Recording a vinyl onto a CD.......what kind of CD do I use?

[skinner]

Hey people........Happy Sunday!!

So, I have this OOOOOOOOLD record I am going to have a friend record onto a few CD's for me. It's a x-mas album that my parents had the 8-track of when I was a kid. Been searching for it for YEARS but it was never even on cassette. FINALLY found it on e-bay last year and my 2 sisters, 1 brother and mom all want a copy. Sooooooooo..........what are your suggestions for a brand of CD to buy to record onto? I'm looking for quality (well DUH right??)

Oh, by the way, I don't have the actual equipment that will be recording it so if that matters........I dunno

Thanks!!

[Time2Surrender]

I bet Dan can answer this one.

[pedagogue]

It matters more where the CD-R was manufactured. There are only a handful of CD factories in the world. So if you buy Ritek, but they are made in Taiwan (which is a 2nd tier facility), they would be much different than a Ritek from Japan (which I think is a 1st tier facility). I know Taiyo Yuden's are the gold standard, but they are harder to find and more expensive. I've had great success with Verbatim Datalife Plus (singapore factory?) Maxell (Japan). The last two are easier to find at places like Best Buy, etc.

btw...you are looking for CD-Rs.

Store brand CD-Rs (CompUSA, etc) are really inconsistant, and should be avoided. I've used memorex and they've been pretty good, but I'd vastly prefer the ones I listed above. (CD-Rs sometimes degrade after a number of years....which is where the cheaper ones start to fail. Also cheaper CD-Rs are more prone to make 'coasters' and not work at all)

Cliff Notes:

1. Taiyo Yuden
2. Verbatim Datalife Plus (They should have blue packaging, at least mine do)
3. Maxell (NOT the Music CD-Rs...which were made for the stand-alone players. if you have a stand alone player, and not one for the computer, then this brand is what you want.)

I use to re-master bootlegs and burn them for long-term storage. I learned my lesson by trying cheaper media (back in 1997ish, which was 1st generation, so everything was spotty) It is worth spending a few more $ for quality. CD-Rs are cheap enough now, that it shouldn't cost much more for the good stuff.

-p

[Dan]

Yeah, pretty much.
Writable CD's, or CD-R.
I like Sony. And like Ped says, stay away from store brands.

[pedagogue]

DD is on the money with Sony. They also make some pretty good CD-Rs. They tend to be a bit of a premium (for the name), but I'd ranke them a solid 4th on my list.

-p

[skinner]

Well thanks much to you all!! I can't wait to actually LISTEN to this album since I don't even own a turn table!!!

I agree about the Sony CD-R. Verbatim CD's are decent. Memorex and TDK are OK. Avoid the generic CD packs like the plague. 100 CD-R's for $10 is a waste of money in the long run because they make better 'coasters' like Ped said. Some generics have a high 40-60% failure rate. BAD.

Also, you'll want to invest in downloading an extremely powerful and wonderful program called Wave Repair. It's intended solely for vinyl-to-CD archiving. It has a suite of functions typically not found in other mainstream audio editing software. One example is it's ''Pop & Crackle Threshhold'' settings.