Ripping black cd-r's

[harrypt]

Hi all. I an experienced audio guy, but new to computer audio. I've just started ripping cd's to dabble and I've run into a problem. My computer optical drive will not read black cd-r's. Anyone else run into this and know either a workaround or which computer drives will read the black blanks? I'm happy to buy a new computer optical drive if that is the best solution.

 

Thanks.

 

[davidR]

Harry, what kind of system are you running?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I've never had a problem with black discs. Maybe you can pick up a cheap new drive for testing.

 

[davidR]

I'll add in if you are using a laptop for ripping I'd go ahead regardless and upgrade to an external drive. I've had laptops new or old actually mark up my discs pretty badly. Check out Newegg for good deals.

 

[harrypt]

No, going to use Macbook Pro for playback but I'm ripping with a PC and dbPoweramp.

 

PC has two generic optical drives in it and neither will read the black CD-R's. I'm happy to go buy another, but this could be a real pain going back and forth trying drives if it is a crap shoot which will read the black blanks.

 

So most of you guys have no trouble reading the black CD-R's???

 

[jonmarsh]

But sometimes inexpensive DVD capable drives use a single head for reading, and they use a different wavelength. CD is a longer wavelength; "Black" CDR are just dark, dark Red, screens out light interference that a CD pickup won't respond to. But in this case, I suspect a higher wavelength optical head than normal CD is being used to read CD layers.

 

Get a good brand external drive. I even have Yamaha CDR drive developed for low jitter music ripping and burning years and years ago, don't use it except for audio stuff, so it works fine. OTOH, my Mac drives have always worked fine burning or reading black CDR's, too.

 

[harrypt]

I just found two OOOOOOooooooold cd drives (not DVD) in the back of my office, scavenged from old PC's long gone. I'll give those a shot tonight. Funny, these old drives weigh about three times that of a newer drive.

 

If that doesn't work I don't know what I'll do. I went to Newegg.com and can't find a single optical drive that is not DVD capable.

 

[davidR]

Harry I don't think they even make standard CD drives any more. All of the newer ones have DVD capability because a good bit of software comes on DVD-R's now. These still read CD's just fine.