Help tips on using Easy CD Creator

Easy CD Creator is a very user friendly software title that allows you to make virtually any type of CD imaginable. I hope you find these tips useful. You can send me comments using this link:

Recording from LP or Cassette Tape to CD Using CD Spin Doctor - Part 1 , Part 2
CD Text Support in Easy CD Creator 4
So You Want to Make a Jewel Case Cover
Buffer Underuns
ECDC 5.0 Platinum Users


Part 1: Setting Up, Testing Audio Levels

Many of us have a collection of music that pre-dates Madonna by at least ten years (sometimes much more). But it's on vinyl LPs, cassettes, or even reel-to-reel tapes, so we can only listen to it in the living room, where our trusty old turntables and tape decks reside. But, with Easy CD Creator Deluxe, if you want to listen to classic rock while driving to work, you no longer have to be a slave to the whims of the local disc jockey: you can move your old music onto CD and have it your way.

SETTING UP - What You Need

Odds are that you already have everything you need:
  • a turntable. If your turntable has a preamp built in, you can connect it directly to your sound card. Otherwise, you will need to run the turntable output through an amplifier (receiver) or pre-amp (small pre-amps can be bought cheaply at many electronics stores)
  • and/or a tape deck
  • a pre-amplifier or receiver
  • a soundcard (16-bit, at least)
  • PC speakers or headphones, so you can hear what you're doing
  • Adaptec's CD Spin Doctor and Sound Editor (included with Easy CD Creator 4 Deluxe)
  • an RCA to Stereo Mini cable (included with Easy CD Creator 4 Deluxe), and standard RCA cable.
High-end hardware will yield better results in this particular endeavor, but it is not absolutely necessary to have the best of everything: the utilities in CD Spin Doctor and Sound Editor can clean up most of the noise caused by hardware deficiencies, record scratches, tape hiss, etc.

Putting It Together

First, shut everything off - stereo, computer, the whole bit, and unplug your power strips. Then connect your analog source to your sound card as follows (try not to plug anything into anything while electrical power is on):

Pre-Amplifier or Tape Player: Use the headphone output.

Amplifier/receiver: Use the tape output.

You will need appropriate cables. Easy CD Creator Deluxe comes with an RCA-to-mini cable.

Connect the cable from the analog source to your soundcard's input, preferably the Line In port. If you have to you can use the Microphone input, but many Mic inputs are monaural - the left channel feeds both channels - so you will end up with mono rather than stereo sound.

If you can, plug everything into the same power strip, including the stereo equipment; at the very least, plug it all into the same wall outlet. Additionally, be sure to ground your turntable: hook the ground wire from your turntable to the pre-amp's chassis someplace. Stray electromagnetic radiation from your monitor, too, has been known to add noise to a recording. Try to keep your stereo equipment as far away from your monitor as possible to prevent this.

Most likely your LPs will have gathered a little dust. Wipe them down with a super-soft, lint-free, brand new cloth lightly dampened with distilled water.

Now we're going to do two things at once with this LP (or tape): we'll take our first listen over the soundcard to adjust the volume and frequency response controls (i.e., bass and treble), and subject the vinyl to its second round of scouring.

ADJUSTING SOUND LEVELS

You need to adjust the sound levels on your system so that your music doesn't suffer from distortion or fuzz due to being recorded at too-high volume.

Setting Windows Volume Controls

Find the Windows Volume Control application and open it. While different mixers have different methods, often it's a loudspeaker icon in the System Tray at the right side of the Windows Taskbar. It's also accessible from the Windows Start menu: Start-->Programs-->Accessories-->Entertainment->Volume Control.

Once you have Volume Control open:
  1. Select Properties in the Options menu.
  2. Select the "Recording" radio button.
  3. In the white area labeled "Show the following volume controls," make sure that the Microphone or Line In check box (whichever one you're using) is selected.
  4. Click OK.
  5. The Recording Control dialog box opens.
** OR **

If you don't have the Volume Control icon in your System Tray:
  1. Go to the Windows Start menu.
  2. Select Settings, then Control Panel.
  3. Double-click on Multimedia.
  4. In the Audio tab you should see Playback and Recording icons for your soundcard. Click on the Recording icon.
  5. The Recording Control dialog box opens.
  6. If there is not a slider bar available for the input port you are using (Microphone or Line In), select Properties in the Options menu.
  7. Select the "Recording" radio button.
  8. In the white area labeled "Show the following volume controls," make sure that the Microphone or Line In check box (whichever one you're using) is selected.
  9. Click OK.
Whichever way you got there, you should now see a dialog box labeled "Recording Control" with some vertical slider bars, one of which represents the input port you're using (Microphone or Line In). Click on the check box to select that port. (Note: This selection may be re-set for you by other applications, so be sure to check it each time you want to record via the Line-In or Mic port.) Selecting the Line-In port should usually deselect the Mic port, and vice-versa, but if you are not using the Mic port and your computer has a built-in microphone, be sure to DEselect the Microphone option - otherwise you may pick up room noise during your recording.

Testing Audio Levels

  1. Start CD Spin Doctor.
  2. Select your music source (LP or tape).
  3. Select "Audio through sound card" as your destination. This option lets you monitor the sound through Spin Doctor's Audio Input Level meter without actually recording anything.
  4. Start the music playing and click on the button next to "Begin Playback" (at this point we're just listening, so it doesn't matter whether the two processes start exactly together).
  5. As the music is playing, observe the Audio Input Level meter. If it goes into the red at all, turn down the volume on your stereo or tape deck, and/or adjust the slider in Windows Recording Control (you may have to do both), until the meter no longer goes into the red. Yellow is okay. The two controls work together, so there are many combinations which will work. If you have a volume control for your source (headphone output, for example), you will get the best results - lowest distortion and noise - from fiddling with the two together: raise the source's volume and lower the record slider and vice versa until it sounds good to you.
Note: Different LPs and tapes are recorded at different volumes, so you
will need to adjust the volume again each time you start recording from
a new LP or tape.
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Recording from LP or Cassette Tape to CD Using CD Spin Doctor - Part 2

Okay, recording time. There are some good reasons why you should probably record from the analog source to your hard disk first, rather than straight from the analog source to CD-R:
  1. You'll probably want to clean up and split your tracks using the utilities in CD Spin Doctor, and perhaps do some editing in Sound Editor (or your favorite sound editing application).
  2. It is always safer and more reliable to copy audio tracks to hard disk first, then record them to CD.
  3. You can test your files and your whole disc by playing back from hard disk or even by recording it a CD-RW disc, before you make your final CD.
  4. You can modify the recording in a WAV editor such as Sound Editor, for example trim off extra silence.
We're assuming that you have already set up your system and tested audio levels as instructed in Part 1 of this article.

Steps

  1. In CD Spin Doctor, select "Files on Hard Drive" as your music destination. If needed, click on the "Change Directory" bar to change the directory where your new audio files will be stored (keep in mind that you will need about 10 megabytes of storage space per minute of music).
  2. If you wish, fill in the name of the song under "Record under name" in the music source area at the left of the CD Spin Doctor window.
  3. Click on the button next to "Record to Disk" in the upper right corner of CD Spin Doctor. The "Ready to Record" dialog will open, but you're not actually recording yet.
  4. Start your music source, and be ready to pounce on the "Record" button in the "Ready to Record" dialog as soon as (or just before) the song starts. (Don't worry if you get a little extra silence at the beginning or end of the track; you can always use Sound Editor to delete it.)
  5. When the song is finished, click on the Stop button to stop CD Spin Doctor recording. You can also use the Pause button to pause recording (for example, while you flip the record or skip ahead on the tape).
Once you've got all the tracks you want recorded to hard disk, you can use CD Spin Doctor's cleaning and effects features on them ...but that's a topic for yet another article!

When the tracks are in the state you want them on hard disk, you can use either CD Spin Doctor or Easy CD Creator to record them to CD. Keep in mind that if you will want to play an audio CD from your home or car stereo, you should use CD-R (write-once) media; most players cannot play CD-RW (rewritable) media. You can always use CD-RW media to make a test disc to play back on your CD recorder or a MultiRead CD-ROM drive, then copy the final version to CD-R.

General Tips for Analog-to-Digital Audio

Hard Disk Space

If you're going to get serious about analog-to-digital audio recording, you will want to dedicate a large hard disk to it. Audio stored in the standard CD-DA format takes about 10 megabytes of hard disk space per minute. Any cleaning or effects operations you do will at least double the space requirements.

Feedback

It's cool when Hendrix does it, but it can be very dangerous when you do it: anytime we record an analog signal to our computers, we're creating an environment where feedback squeals are possible, these high pitched aural assaults we're all unfortunately familiar with. Feedback squeals are created when an input device (a microphone, for instance) picks up its own signal via its accompanying output device (amplifier, speakers, and/or headphones) - potentially a very bad scene. These squeals damage your ears, whether or not it's immediately evident to you, from tinnitis that lasts a couple of days to permanent hearing impairment. Please be careful to avoid these, especially around kids, as they've got particularly tender ears.

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CD Text Support in Easy CD Creator 4

Requirements

Creating a CD Text disc requires a recorder which supports this feature and which is supported for this feature by Easy CD Creator. Easy CD Creator 4.0 supported CD Text with only a limited number of recorders;see "CD Recorder Characteristics and Capabilities" in the Recorder Support database to determine whether your recorder is one of them. The number of recorders supported for CD Text has been expanded in updates to Easy CD Creator 4; click here to download an update.

Procedure: Easy CD Creator

  1. Start a new audio layout in Easy CD Creator.
  2. Ensure that complete artist and track name information is entered for your disc/tracks. (If you are copying tracks from a commercial audio CD, you can use the CDDB feature in the toolbar or the Internet menu to enter this information automatically.)

    Note: If you read an original CD Text disc in a CD-ROM drive or CD recorder which supports CD Text, you will not be able to download artist/title/track information from CDDB, since this information is already available on the CD. However, if you read the same disc on a non-CD Text drive, you will be able to use the CDDB feature.
  3. Add the desired audio tracks to the audio layout. The layout can include tracks from any combination of original audio CDs, MP3 or Wave files.

    Note: It is not necessary that the original audio CD be a CD Text disc. However, if you wish to copy CD Text tracks with their original CD Text information directly from CD to CD-R, the source CD-ROM drive or CD recorder you read the tracks from must also support CD Text.
  4. When you have added all the desired tracks to your layout, click the red Create CD button in the toolbar.
  5. In the CD Creation Setup dialog, click on the Advanced button to expand the dialog box.
  6. Under Write Method, select Disc-at-Once mode.
  7. Under Create Options, select Write CD Text Info.
  8. Click on OK to begin recording.


Procedure: CD Copier

The original CD you are copying from must be a CD Text disc.

Method 1

  1. In CD Copier's Advanced tab, select Disc-at-Once.
  2. Insert the CD Text disc to be copied into a source CD-ROM drive which supports CD Text.
  3. Put a blank CD into your CD recorder, which must be one of the ones supported by Easy CD Creator for CD Text.
  4. Click on Copy.


Method 2

If you don't have a CD-ROM drive which supports CD Text, you can use a supported CD Text recorder as both the source and destination for your copy:

  1. In CD Copier's Advanced tab, select Disc-at-Once.
  2. Insert the CD Text disc to be copied into your CD recorder.
  3. Selecting the CD recorder in both "Copy from" and "Record to" areas.
  4. Click on Copy.
  5. CD Copier will first copy all the audio tracks to hard disk, then you will be prompted to insert and blank CD so they can be recorded back to CD-R.

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So You Want to Make a Jewel Case Cover

Where I'm "coming from..."

Most of my CD-R and Jewel Case Creator work is done to create Audio CDs from old LPs. (For the younger set, an LP is a 12-inch vinyl disk with a spiral groove containing analog music, which is read by a needle on an old-fashioned device called a "turntable." Ask your parents.) As such, this newsletter will be aimed at vinyl collectors, but even if you're creating other types of CDs, you may pick up some useful tips.

Some Definitions:

  • Front cover: This is what you see when you look at the front of your jewel case.
  • Inside cover: What you see when you open up your jewel case. Usually it has a list of tracks for an Audio CD.
  • Back cover or "U-card": What you see as you look at the back of the jewel case. (When you take one out, it looks like a very wide "U" because of the folded up ends.)
  • Spine: The part of the U-card that shows on the edge of the jewel case.
  • CD Label: As you might expect, this is the paper label stuck onto the CD itself.

Starting Up Jewel Case Creator

To open Jewel Case Creator (JCC) without burning a disc, click "Start > Programs > Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4 > Features > Jewel Case Creator." Otherwise, at the successful conclusion of recording a CD using Easy CD Creator, you are presented with an option for jewel case. Clicking that will open up Jewel Case Creator, and it should import all your track information, as well as title/artist information if you remembered to enter that before starting the burn (I usually don't remember).

If you find that JCC is not importing your track information, make sure you have ECDC set up to save the CD information: Select File > CD Layout Properties, and check the box for "Automatically save artist/title/track names after recording."

If this still isn't working, make sure the CDPLAYER.INI file in your Windows directory isn't over 64K in size.

Retrieving/Editing Track Data

When you open JCC manually, it doesn't automatically import any track information. If the information is already in your CDPLAYER.INI file, you can tell JCC to retrieve that data by loading the CD in your drive, and clicking JCC's "Contents" button. If your CD is a copy of a commercial CD, JCC can also retrieve the track information from the CDDB site on the Internet.

If JCC doesn't find your CD's info in CDPLAYER.INI, it will try to access the CDDB site to download the track/title/artist information. (Your CD must be an exact copy made in Disc-At-Once mode for this to work.) If you want to edit your track titles anyway you can double-click on the track name to get into edit mode, and get it the way you want.

Unfortunately, JCC doesn't do a good job of handling line-wrapping, as the text goes under the track number, rather than aligning with the top line. You can get around this a couple ways:

  • change the font size so it doesn't wrap;
  • add a separate text box and manually align it.

Hint: Get familiar with the alignment toolbar. If it's not showing, click View > Toolbars and make sure "Alignment Toolbar" is checked. You can use it to resize all your track titles (and text boxes) to the same width, and align them to the same left or right position.

To get the artist and title to appear on the spine of the U-card, make sure you fill in the Artist and Title fields on the front cover, assuming they're not already. Do this even if you're going to be putting a picture there, as these fields get copied to the U-card. When you place a picture over the text, it won't show up on the cover.

Adding Pictures

Okay... at this point, you've got your track info, artist, and title defined. I usually go into "Format > Change Background" then click on "Select a Color" and use the default white (just press the "OK" button). Then I check the boxes for "Span across both," "Back cover," and "CD label." Black on white looks clean, and guarantees you won't have any funny background stuff showing around the edge of your picture. Of course, if you're going to use one of JCC's themes, feel free. Save your jewel case layout at this point.

If you're going to use your own artwork (scanned or whatever) you'll need it now. JCC only accepts .BMP or .JPG files, so make sure you save your artwork in one of those formats, otherwise you won't be able to find it within JCC. Now click "Add > Picture" and find your artwork. Once you've selected the file, click "OK," and JCC will bring it in. Position the picture on the front cover, and stretch the corners to fit the outline. Keep in mind, JCC doesn't render the image on the screen the same way it's going to appear when you print it. It usually looks dark and very blotchy onscreen. Don't worry about this; when it prints, it'll be fine. If you're also putting a picture on the back of the U-card, select the back cover using the button on the left of the screen. If you don't want the tracks names showing, just drag over them so they're all selected, then delete them. Now click "Add > Picture" and proceed as for the Front cover.

Hint: the back of the U-card isn't square like the front cover, so you might want to leave some "white space" on either side of your picture if it's supposed to be square, so it doesn't look stretched.

The U-card Spine

One more thing to look at before leaving the U-card is the spine. (The part you'll see when only the edge of your jewel case is showing.) By default, JCC left aligns the artist and title in their own text boxes. Personally, I like a more centered look, so I usually right align the artist, and if necessary, I fiddle with the length of the boxes till I'm happy with it.

Formatting the CD Label

As with all things artistic, you'll have to decide what you like. For some of my discs, I use JCC's default, except for centering the text. And sometimes I prefer to swap the position of the artist and title. To do this, right-click on the title and select Properties. Under "Rotation" select the "CounterClockwise" radio button. This will make your text appear upside down, but now you can drag it around to the bottom of the label template. Do the same thing for the Artist, only select the "Clockwise" radio button, and reposition it to the top.

If you want to add track names, click "Add > Text," then double-click on the new text box and enter the track name. (Don't do "Add > Track" because it'll add a track item to the Inside cover, but not on the CD Label.) A personal preference of mine is to create a separate text element for each track name so I can position them around the edge of the label.

Hint: Set the font size before clicking "Add > Text", and you won't have to change it for every text element you add.

If you prefer to work "paragraph style," make a bigger box and fiddle with the text so it stays within the edges of the label template.

Hint: If you want to force the text to go to a new line, press Ctrl-Enter (press and hold the Ctrl key while you press the Enter key). This works with all of JCC's text elements.

Printing

Now you've got all the elements ready to print. If this is your first time using JCC, you've got a little more setup to do. You'll notice when you press the Print icon, that it opens a pop-up menu with three tabs, one for the Front Cover, one for the U-card, and one for the Label. Initially, JCC won't show you any templates, because none are selected, and you can't print until you select a template for each cover and for the label. Select templates for both the Front/Inside, and the Back (U-card) by clicking the Page Setup button. Then, using the drop-down list, find the name of the template you're using, or if you're not using any pre-perforated template sheets, select "Generic (plain paper)." For the CD Label, if you're using the labels that came with ECDC Deluxe, select the CD LabelCorp template.

Hint: Make a test print of your first label on plain paper so you know how to align the label sheet in your printer. As with the label, print your first covers on plain paper, even if you've selected a pre-perfed template. Now you can hold a blank pre-perfed sheet in front of the printout to make sure it lines up properly, if not, you'll need to work with the "Adjust printer" button. (More on this below.)

Hint: If you'll be printing on plain paper, make sure you have the outlines turned "On" for your covers, so you know where to cut and fold the paper. For pre-perforated cover sheets, and for the label, turn printing of the cut-and-fold lines "Off." To set them, click "Edit > Preferences" and then click on the "Printing" tab.

Hint: When cutting out your U-card from plain paper, leave some extra paper on the spines to make it easier to fold them, then cut the excess off after folding. Also, fold the spines out a little so they stay tight against the jewel case. The CD tray won't catch on them as much when you put it back into the jewel case.

Hint: You'll notice that with the pre-perforated front cover templates that don't fold, (like Memorex or Avery) JCC doesn't give you any way to print your track listing. After you print the front cover, make sure your JCC layout is saved. Now, delete all the information from the front cover, and move your track list onto that space. (Click "Edit > Select All", then you can move them all together.) Now reinsert your sheet into the printer, flipped over so it will print on the other side, and tell JCC to print just the Front cover. Make sure you don't save your layout this way, otherwise your front cover will be missing, as well as your Artist and Title information.

Aligning the Print to Your Template

The Adjust Printer button in the print menu allows you to fine-tune your printout so it lands squarely on your pre-perfed cover sheets. When you click on the Adjust printer button, you'll notice there are two numbers you can set, "Left" and "Top." With my two printers, the "Left" value adjusts the paper to the left, not the image, when you enter a positive number, printing the image more to the right. (That's when you hold the paper so that the first edge out of the printer is the top.) And the "Top" value again adjusts the paper to the top when you enter a positive number, shifting the image more towards the bottom. So, if your first printouts on plain paper don't align with your pre-perfed sheets, you'll need to fiddle with those numbers until they do. Keep in mind that how well your printout aligns may vary from page to page depending on how repeatably your printer handles the paper. If you've got the paper guides set loosely around your paper so it can enter the printer crooked, or off-center, you're not going to get good results, and you may want to just stick with plain paper, where the alignment doesn't matter. (After some testing, you may find that your printer simply doesn't handle paper very consistently.)

A word about template/printout sizes. The versions of JCC that came with ECDC 4.0 and 4.01 printed templates that were too large when using the "Generic (plain paper)" template. The version with ECDC 4.02 has corrected this problem. In fact, I've found the fold lines on the U-card are actually a little too close, and there's plenty of space on the top and bottom when you cut to the outlines. However, if you try some of the other templates, you'll find that the fold lines are almost exactly right, but the height is too tall. I suspect the printing template is oversized this way to make sure the printing covers all the way to the edge of the pre-perforated pages, but if you're trying to use this template on plain paper, you're going to have to trim it down to size, and you'll probably want to undersize your graphic, unless you don't mind losing a little off the top and/or bottom. (About 1/8 inch, or 3mm.)

There are more things I could talk about here, but this should be enough to get you started. As you get into more sophisticated Jewel Case Creator layouts, you'll want to figure out how to scan that 12-by-12-inch LP cover on a scanner that only covers 8.5-by-11 inches. And what sort of resolution you should use... and how to set up the track list to be two columns (look in Preferences!)...

Bonus Material: Scanning LP Covers to Use in Jewel Cases

I scan covers on a regular basis for making Jewel Case covers. I have a legal size scanner, which makes it a little easier, but if you can scan a full 12 inches with your scanner, then you won't be missing much. Or you could scan in four passes. I purchased a program from an outfit called Panavue (www.panavue.com) called "Visual Stitcher". It has since been replaced by something called, "Image Assembler", which I assume has the same functionality. It allows you to take multiple scanned images and put them together into one. And it handles any rotation that may occur when putting your covers in the scanner. I'm sure there are other programs that will allow you to do the same thing. (I have no affiliation with Panavue except as a user of one of their products.)

As for reducing it, that becomes trivial. I typically scan at 150 dpi, which translates to around 1800 x 1800 pixels. Then in JCC, I just do an Add -> Picture, and bring in the image I want for the front cover, or U-Card, and resize it in JCC to fit. With the size reduction, you're up to around 450 dpi, which is plenty high enough to print with.

 

Buffer Underuns:

Everybody hates the error message stating: error from output device; buffer underun has occurred. If you are experiencing this and not getting any cd's made, try this little tip:

  1. In the CD COPIER view, click on the "Advanced" tab:
  2. Once in the Advanced view, select the "copy to hard drive first":
  3. Now you can change any other settings that you wish and then click copy to finish your cd!

ECDC 5.0 Platinum:

Beware of making a complete install on MS Windows 2000! You will render you operating systems useless!
If you want to use 5.0 on Win2000, choose CUSTOM INSTALL, and then unselect TAKE TWO. You will have no problems with the rest of the program.
Take note: If you are running on a DUAL BOOT configuration, using either Win98 & Win2000, Win95 & Win2000, or any other combination with Win2000, ALWAYS choose CUSTOM INSTALL, no matter what patch comes out from Roxio. (division of Adaptec)

Installation procedures for Easy CD Creator 5.0 Platinum users running Windows 2000 Professional

Note: This patch only addresses the compatibility issues between Take Two and some removable drives on Windows 2000. You do not need this patch unless you are planning to install Take Two.
If you have purchased Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum and are using Windows 2000 Professional as your operating system, please follow these instructions before installing the product:
  1. Close all applications that are currently running.
  2. Uninstall all previous versions of Easy CD Creator. If you are prompted to restart your system, select "OK" and restart.
  3. Install Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum. (Note, if you are prompted to update your installer before any files are installed, click "OK". After the installer is updated, you will be prompted to restart your system; select "OK" to restart.)
  4. After completing the installation of Easy CD Creator 5, you will be prompted to restart, select "NO". DO NOT RESTART.
  5. Click here to download the ECDC 5.01 update.
  6. Install the 5.01 update. Do Not Restart the system.
  7. Click here to download the ECDC5.01s update.
  8. Install the 5.01s update.
  9. After the ECDC5.01s update has completed, a message will appear telling you that the update was successful.
  10. Restart your system.

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