HW: Nova Drive Boot

[cjohnson]

       I have talked to someone who has a copy of what I think is the
       Nova Drive boot (I never caught the name).  He quoted me an
       incomplete tracklist, which included "Terra Mystica" (the only
       officially released song on the CD -- all others are from live
       shows).  I should have more info on the way, as I have been
       interested in doing a similar thing.

       The story I heard is this:
       A US HW Kollector picked several good quality "favorite" songs from
       his tape collection, and contracted with a company to press him a
       CD-Recordable.  This same fellow printed up some color inserts to
       go with the CDs.

       There are several companies in Goldmine that advertise this
       service.  I have called several for quotes; many are just some guy
       running a service out of his house.  The usual deal is a large
       amount of US$$ (typically $60 - $120 depending on the company) for
       the first CD, and a reduced price for every additional copy made
       (around $20-$30).  Part of the process usually involves some
       digital "cleaning up" of the music source, although some places
       charge extra for use of this skill/art.

       So, this guy is selectively selling the extra copies that he had
       made, along with his inserts.  The price I heard is about $30 each.
       I have not heard how many he actually had pressed, but you can bet
       that this is a VERY small run (perhaps only 5 or 10 extra copies).

       Of course, the hardest part of doing this is finding people to buy
       these copies from you...neither of the two people connected to this
       are "on-line".  And even if they were, there are still potential
       legal issues to worry about.

       ----------------------------------------------------------

       I myself am a Software Engineer who has just recently spent time
       getting a Pinnacle Micro CD-Recorder working, so that my company
       can start shipping our software on CD.  I have successfully burned
       UNIX and Windows CDs, as well as a one-off copy of Myst.  ;^)

       I am using a UNIX system.  I have already tried using a P90 PCI PC
       to burn CD-Rs with *no* success; I conclude that I will have to buy
       about $1500 worth of high-speed AV hard disk in order to do it
       without error.  I have even purchased "Wave For Windows", which has
       a (non-file-size-limited) ability to adjust, modify, and "clean-up"
       a WAV file, once I have recorded an audio tape to hard disk.

       All to no avail...  :-(

       If you want to make your own music CD (the most difficult of all
       CDs to burn), it may be easiest to do what the above guy did --
       make one for yourself, and subsidize your cost by selling a few
       copies.  Any additional insights on this subject are appreciated.

       Captain Cloud