Digital Recording Quality
We have made recording to CD as easy as recording to cassette. However, our 'Real Time' CD Recorders will produce much higher quality recordings. To help, here are a few useful tips.
Automatic/Manual Record Level
The default setting for our CD Recorders is Automatic Record Level. Press record and the CD Recorder listens to what the microphone is picking up. The optimum record level is set automatically. You don't have to think about it.
During recording, the volume is being constantly monitored and levels adjusted to compensate for changes. If it all goes quiet, the record level goes up and if it gets loud, the record level goes down.
The result is very good and ideal for nearly all school requirements.
The probable exception is in live music or other performing arts where the wide dynamic range of a performance is important.
The Manual Record Level option allows you to set the record level to capture the performance faithfully.
You will find it easy to set the record level to achieve optimum performance recordings from your CD Recorder.
Microphones
High quality recordings always use 'balanced' microphones. These are wired in such a way as to cancel out electrostatic noise and allow better quality recordings.
We currently offer four balanced microphones:-
1918, a general purpose balanced microphone ideal for recording a single voice or other specific sound source
1808, a live performance microphone offering a high quality recording during live performances
1915, a boundary microphone, suitable for table top recordings of group discussion or for collecting ambient sound over a wide area.
Note: Our 'Real Time' CD Recorders will work with some unbalanced microphones, which are certainly good enough for a practice recording - as we discovered with our own 1902 microphones!
If you already have an unbalanced microphone, try it, but for best results, we would advise that you use one of the 'balanced' microphones listed above.
CD Quality
It's always tempting to use cheaper CDs to save money but this can be a false economy. Its not uncommon for low grade CDs to fail during recording, to scratch easily and even for recording surfaces to peel. (We've seen all this here at Coomber where we tested a wide range of CD-Rs during the development of this product range!)
We stock and sell Verbatim CDs and have used these in conjunction with TDK CDs during development and for demonstration purposes. We use the same CDs for testing purposes and have always been satisfied with the results achieved.
For best results we recommend using premium quality CDs, after all, you could be recording onto the same CD over long periods of time and it would be a shame to lose data due to inferior quality problems.
CD failure is not covered by our warranty. 'Real Time' CD Recorders failing to perform because of poor CD condition or quality is ALSO not covered by our warranty.
Tip: it is not uncommon for a "batch" of CDs to have a manufacturing defect that has not been spotted during manufacture. If using a 6030 or 6031 to make recordings, you can use record onto both drives simultaneously. If the recording is really important you might use two different brands of CD, in order to manimise the possibility of failure.