Any help for 'empty' CD?

Subject: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: Mudlark
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:39 PM

A friend visiting from Arkansas brought me a CD she'd burned, a copy of Songbird. My CD player doesn't seem to even recognise this CD is on the turntable...just skips right over it as it it were an empty slot....This is my first experience with "homemade" CD's...is there anything I can do to hear Eva Cassiday???? What went wrong...the rest of the CD's she made for me play just fine...

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: GUEST,Guest Johnny
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:53 PM

Yes, don't collect home made CDs, buy the original and give the money to the musicians. (sorry, but they have to make a living-) ok, I understand the circumstances of this musician but I hope you get my drift.

Johnny

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:02 AM

G'day Mudlark,

Plug the CD-R into your computer - it should bring up CD Player (or its Mac equivalent) automatically if it can read the CD. Not exactly hi-fi (unless you have really wild speakers and super sound card) but it may let you hear the CD. A lot of (particularly older) hi-fi players don't read CD-Rs all that well.

You might also try running a lens cleaner in you hi-fi player. If you play a lot of CDs, the lens can be obscured by odd bits of dust and lint that don't quite stop pressed, silver reflectorised, CDs playing but drops CD-Rs below the mark.

Regards,

Bob Bolton (who writes and reads lots CD-Rs ... legally!)

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: paddymac
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:06 AM

I agree with Guest Johnny, as regards currently available material. However, when you're talking about old stuff, like vinyl that hasn't been reissued or is otherwise not available, well, my understanding of US copywright law is that it allows for copies made for archival or study purposes. It sounds to me like the most probable explanation is that your provider somehow failed to actually record the material on the disc. I hasten to add that my understanding of contemporary technology is not far beyond the concept of a shovel as a manually operated, eco-friendly, fossil fuel conserving excavation implement. :>)

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: Mudlark
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 03:23 AM

Thanks for the input...

.to Guest-Johnny....I agree with your high minded approach...but being in fairly dire financial straights right now I was looking forward to the solace of that voice in the only way I would have access to it..

To Bob...thanks for the lens cleaner tip...I've just tried this CD in my Mac (duh, why didn't I think of that sooner) and it is not recognized by the Apple CD player either (of course, this lemon, an original iMac, will no longer read my $80 Disk Warrior disk repair CD either, but that's another story). .

And to Paddymac...I'm sure your tech. expertise is more wide ranging than mine....I'm barely beyond the point of running around an LP with a stylus..... .

Again, thanks to you all, I'm assuming at this point that this CD is just a dud. Nancy

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: MMario
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 08:44 AM

note: depending on HOW the CD was burned - it may well not play automatically - though most times on a computer you can "browse" to the drive and trigger the tracks manually

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: IvanB
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 09:04 PM

When a CD is burned on the CD burners on PC's, the maker has a choice of 'closing' the CD or not. If an audio CD is produced without being closed, it won't play on most dedicated CD players, but will be readable on all but some of the earliest CD-ROM drives. Perhaps your friend forgot to close the disk. You might find someone with a reliable CD-ROM drive to try it on, or send it back to your friend for checking.

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 10:22 PM

also...when making a copy of a commercial CD, it is required that you also include the coded copyright info, and it 'should' be done on a disk especially meant for music...if either of these were not done, it might lead to a problem. If your friend can do it once (assuming she really knows what she is doing), she can re-do it...but if YOUR player(s) are old, then it might well be a compatibility issue.

Subject: RE: Any help for 'empty' CD?
From: Mudlark
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:56 AM

Thanks, everyone, for the additional input. My friend is on a houseboat on the Colorado somewhere at the moment, but i will get back to her with all this info, and send the CD back to her. (Oh, why couldn't it have been the Iris Dement CD....I've tried and tried to like her and I just cant seem to get there...)

And...I am consistently blown away by the techincal, as well as musicological expertise found here. Thanks again... Nancy