ISRC and CD text compatible drives?

Posted on

Member Since: Sep 08, 2009

My bands album is coming out soon, and We want to add that extra touch of professionalism by encoding the CD with our ISRC codes and CD text.

The current drive I have seems to write ISRC's but can't seem to read them back properly and doesn't allow CD text to be written to the disk, so I need a replacement.

I was wondering if anyone had a list or could recommend a few CD burning drives that are ISRC and CD text write capable? It only needs to be a single drive, no tower stacks or anything, I just need the one copy to send to the manufacturer.

I've got upto £80 to spend if i need to.

Thanks In advance.

Luke - SS =]

[ Back to Top ]


MASSIVE Mastering, LLC
Member
Since: Aug 05, 2008


Sep 08, 2009 09:17 pm

Honestly, I can't think of a single drive made in the past decade that can't encode CD-TEXT and ISRC codes on to a disc. Maybe there are, but if there are, they're few.

That said - There are plenty of horrible drives out there.

THAT said - Almost anything that says "PLEXTOR" on it is going to be pretty solid. If you can find any NOS 712's, 716's, 755's or 760's, that's a bonus. The de-facto standard drives for those that author discs for a living.

Across the pond there, you might find Plextor PlexWriter Premium II drives also... Any of the 5 listed will run PlexTools Professional (a must for proper QC of the production master).

Side-note -- What are you authoring with? I've seen far more issues with consumer-ware not properly encoding the disc than with drives that can't handle the burn... iTunes for instance - Very bad, will not write a disc to proper specifications (period). So many more...

Also keep in mind on the "hint of professionalism" that around 90% of the discs on the shelf out there are not encoded with CD-TEXT info. ISRC's, most certainly. CD-Text, rarely.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Sep 08, 2009 10:28 pm

Yep, will agree with MM on the drive. Can't go wrong with Plextor. And also as he mentioned, the program you are burning with is more then likely the guilty party for not allowing a proper burn.

Member
Since: Sep 08, 2009


Sep 10, 2009 11:04 am

I had heard that about most modern drives being able to do the job, but i actually phoned Plextor and they said none of their newer models actually do what i need them to. only the older models that were out of production. That's what has confused me.

I'm using CD architect 5.2d and reading the stuff back with tau analyzer.

I also used a program called exact audio which has a test function to see if the drive has ISRC and CD text ability, said mine had ISRC but not CD text.


MASSIVE Mastering, LLC
Member
Since: Aug 05, 2008


Sep 10, 2009 10:02 pm

I hate to say that whoever you talked to at Plextor has no clue of what he's talking about - But it wouldn't be the first time...

I don't know of a Plextor drive - Any model - that won't write CD-TEXT and ISRC's. 10 years ago, 15 years ago, maybe. Now? No.

TRUE: Few drives can actually pull a proper error check no matter what the software. I have two rather pricey Sony drives that actually came with some ridiculous Nero thing that claims to read BLER. I guess it's reading something, but it's certainly not giving me an accurate (not even consistent from read-to-read) representation of the BLER.


The TAU analyzer has nothing to do with anything for what you're doing.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Sep 10, 2009 10:17 pm

All drives here are Sony and Plextor here as well. And even a cheapy bottom of the barrel thing that is at least 5 or 6 years old. All do both. I've not seen a drive in years that didn't either.

And once again, agree with MM on the Plextor tech not having a clue.

Member
Since: Sep 08, 2009


Sep 14, 2009 02:46 pm

I did think it was strange the idea of Plextor downgrading their newer models. lol

TAU analyzer was only to check to see if the ISRC code can be read back properly. But I was only using it under the advice of something someone else mentioned on another thread regarding a simular thing.

Last night I went to a friends who had some fairly decent samsung drives It burnt both ISRC and CD text, but the ISRC is ethier burning incorrectly or is being read back incorrectly.
It seems to be read the same way on 4 different disk drives that i've tried it on. but it also seems to burn the same on all 4 drives, so it's left me really confused as to what is happening.

Maybe possible it's the TAU program, do you have any program you recommend for reading ISRC codes?

Thanks


Related Forum Topics:



If you would like to participate in the forum discussions, feel free to register for your free membership.