Easy CD Creator- The Tools You'll Need!
Written: May 12 '00 (Updated Jun 29 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use tools
Cons: Not much different than v3.5
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| rpllingrock's Full Review: Individual Screen Saver Creator Deluxe Edition 5.0... |
When I first purchased my CD-RW, I began to phase out my backed up files from Zip Disk to CD. Included with the HP recorder was Easy CD Creator with an opportunity to upgrade to the deluxe version, which I did. I will try to touch on the features that I found to be significant and keep this opinion to the point.
Installation
Had little problem with the installation. The exception was it over wrote some existing drivers, which I had to re-install. But all was ok.
Features
Spin Doctor- I am going to direct most of my opinion on this feature since this was my main reason of purchase.
Turns your old LP's or tapes to CD's with ease. One annoying part is the track splitting feature. It's intent is to detect silence between tracks, but any song with more than a few seconds of silence it'll split it into two or more. Quite frustrating. It can be adjusted but found it easier to manually start and stop the recording process.
Contains tools to morph audio or add sound effects, which I found useless. Why would you want to add sound effects to your music is beyond me! There are many shareware programs more than capable to do just that.
Noise and pop removal. This is the most useful feature when trying to convert LP's. The pops will be removed at some cost to the quality of sound but overall it is much better than repetitive clicks from a scratched record.
With this version of Spin Doctor it is also possible to directly convert MP3's to CD, a nightmare for record companies. Imagine this scenario, you connect to Napster, download your favorite songs all the while your are burning them onto CD in the background. Possible? Yes! This removes the process of turning to WAV files first.
Direct CD v3- another way for Adaptec to encourage you to upgrade to version 4. Some new features I noticed were its ability to scan the CD-RW for disk errors and correct them. Also when formatting a CD-RW it will now imbed its UDF reader onto the disk instead of requiring a separate UDF install.
CD Copier- Great for making backup copies of existing CD's in your collection in one motion.
You can select Track-at-Once or Disc-at-Once.
Improved jewel case creator. Still a poorly made graphics program but better than the previous version.
Improved error messages - messages were still pretty confusing but easier to decipher than version 3.5.
Make VCD's for playback on your PC or DVD. (wouldn't play on my first generation DVD player)
Overall
If you own Version 3.5 and are thinking about upgrading to 4 and are interested in burning MP3's directly to CD without the hassle of converting to WAV files first, then this is the what you want.
For a cheaper solution you can turn your MP3's to WAV files by simply selecting "WAV OUT" on WinAmp. Otherwise stick with 3.5 because I don't feel the improvements are worth the investment.
Recommended:
Yes
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