[Johny B Good]

On Fri, 05 Nov 2010 21:01:51 -0000, James wrote:

System here is Windows XP, Home Edition. I use Nero Burning Rom 6
to
duplicate Music Cd's. (It has a simple "copy" function).

The music is beautiful, except that I get occasional "pops" in the
music.
Not on every track and not real frequent, but enough to put a damper on
a
nice album.

Before I burn a duplicate cd, I reboot the computer, and then I don't run
any other programs while I am making the cd copy. I just have no idea
where these pops come from, and would love to be able to make a cd
without
them if possible.

Can someone help me on this please ??

Thanks in advance for any help you may give !!

James



Audio CD players aren't designed to cope with the step changes of
'contrast' that result from the CAV method of burning a CD-R at maximum
write speed where the data rate (and the laser power) is increased in
steps as the burn progresses towards the end of the track. To avoid this
particular problem with audio CD copies, you need to force the writing
software to use a CLV algorithm by selecting a speed slow enough to allow
the data rate and laser power level to remain the same from beginning to
end.

The usual rule of thumb is to pick a speed no greater than one third the
limit of the burner's maximum writing speed capability for the media type
(CD-R or CD-RW). Note, if you were writing to 12x speed rated CD-RW media
on a burner capable of writing to a max speed of 36 times for faster rated
CD-RW media, you can safely choose 12x speed in this case.

As others have pointed out, it is important to use CD ripping software
which creates an image file on the hard drive and has an audio ripping
option which is optimised to minimise reading errors. I've used CloneCD to
good effect in times past.

CloneCD (and other good CD ripping software)will re-read bad sectors,
reducing read speed if necessary in order to achieve a 'perfect' image.
This means it may take a bit longer to generate the image file than it
would to do an On-The-Fly copy with other less capable software. In this
instance, even an extra 45 minutes spent on obtaining the 'perfect image'
is time well spent and is not considered a detriment.

To help this process run at maximum speed, I'd advise that you make sure
the source CD is clean beforehand. A greasy thumbprint can often mean the
difference between a perfect copy and a less than perfect one.

An effective way of cleaning such greasy marks off any CD is to wash it
in tepid water with ordinary soap and then dry with a fresh towel,
applying gentle strokes in a radial direction to minimise the small risk
of creating a tangental scratch from possible contamination of the soft
towel by a small piece of grit. Scratches across the spiral track will
result in correctable errors whilst scratches along the track are almost
certain to produce uncorrectable errors.

On-The-Fly copying is deprecated by all who take the art of perfect
copying to its limits. Your best chance of getting a perfect duplicate is
to create an image file onto the hard disk from which to burn the
duplicate disk(s). This frees the source disk read process from any time
constraints that apply in disk to disk copying, allowing a reading
algorithm that can concentrate on obtaining an error free image.

The way to achieve this on systems with more than one optical drive is to
tell the burning software to specify the writer as the source drive. This
leaves the burning software no choice but to create an intermediate image
on the hard drive.

Another little gotcha when burning optical disks, is the sensitivity of
the actual burning process to mechanical disturbances. This can range from
banging a fist on the desk the PC is resting on (or a bump to the case
from a careless elbow) to heavy footfalls on a springy wooden floor
rattling the PC perched on a desk resting on said floor.

Counter to what microsoft might have you believe, burning an optical disk
is a little more specialised a process than making copies of files onto a
hard disk or floppy disk. You ignore this fact at your peril.

--
Regards JB Good