by Roger Nichols
Alea Systems has produced an inexpensive stand-alone CD duplicator. The basic model tested contained one Plextor 4x CD-ROM drive for reading source disc and one Yamaha CDR-100 4x CD recorder for producing the destination disc. A built-in keyboard and a two line LCD display are provided for entering commands and displaying results. SCSI connectors on the rear panel allow for direct connection of the internal CD-ROM and CD-R recorder to external computers. A 3 1/2" floppy drive is also provided for internal software updates.
Background
There seems to be a quest to fill up every blank CD-R that is manufactured. Multimedia companies use them for testing CD-ROM titles and shipping demo copies of there latest creation. Mastering facilities use them for reference discs for producers and artist to listen at home before sending CD-R masters to the CD plant. Companies with a lot of data to archive use CD-R for backup. Photo labs use CD-R to store images for photographers.
When the first CD-ROMs became available in the mid 80s, it seemed that you could never produce enough data to fill up one CD-ROM. You could purchase an entire encyclopedia on a single CD-ROM.
CD recorders became available about 1988. The first wide spread system was made by Yamaha and cost about $50,000 with software. In order to write data to the CD you needed to have a Sony PCM-1630 with 3/4 inch U-Matic (another $50,000) that played back the CD master tape for transfer to CD. Blank discs cost $85 each and the record company was charged about $300 for one CD copy of his master. We've come a long way baby.
Now, with blank CD prices hovering around $6, and three new CD-R production plants coming on line in the US near the beginning of 1997, we should be in much better shape for obtaining blank media.
CD-Blaster
With the CD blaster you can virtually place any format of audio CD or CD-ROM in the source drive, place a blank CD-R in the record drive, press GO, and in a few minutes, get an exact duplicate of your original. If you don't have a separate CD-R recorder, the CD-Blaster can be connected to your host computer via SCSI and the Yamaha 4x recorder built in to the CD Blaster can be used to create the master.
If you already own a CD-R recorder then you have probably had the same problem that I do. You are probably using the same computer for editing your project and cutting your CDs. This means that when you need multiple copies of one project you can't go on prepare the next project until all of the CDs are cut.
If you buy a second CD-R recorder, then you have to buy another computer, another monitor, and software to cut the CDs. You then have to decide how you are going to transfer the data over to the other computer to cut the CDs. The most efficient way would be to buy two Jazz drives and a bunch of blank media at $100 each.
With the CD-Blaster, you cut the master CD, place it in the CD-ROM drive, tell the CD-Blaster how many copies you want, and then go back to editing the next project. Each time the CD-Blaster beeps, you insert another CD-R blank and it makes another copy. Your productivity has at least doubled.
Formats
The CD-Blaster can duplicate just about anything you can throw at it. They include:
Mode 1: Single, Hybrid, Multisession and Mixed Mode.
CD-XA: Form 1 and Form 2, Single, Multisession, Mixed Mode and Photo CD
Philips, Goldstar and Video-CD.
CD-DA: up to 99 track IDs, Emphasis and copy bits, ISRC, Catalog, Index 0 and Count Down.
CD-Plus: Mode 1 and XA mixed modes.
Because of the internal SCSI pipeline architecture, it is possible for the CD-Blaster to make a direct copy from the source CD to the blank CD-R. The intelligent controller can determine if it is necessary to cache the source data to the internal hard disk before recording the new CD-R.
One scenario might be if the original disc contains scratches. In this case, the data may not be readable at 4x, so the source drive will slow down to 2x or 1x to make sure that the data is recovered accurately before the destination CD-R is burned. This data is spooled off to the hard disk and then transferred from there during the record cycle.
Additional Features
The CD-Blaster includes some utilities that add exponentially to its overall value.
One such utility is the Track Validator. Data that has been written onto a CD-R is compared bit for bit with the data on the source CD-ROM. If you need to make multiple copies of CD-ROM data for distribution, validation of the copies is a must.
CD-DA discs cannot be validated because of the track configuration of audio CDs. This is a fault of the format, not of the CD-Blaster. Blocks that are set aside for error correction and block addressing in CD-ROMs are used for additional audio data on CD-DA discs, so audio data cannot be addressed as accurately.
Scan CD is another brilliant utility. The source CD TOC (Table Of Contents) is read, then all CD tracks are scanned to determine their real length, format and block size. Any discrepancies are displayed on the display. It is nice to be able to see what you are dealing with when faced with unknown formats.
Commands
A quick overview of the available commands should round out our description of the CD-Blaster. All commands are entered by one or two keystrokes on the front panel keyboard.
Blast CD creates a track by track copy of any multiformat CD including audio tracks. This command takes advantage of the SCSI pipeline feature making it the fastest way to copy Audio CDs or Mixed Mode CDs. The track-at-once process used adds 2 seconds between cuts. The TOC of the copy is not the same as the original CD. This method works well if you are copying a few tracks from each of many CDs. You can mark which tracks from the original to copy.
CD to CD Copy is a Disk-at-Once copy of the original CD. The time map of the original is guaranteed. Data tracks are duplicated on the fly, or if the source is marginal, the copy is made from the cache file.
View CD Track Descriptor allows the user to see all tracks on the source CD together with their format and length. The built-in TOC editor lets the user tag only the tracks to be copied, edit their format and their length.
ESC+D displays all Orange Book parameters present in the information area of the CD-R. This command is used to determine if there is any more room on the CD-R for another session.
Included Software
The CD-Blaster comes with Red Roaster CD creation software. This is an excellent package for PC based CD cutting. Because of space limitations it will not be reviewed here. I as able to use Toast CD-DA and Toast CD-ROM Pro on a Mac to cut CDs with excellent results.
Conclusion
The CD-Blaster is an excellent machine and can save you a lot of time and hassle when you need to make multiple CDs of a project. The entire CD-Blaster costs less than what I paid for my Yamaha CDR-100 by itself one year ago.
There is also available a CD-Blaster Plus that contains three CD-R recorders for more demanding applications.
The CD-Blaster I had for review worked like a charm for three months
without so much as a hiccup. Good work, Alea.