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Subject: [3] How Do I...
(1998/04/06)

This is general information about recommended ways to do specific tasks.

Subject: [3-1] How do I copy a CD-ROM?
(2002/12/02)

Just about every piece of CD recording software comes with a CD copier.
In some cases it's a stand-alone extra, in some it's integrated with
other features, and in a few cases the software does nothing else.

Most disc copying software will allow you to make a CD image on a hard
drive that can then be written to multiple CDs.  A few will allow you
to record the same image to multiple CD recorders simultaneously (see
section (3-17)).

It's important to remember that, when copying directly from one CD to
another, the source MUST be faster than the target, and must be
error-free.  If the source pauses or spins down to read a marginal area of
the disc, the target may outrun the source, and the CD-R will only be
useful as a frisbee.  Most programs have a "test write" feature that put
the CD-R device into a mode where it goes through all the motions but
doesn't actually write anything; it's a good idea to do this right before
copying something for the first time.

If you're wondering about copying Mac CD-ROMs on a PC or vice-versa, see
section (3-50).

Some suggestions for software good at copying a variety of discs:

  CloneCD (6-1-49)
    Very good at copying difficult (esp. copy-protected) discs.
  CDRWIN (6-1-7)
    Good at copying discs, also very nice for fancy audio CDs.
  Disc Juggler (6-1-27)
    Can copy to more than one device at a time.
  CDRDAO (6-1-47)
    Runs under a wide variety of operating systems.

For copying simple audio CDs and un-protected CD-ROMs, standard
applications like Nero or Toast will work just fine.

See section (2-4) for more information about copy protection, section
(3-51) for the details on "RAW" reads, and (3-4) for some notes on game
console discs.

Subject: [3-1-1] Why can't I just do a block copy like a floppy?
(1998/04/06)

CDs don't have circular tracks.  They're laid out on a spiral, with
multiple sessions composed of multiple tracks composed of sectors, and the
data in the sectors is interleaved and spread over a large area.  The
sector format is standard, but there's more than one standard.

 "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from."
 -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, _Computer Networks_, 2nd ed, p.254

The ability to read certain portions of a CD depends on the CD firmware.
Some CD players aren't capable of understanding multi-session discs or of
reading audio tracks as digital data.  Jitter, described in section (2-15),
is also a problem for some drives.

See also section (3-42) on "bit-for-bit" copies.

Subject: [3-2] How do I extract tracks from ("rip") or copy an audio CD?
(2002/12/09)

Start with the CD-DA FAQ [once at http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~psyche/cdda/,
currently missing?]  Take a look at http://come.to/cdspeed to see if your
CD-ROM drive is up to the task.  EAC, from http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/,
is often recommended for extracting ("ripping") audio tracks.

To copy from CD to CD, the source drive needs to support digital audio
extraction, which is rare among older drives but universal in current
models.  Ideally, the copy program will use disc-at-once recording to
produce a duplicate that mimics the original as closely as possible.
As with copying CD-ROMs, you must be able to read data off of the source
drive faster than your recorder is writing.  If you can only extract audio
at 1x, you're not going to be able to do a CD-to-CD copy reliably.

If you're just interested in extracting digital audio, you don't even need
a CD-R unit, just a CD-ROM drive that supports Digital Audio Extraction
(DAE) and some software.  The CD-DA sites noted at the top of this section
list drives that support DAE, have software to evaluate your existing
drive, and have links to several different DAE applications.

Different drives can extract digital audio at different speeds.  For
example, the Plextor 6Plex can extract audio at 6x, while the NEC 6Xi can
only extract at 1x.  Most recent drives extract at well over 20x, which
is about the limit for an IDE drive that doesn't support DMA.

Some CD-ROM and CD-R drives have trouble extracting digital audio at high
speed, so if you're getting lots of clicks and pops when extracting you
should try doing it at a slower speed.  You may also run into trouble if
you try to extract faster than your hard drive can write.  One user found
that he was able to eliminate clicks and pops by defragmenting his hard
drive.  Another found that the Win95 "vcache" fix (section (4-1-2)) solved
his problems.

It should be pointed out that, while digitally extracted audio is an exact
copy of the data on the CD, it's an exact copy as your CD player perceives
it.  Different drives or different runs with the same drive can extract
slightly different data from the same disc.  The differences are usually
inaudible, however.  Some newer drives will report the number of
uncorrectable errors encountered, so you can get a sense for how accurate
the extraction really is.

The quality of the audio on the duplicate CD-R, given a high-quality
extraction, depends mostly on how well your CD player gets along with the
brand of media you're using.  See the next section for some comments about
avoiding clicks and pops.

Some older drives have trouble starting at the exact start of audio tracks.
The extraction starts a few blocks forward of where it should, and ends a
few blocks later, so the track may not sound quite right and the extraction
program will report errors at the end of the last track.  See section (4-19).

The Lite-On LTN483S 48x CD-ROM drive has a fairly unique bit of brain
damage: it doesn't extract the last two seconds of a track correctly.
This is only apparent on audio CDs with a "cold stop", where the music
plays right up to the very end of the track.  If the track has two seconds
of silence at the end, there are no apparent problems.  Apparently
there is a firmware fix for this (the PD03 update), available from
http://support.euro.dell.com/de/de/filelib/download/index.asp?fileid=...
or http://support.dell.com/us/en/filelib/download/index.asp?fileid=R20664.

One minor note: the data on audio CDs is stored in "Motorola" big-endian
format, with the high byte of each 16-bit word first.  AIFF files also use
this format, but WAV files use "Intel" little-endian format.  Make sure
your software deals with the endian-flipping correctly.  Byte-swapped CD
audio sounds like "static".

Subject: [3-2-1] How do I remove the voice from a CD track, leaving just music?
(2003/11/29)

A common reason for wanting to do this is to have a disc that can be sung
along with, either for personal practice or for karaoke.  There isn't a
perfect method for doing this, but it's possible to get close with some CDs.

Music is generally recorded in independent tracks and then mixed into a
balanced whole.  The recording studio can create masters with or without
the vocals, which is where a "clean" karaoke source comes from.  The music
is usually recorded in stereo, and the vocals in mono (the singer has one
microphone).  The mixed result has slightly different signals on the left
and right channels for the music, but the same signal on both channels
for the vocals.  By removing all signal components that are equal on the
left and right channels, the vocals can be removed with relatively little
distortion of the music.  This is called "center channel elimination".

This doesn't always work out in practice.  If the track in question doesn't
keep the vocals "centered", all bets are off.  Many musicians apply effects
to the vocals to achieve a certain effect -- often, to make it sound like
they can sing better than they actually can.  These effects aren't usually
"centered", so part of the voice remains.

Center channel elimination can be done with a good sound editor, such as
Cool Edit 2000 or GoldWave.  The procedure to follow with Cool Edit is:

 - Extract the CD track into a WAV file.
 - Load the WAV file into Cool Edit.
 - Create a new window with no WAV file in it (File->New...).  Set the
   settings at 44.1KHz 16-bit *mono*.
 - Switch back to the original WAV file (with the "Window" menu).
 - Select the entire left channel in the original WAV file.  If you move
   the mouse to the top of the WAV display area, the mouse cursor gets a
   little 'L' next to it.  Pick a spot near the middle of the screen,
   left click, and drag all the way to the left edge.  Then move the cursor
   back to the middle, right click, and drag all the way to the right edge.
   You should now have the entire left channel selected.
 - Select "copy".  Switch to the new WAV file, and select "paste".  Switch
   back to the original.
 - Move the mouse cursor near the bottom of the WAV graphic until the mouse
   pointer gets an 'R' next to it, and select the entire right channel the
   way you did the left.
 - Select "copy".  Switch to the new WAV file.  From the Edit menu, select
   "Mix paste...".
 - Select "Overlap (Mix)", volume of 100, and check the "Invert" checkbox.
   Click "OK".

GoldWave now includes a "Reduce Vocals" feature.  Simply extract the CD
track into a WAV file and select it from the Effects menu.

The result is a single track with the center channel removed.  Hit the
"play" button and see what it sounds like.

The converse operation -- extracting the vocals and deleting the music --
is not currently possible.  (If you express the situation mathematically,
the problem is one of three variables in two equations.  The software
needs a new feature that subtracts tracks and retains the other part.)

Subject: [3-2-2] How do I encode a CD track to MP3?
(2003/08/11)

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Subject: [6] Software
(2005/07/24)

On the PC, DOS and all versions of Windows (from 3.1) work just fine.

On the Macintosh, you should use System 7.x or later.

UNIX variants, such as FreeBSD and Linux, work, but can be more difficult
to use for neophytes.  The support in recent versions of Linux is pretty
good.

Subject: [6-1] Which software should I use?
(2002/01/04)

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for: the more expensive software
has more features.  However, this isn't always the case, and the software
with more features isn't necessarily more useful or more reliable.

There's little standardization among CD-R drive manufacturers, so not
all devices are supported by all programs.  This has changed somewhat
with the development of the MMC specification, but deviations from the
standard are not uncommon.

On the PC, if you're new to CD-R, start with Ahead's Nero (6-1-28) or
Roxio's Easy CD Creator Deluxe (6-1-26).  If you just want to "back up"
CD-ROMs try CloneCD, and if you want good "backups" and lots of flexbility
when creating audio CDs go with CDRWIN.  If you want to write to a disc as
if it were a floppy, try Roxio's DirectCD (included with ECDC; see section
(6-4-1)) or Nero InCD (6-4-7).

On the Mac, go with Toast (6-1-4) or Discribe (6-1-29).

UNIX users probably ought to start with cdrecord (6-1-20) or CDRDAO
(6-1-47).

Most of the software listed below is for PC running Windows.  Use the
search feature of your newsreader or web browser to look for "Mac" or
"Linux" if that's what you're interested in.

Subject: [6-1-1] Adaptec - Easy-CD, Easy-CD Pro, and Easy-CD Pro MM ("ECD")
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)

[ These have been superseded by Easy CD Creator Deluxe (6-1-26). ]

The software was developed by a company called Incat, which was purchased
by Adaptec in 1995.

Easy-CD Pro 95 v1.2 seems to have trouble writing umlauts and other
non-ASCII characters in Joliet mode.  Romeo format will work, but the files
will only be accessible from Windows.

Subject: [6-1-2] Adaptec - CD-Creator ("CDC")
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT3.x)

[ This has been superseded by Easy CD Creator Deluxe (6-1-26). ]

The software was developed by Corel, and published by them until it was
purchased by Adaptec in mid-1996.  It was combined with Easy-CD Pro to
form Easy CD Creator.

The package includes drivers that allow several popular CD-R drives to
be used as general-purpose CD readers under Win95.  It can also create
VideoCD and PhotoCD discs.

Version 2.x is a considerable improvement over version 1.x.  Versions
older than 2.01.079 had some problems inserting "knacks" into audio CDs.

Subject: [6-1-3] Gear Software - GEAR Pro
(2001/12/18)

Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (95, NT, 2K), UNIX
See http://www.gearsoftware.com/

GEAR Software was Elektroson until early 1999.  It was a subsidiary
of Command Software Systems, Inc. until May 2001, when it became a
free-standing company.

Full-featured CD recording.  Includes unattended CD copying and batch
file support.

Subject: [6-1-4] Roxio - Toast
(2005/05/31)

Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.roxio.com/

The software was developed by Miles GmbH and published by Astarte until
Miles was purchased by Adaptec in early 1997.  In 2000 Adaptec spun
the CD recording software group off into Roxio.  In August 2004 Roxio's
consumer software division was purchased by Sonic Solutions.

This program is recommended for making Mac/PC hybrids, and is the most
popular package for the Mac.  It supports HFS, ISO-9660, and Joliet.
At one time it was sold by an OEM as "CD-It All".

The "Toast DVD" upgrade enables creation of DVD-Video and DVD-ROM.

Software updates are available on the web site.

Subject: [6-1-5] CeQuadrat - WinOnCD
(1999/09/12)

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/

(CeQuadrat was purchased by Adaptec in July 1999, and became part of Roxio.)

WinOnCD is the full version.  WinOnCD ToGo is a "lite" version that comes
bundled with some drives.

Can create VideoCD discs and bootable CD-ROMs.

Subject: [6-1-6] Young Minds, Inc. - CD Studio+
(2001/12/18)

Platforms supported: Windows (NT), UNIX (Linux, others)
See http://www.ymi.com/

CD recording system with a Java interface.  The web site has information
about specialized solutions for things like recording over Novell networks
and working with CD-R jukeboxes.

Subject: [6-1-7] Golden Hawk Technology (Jeff Arnold) - CDRWIN
(2000/05/25)

Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/
See http://www.cd-brennen.de/  (german distributor)

(CDRWIN is the name of the Win95 version.  I don't believe the DOS versions
have an official name.)

Contains sophisticated CD-ROM duplication programs, track-at-once and
disc-at-once utilities for sound and data, and other goodies.  Some of the
DOS-based software is free, the rest is relatively inexpensive.

This comes highly recommended for creating audio CDs, because it gives you
a great deal of control over the creation process.  Updates for the
software are available on the net.

The "vcache" tweak from section (4-1-2) is strongly recommended for users
of CDRWIN to avoid buffer underruns.

If you use a Yamaha 200/400 and get "Logical Unit Not Ready" errors, try
disabling the data caching.

Independent cue sheet editors are available from http://www.dcsoft.com/
and http://www.crosswinds.net/~cueed2000/.

Subject: [6-1-8] Optical Media International - QuickTOPiX CD
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/

[ product has been discontinued ]

Subject: [6-1-9] Creative Digital Research - CDR Publisher
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), UNIX
See http://www.cdr1.com/ (a/k/a http://www.hycd.com/)

Can create Mac/PC/UNIX hybrid CDs (i.e. CDs that work on all three
platforms), as well as bootable CDs for PCs and UNIX.  If you need a
CD that works (and looks good) on Win95, MacOS, and UNIX, this is the
program for you.

The Solaris version should be available through Sun's Catalyst program; see
http://www.sun.com/sunsoft/catlink/cdr/cdrpub.htm.

Subject: [6-1-10] mkisofs
(2000/09/10)

Platforms supported: Windows, UNIX (many)
Sources (in "cdrtools" package) at ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/

This allows creation of an ISO-9660 filesystem on disk or tape, which can
then be copied to a CD-R.  It can create discs with Joliet, Rock Ridge,
and HFS filenames, and can be configured to ignore certain facets of the
ISO standard (like maximum directory depth).  Recent versions support
multisession and several kinds of bootable discs.

This can be used in conjunction with "cdrecord" (6-1-20) to write discs
under UNIX.  For other platforms, chances are good that your favorite CD
recording application is able to write ISO-9660 images.  (If not, there's
probably a "cdrecord" port for your platform of choice.)

See http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO for a
"HOWTO" guide on writing CDs under Linux.

Subject: [6-1-11] Asimware Innovations - MasterISO
(2002/04/07)

Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/

[ product discontinued ]

(Asimware was purchased by Iomega in March 2001.)

Full-featured CD-R mastering package for the Amiga.

Subject: [6-1-12] Newtech Infosystems, Inc. (NTI) - CD-Maker
(2002/02/27)

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.ntius.com/ (demo available)

Full-featured CD creation and duplication software.

If you get "illegal request, invalid block address" complaints reading
from an ATAPI CD-ROM drive, your ASPI layer may be corrupted.  See the
instructions in http://www.fadden.com/doc/ntius-aspi.txt.

Subject: [6-1-13] Cirrus Technology/Unite - CDMaker
(1998/09/05)

Platforms supported: OS/2
See http://www.cirunite.com/ (demo available)

Drag-and-drop CD creation, written specifically for OS/2.  Allows creation
of CDs with an HPFS (OS/2) filesystem.

[ product has been discontinued? ]

Subject: [6-1-14] Hohner Midia - Red Roaster
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://hohnermidia.com/proaudio.html  [web site gone?]

Windows-based CD-R software that has some nice features for creating
audio discs, including the ability to edit the P-Q subcode data.

The "rrdemo.zip" on the web site is actually a demo of Samplitude Master
from SEK´D Software.  Samplitude Master is a fancy audio editing program
that - among other things - allows you to create ISO-9660 images suitable
for writing to a CD-R, but the demo package doesn't include software to do
the actual writing (the full package includes PoINT CDaudio).

Subject: [6-1-15] Dataware Technologies - CD Author
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.dataware.com/site/prodserv/cd_rom.htm
See http://www.dataware.de/untern/index.html

CD creation software aimed at the corporate user.  Comes with libraries
for creating custom applications.

Subject: [6-1-16] CreamWare - Triple DAT
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.creamware.com/

A hardware and software combo for professional-quality sound editing, this
now includes an audio CD creation tool.

Subject: [6-1-17] MicroTech - MasterMaker
(2004/07/07)

Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.microtech.com/product/mmaker/

[ product discontinued ]

Subject: [6-1-18] Angela Schmidt & Patrick Ohly - MakeCD
(1998/04/06)

Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://makecd.core.de/

CD-R creation software that supports the "AS" extensions (which preserve
the Amiga protection bits and file comments).