I purchased a standalone CD recorder for the sole purpose
of capturing the audio from an extensive vinyl record
collection and transferring it to my computer. I play
the records on a nice turntable/preamp and save to CDR.
Then I go to my computer, rip the tracks, and compress
to MP3 format for archival and playback. That way I
can enjoy my music without wearing out my originals.

The price of the "audio CDR" media is eating my lunch,
and it really burns me since I own the original vinyl
and therefore have already paid my "RIAA Tax".

Is there some identifying data on these media that I
can pre-burn onto regular fifteen-cent CDRs, so that
my recorder will work with them?

thanks,

Martin

The price of the "audio CDR" media is eating my lunch,
and it really burns me since I own the original vinyl
and therefore have already paid my "RIAA Tax".

Is there some identifying data on these media that I
can pre-burn onto regular fifteen-cent CDRs, so that
my recorder will work with them?

The information which distinguishes an "unrestricted" (consumer-audio)
disc from a "restricted use, general purpose" (computer data) CD-R
blank is physically molded into the groove structure on the disc.
It's stored as a set of horizontal modulations in the groove's spiral
path. The same method is used to store other information, such as the
disc dye type, recommended laser-burning power and algorithm, and the
total storage size of the disc.

There's no way to alter the groove shape without destroying the disc.
You cannot simply overwrite or replace the existing identifiers.

I'd suggest that you shop around... the price differential between
computer and consumer-audio discs has come down a lot over the past
few years. You may be able to find a mail-order source for the
consumer-audio blanks with better pricing than you're paying locally.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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