About Rob Evans Expertise Questions on all aspects of Computers and Music production. Setting up and using a computer based recording studio. Sound editiing. Creating Music CD`s and DVD`s. Software for recording and mastering and all of the pitfalls that you will come across.
Experience 31 Years of playing guitar, bass & keyboard and as a vocalist, in many bands. I have a huge amount of knowledge on all aspects of music and music production. 15 years in IT has given me the necessary skills to apply the power of computers to music.
Publications Local Papers; Evening Mail, Sutton Coldfield Observer
Education/Credentials Graduate of London's Guitar Institute
Graduate of London's Musicians Institute
Studied all grades of music, classical and contemporary
HP Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE)
Accredited Platform Specialist (APS) Proliant BL30e Blade Servers , Rapid Deployment and Integration
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) ? NT4 Server in the Enterprise
Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA) ? Metaframe XP 1.0
Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE)
Accredited Compaq Technician (ACT) ? Proliant Server, NT Performance
and Integration, Systems Management
Wyse Terminals Winterm Sales Certification, General Information Certification
HP Sales Star Associate (HPSSA)
Toshiba Laptop and Desktop Accredited Technician (TPCMP-A/ii)
Question Theres only one problem. I dont want to use the WMA format. I want to have authentic backups of my cds on my harddrive. My question is the following. Is an image copy the best I can have? And is there a difference between nrg image and iso image files in terms of having an accurate copy of ones audio cd on a harddrive?
Also at present instead of mp3 I am using wav files I can listen to. Are the wav files I am making from my audio cd as good quality as what is on the cd?
Thank you again,
Jon
ollowup To
Question -
Hi Rob,
Having dealt with Gary before regarding these types of questions I was not sure if it would be appropriate to ask you about this topic.
I was wondering. I am looking to make backups of my cd collection onto my harddrive. I was wondering what the best way to do this was?
I had tried making wav files out of individual songs; however sometimes that can be a problem especially when the album is not spaced in a traditional way with silence in between songs. I had been using dppoweramp nevertheless for this and it seemed to work out ok under the circumstances. However, I would still like to save the entire cd as a backup including extras on each cd that may be offered.
Someone had mentioned to me that making an image copy onto the harddrive of the audio cd might be the best thing I could do. Since I am using Nero; I would need to use the NRG format to do that rather than a standard ISO image file. I have noticed however that the NRG image file is slightly different in size than the cd audio "files" or songs themselves.
What do you think would be the best way for me to make an exact backup copy onto my harddrive (if possible) or at least the next best thing?
Answer -
Hi Jon,
This is a bit of a tricky one, as many record company's have developed s/w front ends to music CD's to prevent you being able to copy them on to your HDD and play them. The best way to do what you want, is to use Media Player to rip the CD's to your HDD. They will be ripped in a format called WMA (Windows media audio) and you can set the quality to whatever you choose. I recommend 128bit compression as there is very little loss of signal. If you use the lastest version of Windows Media Player (v10) you can get even better quality by using variable bit rates etc. The only drawback is that the the files stored on your HDD are much bigger than the Std WMA file. To Rip the CD to your HDD place the CD in your machine, Click on RIP from the buttons at the top of the player and it will begin to convert and save the files. If you click find album info, the player will get data on the CD you are ripping like the track names and the album art work. Once you have ripped the CD you can listen to it on your computer. If you want to create a copy of your CD, you click on BURN and select the CD/Tracks that you want to copy. The player will then reverse-converts the WMA files to CD Audio again and burns them on to CD as standard CD audio, which you can then play on any player (that accepts CD-R's. This is great as you can keep the original CD's in their cases and only use copied one's.
Any further questions let me know.
Hope this helps
Rob
Answer An image of the disc is about the best you will get as you are not able to remove and copyright protection. The NRG and ISO images are exactly the same in terms of digital content, it's only the file standard that is different, and as such there is no loss off quality. You just would not be able to play an NRG in most CD players.
WAV's are waveforms, they are the raw sound that is converted into digital code and put on a CD. If you play a CD and record the music off it using recording software such as Cool Edit, Sonar, Cubase etc. the sound quality of the final recording will be slightly reduced depending on the equipment and software you are using. If you have high quality mastering hardware and software, very often, the quality of what you record can be greater than the original. Unless you have this type of equipment, the quality will degrade, as you have to take it out of the digital arena, initally, when you record it.
Regards
Rob
