Can I Listen To It?

As we said previously, recording audio takes preparation. We must make this careful preparation if our desire is to have a good finished product that pleases the EAR. Sometimes people get inpatient with my desire to learn the rules of good audio recording. As with all things rules can be broken and shortcuts can be made. However, to be able to break rules and to make shortcuts you must know what the rules are and how to apply them. If you don't have the discipline of knowing and working the rules, the end result will always be less than QUALITY work!

One of the cornerstones of this type of recording is to know that the fastest recording, isn't always the best. Audio is the easiest thing for the CD-ROM or CD-R to read, but the hardest to record. Unlike data recording, audio recording amplifies any defects. With practice and preparation one may record audio at 4X or greater speed, however most people will find it more productive to record at 2X or 1X speed.

Another thing about audio recording that one needs to know is that multisession isn't a good overall option. Multisession occurs when you record something at one setting and then with available on the CD you then add another session to the same CD. For data this is acceptable and generally the norm. With audio, however, it will produce a CD which will play erratically on a home or car stereo if it will play at all. You can record to an audio CD more that once, but you can only do that if you record with the leave session open option. The key term here is session. In the strictest CD recording sense a session mean you open the session, you write the material and then you close the session. With the previously mentioned option we don't have a session, because it is still opened. All that has happened is that we opened it and wrote the audio track(s) and have not closed it. When we write the last track(s) we will close the session, and with audio we actually do this by closing the disk as well. Closing the disk allows the CD to play successfully on the home or car stereo. The CD may have been written to several times, but we actually only have one session with this method.

Other equipment on the computer can have a great affect on how the CD-R works. For example, if the CD-R is a SCSI and several devices are attached on the SCSI chain, there may be too much of a drain on the CPUs resources to get a good recording. If your recordings are flawed and you aren't sure why, try detaching any hardware which can be disconnected until you get a good recording. Of course, this is only a temporary solution. When you find the combination that allows a good recording, you will then have to determine how all of the equipment can then be hooked up so it all can be used without unhooking any of it.

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