Thanks to This, CDR Trading Has Been a Breeze
Written: Dec 10 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: easy to install, portable, very very few problems/coasters due to burner
Cons: I've had problems burning at 4X
The Bottom Line: With a little practice and the right burning software, this is a great external burner.
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| MattA75's Full Review: MicroSolutions Backpack CDRW |
About a year ago, I was listening to a live recording of a 1992 Pearl Jam show I had on cassette. The show was incredible, showing off exactly why the band got the reputation they did in those days. There was just one problem: the hiss and generation loss made it nearly unbearable to listen to. I knew that if I wanted to continue to collect live shows of my favorite bands, I would have to go digital. So I started looking for a relatively inexpensive external burner.
Why External?
I wanted to go External for a couple of reasons. First, I didn't want to go through the hassle of installing an internal one. I'm about as good technically as Britney Spears is at singing live. I'm a technological idiot, at least when it comes to dealing with parts and hardware. The other thing was that since I wasn't going to be installing it myself, I knew I'd have to give up my computer for a week or so. Not gonna happen. I'm so addicted to my PC and the internet that giving this up would be worse than what the Marines are probably doing to that loser who was fighting for the Taliban.
Also, another reason was that I wanted it to be portable, in case I wanted to let a friend or my brother make good use of it.
How I Chose This Burner
To be honest, I didn't really choose it. My parents did, as it was a Xmas/birthday present last year. But I have to say I'm impressed with their choice. My computer is kind of old, with not a lot of hard drive space (4 measley gigs) and not a lot of RAM (16). It's an IBM Aptiva, 300 mhz. We bought it in 1998. This was another reason for going external, since the external ones seem to be better for slower and older machines.
The Dirty Details
I haven't had many problems with this burner. It's max burning speed is 4X, which compared to 24X isn't very fast. It rips at 4X max as well. It's portable, which is a giant plus, and is very simple stupid to install, as you just hook it up through your printer. The instructions give you detailed steps on how to do this, and you should be up and running in 15 minutes or so. Installation was a piece of cake as well (As are most things through Windows). There's a couple things that should be known about this burner:
1)CDR Brand: unlike some burners, this one doesn't seem to "prefer" certain brands over others. I've used Verbatims, Maxells, TDKs, Imations, Sonys, Memorexes, Fujis and haven't had a problem. That being said, I like TDK 80 minute discs. Of the very few coasters I've made, TDK hasn't been any of them.
2)Software: Once you buy a burner, you have two choices: use the software that came with it, or upgrade to something different. This came with a "demo" version of Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4. I actually test burned a few CDs using this, but Adaptec is a big no-no in the world of CDR trading, at least in the serious communities (i.e. Phish, Dave Matthews, the Black Crowes, Pearl Jam). I immediately went for CDRwin by Golden Hawk Technology for burning purposes, and EAC (or Exact Audio Copy) for ripping purposes. Since I've made this change, I've burned literally hundreds of discs with very very few problems. I think I've had maybe 5 coasters.
Adaptec is excellent for burning data CDs, although, as I stated earlier, it really shouldn't be used if you're going to burn concert CDs and trade them, which lets face it, is probably half of all CDR burner business.
I've noticed that this burner does have problems when you burn at 4X. Once I realized this, I immediately went down to 2X, and have had nary a problem since. Perhaps it's just my computer, but then again, it might not be. If you're looking for speed in a burner, this probably isn't for you.
All in all, this is an excellent alternative if you are just looking for a relatively cheap CDR burner. It's portable, easy to use, and even easier to install. It's $200 price tag is also much better than the up to $600 you may spend on a high quality state of the art Plextor, or much better than the $1000 you might spend for a stand alone "audio only" recorder. My main tips for you would to be read the instruction manual carefully when you set it up, practice on a couple of CDs so you know how the burner works best on your computer, and experiment with different software until you find the right fit for yourself. After that, Happy Burning!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
MattA75
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Member: Matt Aucoin
Location: South Berwick, ME
Reviews written: 1162
Trusted by: 465 members
About Me:
Gonna be a daddy, April 2010!
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