Burn Baby Burn!

Dreams do come true! It's now possible to produce your own CDs on an Atari machine using a CD writer.
Mark Wherry sets his Falcon on fire...


The process of creating the CDs is called "burning" because that's exactly what happens.
A CD writer is essentially the same as a normal CD drive, except the laser is capable of burning the media.

Unlike the silver CDs your music or magazine software comes on, which cannot be written to, you have to buy special CD-Recordable (CDR) media which are commonly gold coloured. CDR media already cost less than £1 each and the price is falling all the time.

Before writing to a CDR, the data must first be prepared on another storage device then written to the CDR as a single "session" which ties up the computer. Although CDR media is "write once, read many times" data can be added gradually by writing further sessions.

Unfortunately most audio CD players only recognise the first session on a multi-session CD because they include single-session drives so bear this in mind if you're creating audio CDs. However you can create a mixed mode CD using a format known as CD-extra or CD-plus. These enable data to be added as extra sessions to audio CDs and vice versa.

There's also another type of CDR media called CDRW (CD-ReWriteable) which requires a CDRW compatible drive which is capable of erasing blocks of the CD and starting again. Most audio CDs cannot read CDRW media and each disk costs over œ12 so these are currently not an attractive option.

Speed trials

Like conventional CD-ROM drives, CD writers operate at specific speeds. For example, a double speed writer can write one hour's worth of information to a CD in 30 minutes, whereas a quad speed writer would write the same information in 15 minutes.

Drive specifications are often quoted as cryptic numbers, for example 2x6. This means the drive writes at double speed and reads at six speed. If there are three numbers, such as 4x2x6, this means the drive can write at four speed, re-write at 2 speed, and read at six speed. Faster drives can always write at the slower speeds as well.

Audio CDs can always be written at the fastest speed because they only contain one file per track. However, it's worth considering burning data CDs at slower speeds when writing lots of smaller files.

Software

CDRecorder Pro2 is currently the only software package available on the Atari platform to burn CDRs and it's expensive. The good news is it's really very good and includes all the features I need but before we go any further I'm going to get up on my soapbox...

I fully appreciate the need for copy protection, but CDRecorder Pro2 insists on having the master floppy disk in the drive every time the program is run. I find this a totally unacceptable form of software protection - whenever I run the program I'm a nervous wreck and what happens when the disk eventually corrupts or if the program is no longer supported? I expect to be able to make a backup copy for my own peace of mind, that's not unreasonable is it?

CDRecorder Pro2

The software consists of a collection of tools and two main programs, CDRecorder Pro (CDRP) and CDRecorder Audio (CDRA). Both are brilliantly designed GEM applications, which perform flawlessly under MagiC - I'd like to see Drag&Drop support from the desktop though!

The author has also implemented his own bubble help variation although I'd rather he supported BubbleGEM and spent the time improving CDRecorder itself.


 CDRP allows the creation of (yellow-book) CD-ROMs as well as mixed mode audio+data CDs.
CDRP can work with multiple sessions, and read the archive flag set on files which makes keeping track of back-ups easier.
A SCSI copy feature non-Atari compatible file systems to be copied - for example Mac HFS.

Although it's possible to add audio tracks using CDRP, there is no fine control over pauses, and other details. However there is a better solution...

CDRA can create red-book compatible audio CDs which can be played in standard audio CD players. Best of all it can also write the PQ subcodes, which contain specific timing information including pauses, the copy protection and pre-emphasis flags, and the ISRC code - a unique number given to each CD for identification purposes. These are professional level duplication features.

CDRA includes other neat extras including the ability to preview how the CD will sound with all the pauses, and so on. It's also possible to get cover and master list print-outs.

A cover list describes each track with track number, name and length - perfect for covers. A master list is built on the cover list and in addition details times, pauses, filenames, codes and more.

There's a program called CD-Copy which makes copying CDs really easy so it's ideal for maintaining back-ups of your own material. Neither myself nor Atari Computing condone the use of the CDRecorder package for any other purpose.

There's also a device driver which enables the CD writer to behave like a normal CD-ROM drive. This is a special version of MetaDOS, but it also works on any SCSI CD-ROM drive and is one of the most reliable I've seen.
Finally there's CD-Reader, programmed by Klaus Heyne, which is really only of interest to Falcon users. It's essentially another CD player. However, instead of sending commands to the CD drive, it reads the audio data directly and plays it via the Falcon sound system. Audio can also be output via a SP/DIF interface if you have one - which could be really useful.

Conclusions

Minor upgrades to the CDRecorder package are currently released on a regular basis via the Soundpool web pages which is an excellent service.

Although the software is expensive, which will undoubtedly deter some prospective purchasers, it does offer professional level features and there's no alternative. It's great to see the Atari platform has something to offer.

Although SoundPool currently enjoy a monopoly it could broaden the appeal of the software by releasing the two main CDRecorder applications separately. This way anyone who needs to write data and basic audio CDs could buy CDRP program and musicians who need the specific audio features could buy CDRA - how about it, SoundPool?

It would also be useful to see integration with other SoundPool products like Audio Master, and Digidesign ProTools/MasterList on the Mac. For example, ProTools on the Mac, and Audio Master on the Falcon, can handle a non-destructive cue-list. Using Pro Tools, this play list can be imported to the CD burning software master list and it would be useful if CDRP also offered this. Since Audio Master is a modular program anyway, CDRP could be made available as a "plug-in".

So how does a Falcon based setup compare to other systems on other platforms? Having previously used a Mac to burn CDRs I'm pleased to report the Falcon is just as capable, and performed perfectly.

I was worried the Falcon's SCSI bus was not up to writing at four times speed because it requires constant use for about 20 minutes but so far I haven't had a single failure!

The convenience of producing my own CDs is well worth the cost. For musicians it's the ideal back-up medium and you can use it to present the final result of your efforts.
For non-musicians, using a CD writer actually works out much cheaper than running an Iomega Jaz drive in the longer term, and you get access to a CD-ROM drive as well - so why not get yourself burnt?

Finally I would like to thank Titan Designs for the excellent service I received when purchasing my system; their Atari Times award was well deserved.



Hardware

Until recently, only TTs and Falcons could be hooked up to CD writers but now ST computers can join the party using a Link 96/7 SCSI adapter. A CDR can contain up to 650Mb of data (which equates to 74 minutes of audio) and this needs to be prepared on another drive first so you'll need to bring along a large fast hard disk.

During the burning process the CD writer expects a constant stream of data which means the faster the CD writer writes the faster the data must arrive in the memory buffer from the hard disk so in addition to a large and fast hard drive you'd better make sure it's defragmented. If the data stream is interrupted during burning everything grinds to a halt and the CDR is scrap!

CD writers are getting cheaper, a 4x2x6 can now be bought for less than œ400. But unless you have a free tower case slot to slide in an internal mechanism you'll need to add œ50 to buy an external model or alternatively spend the money on a PC tower case and add a SCSI burster.



 
 

CDRecorder Pro 2.24

Author: Jens Fuller (CD-ROM Solutions)

Publisher :SoundPool

http://www.soundpool.de

Available in the UK from System Solutions and Titan Designs, who can also supply the hardware.

Cost £199

Requires
Falcon/TT or ST with Link '97
A large, fast hard drive preferably an AV-rated SCSI and 4Mb memory minimum

Pros
Great user interface. Everything you need, and more besides

Cons
Expensive, unacceptable copy protection method, only works with certain drive models, does not support rewritable modes

Score
89%
 
 

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