Recording Music on DVD vs CD

inspiredsports

I occasionally create CD's from my kids iPod mp3's and the quality is obviously less than stellar. I use DVD and even Blu Ray to play them on a couple of my systems for replay.

QUESTION: Is there a sound quality benefit to be had by recording on a blank DVD instead of a blank CD? I know the amount of data stored in the mp3 file is the same, but just wondered if the denser media would sound better.

comfortablycurt

I've wondered this before too actually.

I know they make specific "Music CD-R's" that are supposed to be optimized for music, and can't hold data files. The last time I bought blank CD's I picked up some of these instead of regular CD-R's. I want to say that the sound quality is a little better maybe? That could just be the individual recordings though to. I need to try burning the same album onto a regular CD-R and one of the Music CD-R's and see which one sounds better. Might give that a try tomorrow.

inspiredsports

I guess it's easy enough to do the experiment, I just thought I'd get the group's consensus before I invested the time.

John30_30

inspiredsports wrote: »

I occasionally create CD's from my kids iPod mp3's and the quality is obviously less than stellar. I use DVD and even Blu Ray to play them on a couple of my systems for replay.

QUESTION: Is there a sound quality benefit to be had by recording on a blank DVD instead of a blank CD? I know the amount of data stored in the mp3 file is the same, but just wondered if the denser media would sound better.

No. Putting mp3's on Blu Ray is putting lipstick on a pig. The media is not the problem.

Johnson100

You can try an best audio recording software.

timlitton

This is kind of like asking whether water tastes better from a shot glass or a bucket. They are containers of varying size.

You're results for 2 channel audio would be more dependent on the way the music was encoded (and by playback hardware). Transfer rates are usually set by the audio file format during authoring and playback rates are more than adequate on any of the three formats - even taking into account formats that have variable bit rates. CD's are limited more by size than throughput and except for redbook (standard audio CD's), are open to store FLAC, MP3, AAC, WAV - ANY data you can encode and later decode.

Danny Tse

comfortablycurt wrote: »

I know they make specific "Music CD-R's" that are supposed to be optimized for music, and can't hold data files. The last time I bought blank CD's I picked up some of these instead of regular CD-R's. I want to say that the sound quality is a little better maybe? That could just be the individual recordings though to. I need to try burning the same album onto a regular CD-R and one of the Music CD-R's and see which one sounds better. Might give that a try tomorrow.

You're paying extra for the "Music CD-R" to cover fees paid to the publishers of the music. That's it. I personally used these "Music CD-R" as well, going as far as buying only those made in Japan and burning my CD at the lowest possible speed on my CD burner.

On a related note, why don't you try the black CD-Rs (black color on the data side)? They've been known to produce slightly better sound quality.

comfortablycurt

Danny Tse wrote: »

You're paying extra for the "Music CD-R" to cover fees paid to the publishers of the music. That's it. I personally used these "Music CD-R" as well, going as far as buying only those made in Japan and burning my CD at the lowest possible speed on my CD burner.

On a related note, why don't you try the black CD-Rs (black color on the data side)? They've been known to produce slightly better sound quality.

I didn't pay any more for them than I would have otherwise. They were the same price as the regular CD-R's were.

I've tried those black CD-R's before and wasn't to happy with them...it seemed like they'd only play in about half of the CDP's I tried putting them in. I forget what brand they were...Memorex maybe.

inspiredsports

timlitton wrote: »

This is kind of like asking whether water tastes better from a shot glass or a bucket. They are containers of varying size.

You're results for 2 channel audio would be more dependent on the way the music was encoded (and by playback hardware). Transfer rates are usually set by the audio file format during authoring and playback rates are more than adequate on any of the three formats - even taking into account formats that have variable bit rates. CD's are limited more by size than throughput and except for redbook (standard audio CD's), are open to store FLAC, MP3, AAC, WAV - ANY data you can encode and later decode.

That makes sense to me. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a "cheap cotton versus silk sheets" analogy. If its simply the size of the container, I'll stick with basic CD when I have to stoop to this level. I'm currently dramatically expanding my SACD and 180 gram vinyl collection and clearly understand and appreciate the quality, I just wanted to give the occasional burned disc the best advantage if DVD made a difference.

Thanks to all for all of the fine opinions!

John30_30

comfortablycurt wrote: »

I didn't pay any more for them than I would have otherwise. They were the same price as the regular CD-R's were.

I've tried those black CD-R's before and wasn't to happy with them...it seemed like they'd only play in about half of the CDP's I tried putting them in. I forget what brand they were...Memorex maybe.

You can put data on music cd's. They're shining you on. huh-huh.
I've also heard that the black media are best, maybe because there's no unwanted reflection of the laser light? There was a thread around here not too long ago on that also.

mmadden28

Danny Tse wrote: »

You're paying extra for the "Music CD-R" to cover fees paid to the publishers of the music. ....

So who decides which publishers get those fees?

comfortablycurt

John30_30 wrote: »

You can put data on music cd's. They're shining you on. huh-huh.
I've also heard that the black media are best, maybe because there's no unwanted reflection of the laser light? There was a thread around here not too long ago on that also.

How are they "shining me on" if they cost exactly the same price? It also says right on the package, "these discs are not capable of holding data. They are specially designed for music"...or something to that affect anyway. Granted, I've never tried putting data on them, so maybe you can. I'm not to worried about it either way though.

I burnt a CD onto one of the Music CD-r's, and also burnt the same CD onto a music/data CD-r...I compared the two of them, and there was definitely a discernable difference. The volume was much higher on the music cd-r for one thing...the clarity was also much improved, especially on higher notes. They seemed to break up a little bit more on the data CD's...where as they came through a lot more smoothly on the music CD's.

Also, I just gave those black CD-R's another try a few days ago, cuz I still had some lying around from a long time ago. I still wasn't happy with them. They played in my main system...but when I tried them in my bedroom system. Nothing. Wouldn't load. I've had the same problem with those CD-r's basically every time I've used them, and I've never had those problems with any other kind of CD-r...so I think I'll be giving away the few that I have left, and never buy them again.

Johnson100

Just try FlexiMusic Audio Recorder for recording audio, its sounds qulaity will be better in DVd or cds.

BlueFox

comfortablycurt wrote: »

How are they "shining me on" if they cost exactly the same price? It also says right on the package, "these discs are not capable of holding data. They are specially designed for music"...or something to that affect anyway. Granted, I've never tried putting data on them, so maybe you can. I'm not to worried about it either way though.

Music, in digital form, is data. When the bits are extracted, and decoded, they turn into music. Other bits turn into pictures, text files, TCP/IP traffic, or whatever. The CD could care less what the bits do once they leave the CD.

comfortablycurt

BlueFox wrote: »

Music, in digital form, is data. When the bits are extracted, and decoded, they turn into music. Other bits turn into pictures, text files, TCP/IP traffic, or whatever. The CD could care less what the bits do once they leave the CD.

Alright...then maybe you can put data on them. I've never tried, as I have no use for putting data on CD's right now. I'm still not really to worried about it in either case though anyway.

All I know, is that there was a definite difference in sound quality. That could have just been the general quality of the CD-R though I suppose. Both the "data" CD-r and the "music" CD-r were the same brand though, so I don't know if that was the case or not.

Tanquen

Different blank discs can use different chemicals and layer materials to improve how well the data is written and how long it may last but CD s, DVDs, HD-DVDs BR discs will never sound any better unless you are using a file format with a higher bit rate and less compression. If you use the same Raw CD Audio or MP3 or WAV file on any of the discs it will sound the same as it is the same file.

Music CD-R vs. Data CD-R: Is There A Difference?

http://www.musicedmagic.com/computers/music-cd-r-vs.-data-cd-r-is-there-a-difference.html