is that over time, I end up with a file FULL of their event recordings all in one place... need a replacement copy a year from now? All I have to do is burn them another copy, or email it to them.

I ordered my Mac Mini with a stupid large HD, and I back it up to another stupid large HD and am slowly building a pretty cool catalog of recordings of my gigs... FUN TIMES!! Sometimes if I'm doing a gig and I'm enjoying it, I'll fire it up and record a few songs in each set... the band always appreciates a CD at the end of the night with few tunes recorded on it... WAY more useful to them then an un-edited CD that just plays all the way through with dead spaces and no track markers.

Generationally speaking, CD's are DEAD AS ELVIS!!! I don't think I've given anyone under the age of 30 a CD in years... shit... I don't think I've heard anyone under the age of 30 say "CD" in a few years.

*FYI- There are certain clients in this town in particular, who's recordings do not get archived on my computer for security and privacy reasons... be sure not to break the rules if you do corporate or government work!!
 
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