New Audacity Setup - recommendations?

[PD2]

Burning CDs takes time. How many CDs are you wanting to hand out, in what time frame?

Actually, we have that down and handled. We have two CD duplicators that crank out about 6 copies in less than 5 minutes.

Today, with the old Marantz, it only takes about 2 minutes or less from the time we stop recording to the time we hand the CD off to be duplicated and fulfilling requests for CD’s.

Switching to the new, more modern version, like the Tascam in prior post that was suggested, now means I’ve got to take the recorded SD-memory card and convert it to a CD that then gets duplicated. As Koz pointed out, another point of failure, another device or thing you must have and a new step that now extends the overall process.

And that takes me back to why I was looking at a DAW or Audacity workstation…because at least I could copy the audio recording to CD, USB, or whatever interface is available. But from the experience and recommendations here it sounds like that becomes a higher risk due to the fact that it’s a PC or components that have a higher likelihood of failing vs a dedicated recorder. I’m god with higher reliability but still need a solution for the gap it creates get the recording to the CD duplication.

[steve]

We have two CD duplicators that crank out about 6 copies in less than 5 minutes.

How do you get the audio into the duplicator?

[PD2]

We have two CD duplicators that crank out about 6 copies in less than 5 minutes.

How do you get the audio into the duplicator?

Via CD…the Marantz Pro (old one mentioned in the original post) burns to CD the service recording.

[steve]

Does the CD duplicator support other ways for getting the audio? For example, can it burn from an iso on a USB stick, or directly from the computer?

[PD2]

Does the CD duplicator support other ways for getting the audio? For example, can it burn from an iso on a USB stick, or directly from the computer?

No. They just duplicate CD’s. I’m with you and had checked that when I say that the Tascam put the audio recording onto SD cards. If the duplicators did, it would be an easy to do thing…plug and duplicate.

And no, there are no plans to replace them as they are not that old.

[kozikowski]

there are no plans to replace them as they are not that old.

You stumped the band—across many time zones.

I think we’d be doing everything you’re doing. Your system seems to be well thought out and as quick as can be expected. I guess that’s the bad news, right? Technology or advancements are not going to race to the rescue.

Which CD maker did you end up with? Verbatim seems to work OK.

I know you can’t do this, but I have a complete piece of trash CD player as Quality Control. It won’t play anything. If it plays my work, then it’s product out the door.

Koz

[steve]

I don’t think that you are going to be able to get your CDs as fast with a computer based system as you did with your CD recorder. The bottleneck is that your duplicators require a “master CD” to copy from. That means that your workflow is:

1. Do the recording
2. Split the recording into separate tracks
3. Export one file for each CD track
4. Open your CD burning software and import the files
5. Burn the CD for your duplicator
6. Start duplicating

On a computer based system, there is no shortcut to jump from step 1 to step 6.

[steve]

Back to your original question. I don’t think it matters if you use Mac, Windows or Linux. Audacity will run on all of these platforms.
You can get a lot more for your money with a PC than a Mac, because there’s a substantial mark up for the Apple brand name.

I think that the ZED-24 is likely to work on Windows Mac and Linux, though to be on the safe side it would be sensible to check with A&H before buying.

Personally I’d go for a desktop / mini tower PC rather than a laptop. My experience of laptop CD drives is that they don’t last very long.

[PD2]

there are no plans to replace them as they are not that old.

You stumped the band—across many time zones.

I think we’d be doing everything you’re doing. Your system seems to be well thought out and as quick as can be expected. I guess that’s the bad news, right? Technology or advancements are not going to race to the rescue.

Which CD maker did you end up with? Verbatim seems to work OK.

I know you can’t do this, but I have a complete piece of trash CD player as Quality Control. It won’t play anything. If it plays my work, then it’s product out the door.

Koz

Evidently, eh?

I guess that will be the good and bad news…good news, we updated with better, more reliable technology…bad news is you will need to wait and spend more time before you can get what you got before…or it may just drive the dropping of need to record CD’s altogether…if that was eliminated I’d be done by now.

Correct…seems that the Verbatims work as an alternative as of now…tried some Philips and they definitely has issues. Hate spending the money on CD-R’s just to figure out what works and doesn’t work…just not economical on a Church budget.

Yes, we actually have an old mini CD boombox and a PC that we try the Master CD on…if it fails there it will fail duplication as well as playing any place else.

[PD2]

I don’t think that you are going to be able to get your CDs as fast with a computer based system as you did with your CD recorder. The bottleneck is that your duplicators require a “master CD” to copy from. That means that your workflow is:

1. Do the recording
2. Split the recording into separate tracks
3. Export one file for each CD track
4. Open your CD burning software and import the files
5. Burn the CD for your duplicator
6. Start duplicating

On a computer based system, there is no shortcut to jump from step 1 to step 6.

Well, slight modification to the flow here:

1. Do the recording to a single stereo track (we don’t separate tracks because the ZED-24 doesn’t have that capability)
2. Export one file for the CD creation
3. Open your CD burning software and import the files
4. Burn the CD for your duplicator
5. Start duplicating

In the case of using a dedicated recorder like the Tascam mentioned before, the list does this:

1. Do the recording to the SD card
2. Get SD card inserted into a computer
3. Export the recording from the SD card for the CD creation on the computer
4. Open your CD burning software and import the files
5. Burn the CD for your duplicator
6. Start duplicating

Sadly, newer technology but just adds steps and additional points for issues and failures.

[PD2]

Back to your original question. I don’t think it matters if you use Mac, Windows or Linux. Audacity will run on all of these platforms.
You can get a lot more for your money with a PC than a Mac, because there’s a substantial mark up for the Apple brand name.

I think that the ZED-24 is likely to work on Windows Mac and Linux, though to be on the safe side it would be sensible to check with A&H before buying.

Personally I’d go for a desktop / mini tower PC rather than a laptop. My experience of laptop CD drives is that they don’t last very long.

Thank you, Steve! The ZED-24 only has drivers for Windows and the Mac automatically recognizes it without any driver install. I would “guess” that the Linux OS would act like the Mac, but there’s nothing out there mentioned that I’ve found. I’d stick with either Windows or Mac…it just seemed like Mac was easier…I’ve not done the Windows setup so I’m not familiar.

Thanks for the recommendation on desktop/mini tower vs. laptop…that’s what I’d think too…I’d look for something in a smaller form factor given there’s not a ton of space in the sound booth where the mixer and other sound gear is located.

Thank you again, Steve!

[steve]

Do the recording to a single stereo track (we don’t separate tracks because the ZED-24 doesn’t have that capability)

What I meant was “CD tracks”, so that you can skip from one part of the recording to another on a CD player. That’s not necessary on a short recording. For long recordings it is much more convenient for the listener if the CD is split into say 5 minute tracks rather than one very long continuous track.

[PD2]

Do the recording to a single stereo track (we don’t separate tracks because the ZED-24 doesn’t have that capability)

What I meant was “CD tracks”, so that you can skip from one part of the recording to another on a CD player. That’s not necessary on a short recording. For long recordings it is much more convenient for the listener if the CD is split into say 5 minute tracks rather than one very long continuous track.

Oh…well, we stopped doing that as exporting multi track recordings to podcast and/or our website was causing fits and issues. No one has complained about going to one long recording and if you do need to get to a specific area of the recording, today’s players do a good job of fast forwarding in a timely manner.

[PD2]

Correct…seems that the Verbatims work as an alternative as of now…tried some Philips and they definitely has issues. Hate spending the money on CD-R’s just to figure out what works and doesn’t work…just not economical on a Church budget.

Verbatim CD’s would not duplicate last night on the newer duplicator but worked fine on an older duplicator. This was the CD-R recorded in the Marantz Pro and played on a new and very old CD player just fine but had an issue in duplication. Finding the “sweet spot” of CD’s for our Marantz is just not easy. Unless someone knows which CD’s work best for duplication with a Marantz CDR633? UGH!

[PD2]

Side note - got the Verbatim CD issue figured out…it was due to mixed brands in the duplicator. Once we put one or the other, it worked fine.

That said, you asked me to share what I was planning to buy so that you could help double check it, etc. I’ve decided to go with a DIY PC that consist of the following:

• MSI ARSENAL GAMING B360M MORTAR LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel B360 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core i5-9600KF Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz (4.6 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX80684I59600KF Desktop Processor Without Graphics
• CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Memory Kit Model CMK16GX4M2B3000C15
• ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
• SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 2.5" 500GB SATA III V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-76E500B/AM
• Fractal Design Core 500 Black Mini-ITX Small Form Factor Computer Case

Of course it will have monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. and we will run Windows 10 Home 64-bit.

Questions:

• Do you see any issues with the above?
• Is any of the above overkill to digitally record stereo tracks from the Allen & Heath’s ZED-24 USB port and then burn a CD?
• Any recommendations?

Thanks for all of the help!
PD2