by Roger Nichols
I have had my Marantz CDR-610 audio CD recorder for about three years, and
of course all I wanted to record was CD-ROMs. Foiled again. I just couldn't
justify the cost of having two CD recorders, until the Pinnacle Micro RCD-1000
came along. At a list price of $1,295 a CD recorder becomes a reasonable
choice for backing up large hard disks that get cluttered with sample files.
I have a lot of sample CDs that I have purchased for Sample Cell, but as
usual, there are only a few samples on each CD that I use regularly. I transferred
my favorite samples from the various CDs to an empty partition on my hard
disk, arranged them they way I wanted, made instruments for Sample Cell,
and then copied the whole mess to one CD with the RCD-1000. Now when I have
a new project that I am working on, I load my custom CD-ROM into the Mac
CD-ROM drive and I'm in business. If you don't have a CD-ROM drive, keep
in mind that besides recording at 2x normal speed, the RCD-1000 will also
provide 2x playback of existing CD-ROMs.
The RCD-1000 comes with software for creating discs in HFS, ISO 9660, disk
image, file image or audio (CD-DA) formats. The RCD-1000 will also produce
multi-session disks, but not the same type as produced by audio recorders
such as the Marantz. The RCD-1000 will write the table of contents after
the first session and finish the disk. Any subsequent data is written with
an auxiliary table of contents at the end of the first session. Multisession
software that reads this type of disk will place each session as a new icon
on your desktop.
There is a limit to the number of files that you can write to the RCD-1000
in one session. I thought that a 12,000 file limit would not be a problem
until I tried to back up a 700 megabyte hard disk. The file count soared
beyond 21,000. I had to back up to two separate CDs. I later found out that
he way around this is to build a disk image that is copied to the RCD-1000
without regard to the number of files involved.
The RCD-1000 has 1megabyte of buffer memory which is very important when
writing CDs. Once you start the writing process, you cannot stop without
ruining the CD. IF the Hard disk has a little trouble getting to the next
sector, the data keeps writing to CD from the buffer memory. If the buffer
is small, chances are that the buffer may empty (underrun) before the computer
can catch up. Having a large buffer increases the chances that your CD will
be written without problems.
After the novelty of storing everything on every computer I ever owned to
CD, I calmed down enough to tackle writing some audio CDs. For the test
I used the same material I used for the "Record Company in Your Basement"
article. Each CD was about 46 minutes long. One of them had 11 tunes while
the other one had ten tunes. I started the RCD-1000 software, opened up
the folder containing the audio files to record (Sound Designer II format)
and drug them to the audio track window in the order that I wanted them
to appear on the CD. I selected audio CD from the FORMAT menu and clicked
CREATE. It only took 23 minutes to make a 46 minute CD.
You must select the amount of time between cuts on an audio CD with the
RCD-1000. The choices are .5, 1, 1.5, and 2 seconds. You cannot write an
audio CD on the RCD-1000 that has continuous audio between cuts. If this
is a must, then there will not be a start ID between these cuts. I also
found out that the tunes are written to the audio CD in alphabetical order
and not the order in which you placed them in the audio tracks window. To
get the cuts in the right order, I just appended the cut number to the front
of the file name and wrote another one. Perfect the second time.
The CD-ROM disk that I submitted to EQ for the "Record Company in Your
Basement" article was made on the RCD-1000. I have cranked out about
a dozen CD-ROMs and they have read on every CD-ROM drive I could get my
hands on. The Audio CDs have played back with no problems either.
Blank CDs are now cheaper than DAT tapes or computer backup tapes. For an
archiving medium that is hard to beat, and audio CDs that you can produce
twice as fast as a DAT copy, consider a Pinnacle Micro RCD-1000 as your
next project studio purchase. For all of you members of the Gear Sluts Club,
at a street price of around $1500, that's almost the same as being free.
So there is no reason to wait, right?