[tlug] Audio CD Issues

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Regarding:

"All CD-R's written in Track At Once mode end in two unreadable run-out 
sectors. If the disk has been written with a Yamaha CD-R100 or with a 
Yamaha CD-R102, there are even more run-out sectors.  For this reason, 
you will not be able to read such a CD correctly with 'dd'"

- and:

"but I swear I my images never went bananas  :)  anyways yes, provably 
it is safer to use readcd."


Personally, I make audio CD's primarily to arrange the songs I like from 
several CD's onto one CD (cutting out the songs I don't like).  I've 
been doing this on and off for a few years on different hardware and 
with different software and I've noticed that some combinations (sorry, 
I don't have a precise record) of software & hardware produce disks that 
sound perfect, but some disks - while readable - have extremely 
irritating popping sounds that crop up every thirty seconds or so.

I had always assumed this mutation of the data was a software issue, but 
after seeing the quote about the Yamaha CD-R100/102, I am presented with 
the possibility that the hardware also will damage the data?

I did a fair amount of editing with analogue video about fourteen years 
ago (I *deeply* regret buying into the analogue Hi8 format - I should 
have waiting a few years for digital to come out!).  In the process of 
editing, I learned a bit about video at that time (I'm not up to speed 
with current digital video formats) and it seemed apparent that the 
method of video tape "copy-guard" was simply to damage the video signal 
so that it was just barely within what the corrective circuitry of 
televisions could correct.  Thus, when you copied the tape, the signal 
fell below the threshold of correctable errors and you got a heavily 
damaged signal.  In the case of originally made tapes out of my cameras 
(four of them, all of which burned out with distressing speed and 
regularity), the picture went from looking great to crummy in just one 
generation (unavoidable with analogue editing).

So - all that text above there to lead to this question:  Are the 
problems and barriers to recording good, pure, error-less sound put in 
place as a kind of copy-guard for digitally recorded music?

Another question - what CD-R disks are best to get?  Back when I was 
buying Hi8 tape, both magazine tests and my own experience showed that 
Fuji tapes were vastly superior to everything else, with good 
performance and far fewer dropouts (a real problem with analogue 8mm 
videotape).  I've had good luck with Fuji floppies and CD-R's... are 
they indeed (technically) good?  I recently bought some Uvator disks for 
the very stupid reason that they came in pretty colors and had that 
nostalgic "His Master's Voice" logo on them.  I'm having trouble with 
them not being readable at all or being partially readable (they'll 
begin okay but then hang up on a file) on several machines (but fine on 
others).  So - any suggestions as to which disks are best?

Sorry for what probably looks like drifting rambling, but actually the 
issue is a clear and concise one.  What's what with hardware, software, 
disks, and any other factors that influence the final outcome of 
recording audio.  A simple question, a complex playing field and 
obviously no simple answer, but any information anyone can provide on 
this subject would be greatly appreciated.

One more comparison - in the case of editing photos, when using the .tif 
format, you can edit, reedit, and reedit again as many times as you like 
without losing or damaging anything in the original data (beyond what 
you intentionally change that is).  I would like to do the same with 
music files.  Mutated data is extremely irritating!

Lyle