CD-R quality (was Re: Shameless CDR vs CD questions)

[trev]

valuable info paul, thanks

i'm about to order Taiyo Yuden Full-Face Silver Printable 52x CD-R
and some taiyo dvds, and some lovely mail envelopes, and some more ink 
cartridges

an ad is coming into my mind involving a samurai warrior and mike coleman, 
who is playing the part of a taiwanese churl...
..or the battleship yamato, and a taiwanese rowing boat (with mike coleman 
rowing)
hmmmmmmmmmm

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Mather" <paul at GROMIT.DLIB.VT.EDU>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: CD-R quality (was Re: Shameless CDR vs CD questions)


> On 12 Feb 2008, at 12:31 PM, trev wrote:
>
>> hi paul,
>>
>> i used to use verbatim data life plus. the last lot were on data write
>> i burn them one at a time at16 x on a 52 x burner (nero burning rom)
>> then print the on-body on an epson photo r265.
>> i also print, cut out, assemble the covers by hand
>> each cd takes 15 mins to produce, not counting the 20 -30 hours or  so 
>> to, master tracks, design cover etc
>>
>> the amount i sell on rfm makes it uneconomical to mass-produce
>>
>> most emergent bands who play at green festivals (real festival music 
>> bands) find it uneconomical to produce anything but cdrs
>>
>> i think it's better to sell cdr's than to not have your music heard, 
>> apart from live performances, which would be the choice for a lot of  of 
>> these bands
>
> I agree with you entirely.  CD-Rs are a great way to beat the  economics 
> of scale that work against you when trying to do pressed CD  runs. 
> Digital downloads are becoming another way for bands to get the  music out 
> there, too, but the infrastructure requirement may be more  than emergent 
> bands can manage.
>
> I did hear recently of one band selling "instant live"-type recordings  at 
> gigs on USB sticks!  (I forget the name of the band.)  It's good  that 
> there are different ways of getting the music out there.
>
>> i'll be buying jap cdrs from now on...are there any other jap  branded 
>> makes that you can recommend.
>> cdrs are now so cheap that it's madness to buy any but the best
>
> I used to buy Mitsui CD-Rs, which used to be the "gold standard" for 
> CD-Rs, especially Mitsui Golds.  But, I don't know if they're still up 
> there nowadays.  (I heard their foray into DVD media got a bit of a 
> drubbing, quality-wise, so maybe they've let things slip.)
>
> Taiyo Yuden's always consistently seem to be mentioned at or near the  top 
> of the quality leagues, so I just stick with them (mainly I buy  DVD media 
> these days, though).  Their popularity has usually meant  people trying to 
> find re-branded versions of them at cheaper prices.   It used to be that 
> Fuji CD-Rs used to be made by Taiyo Yuden and boxed  and branded by Fuji, 
> which made them pretty easy to find in retail  shops for a while.  Better 
> than that, places like Best Buy would often  have them on special, so you 
> could buy Taiyo Yuden blanks for really  knock down prices. 
> Unfortunately, Fuji moved their disc manufacture  to someone else, in 
> Taiwan, and the good times ended.
>
> Some manufacturers (fabrication plants) have varied in quality over  time, 
> so I guess it's hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff.  For  example, 
> CMC Magnetics and Ritek used to source for LOADS of brands,  and the 
> quality of the discs was terrible.  (In fact, Philips  threatened Ritek 
> with a cease-and-desist over being able to use the  "CD Recordable" logo 
> on their media because it was so poor with  regards to the spec.)  But, I 
> heard that Ritek, at least, got their  act together better and improved 
> quality so they're not so awful as  they once were.  But, like I said, 
> Taiyo Yuden (remember the "That's"  brand of cassettes you used to be able 
> to buy cheap at Richer  Sounds?---that's Taiyo Yuden:) consistently get 
> the thumbs up---so  much so that there are several "How to spot fake Taiyo 
> Yuden" articles  you can search for on the Web. :-)
>
>> i buy from svp communications (blankdiscshop)
>
> They appear to sell Taiyo Yudens: 
> http://svp.co.uk/products-list.php?bid=29
>
> The good thing about their CD-R listings is they list the manufacturer  ID 
> code of the disc, so you can see if your favourite brand is  apparently 
> made by Taiyo Yuden.  (Unfortunately, this is just what the  disc is 
> claiming as the manufacturer, and not necessarily that of the  true 
> manufacturer, but usually it is.)
>
> I bought my last lot of discs from DVDshoponline: 
> http://www.dvdshoponline.co.uk/Taiyo-Yuden.html
>
> Thanks for the SVP nod, though, as I might try them next time.
>
>> a commercial re-release of max effect is on the cards soon...maybe
>
> Trev, you've just made my day!  That's the best news I've heard for a 
> while.
>
> Let's hope "maybe" turns into "definitely."
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul.
>
> e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu
>
> "Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
>  deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
>         --- Frank Vincent Zappa
>