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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:08 pm
by Lawrence
I have not surveyed the entire market, but of the 10-15 or so burning software programs I have used, Nero is by far the best. I have heard so from others, as well. The full version allows you to split tracks, fade in and fade out, and has many other useful features. I've used it to cut out a capella intros or long, undanceable outtros, and sometimes to even splice a bass solo or so out of the middle of a song. It also taps into a music database (CDDB.com?) to automatically download disc and track names from any source CD.

Nero has two downfalls. Although it has more features, it is not as user friendly as some others. But once you learn it, it is better. It is not impossible or very difficult to learn, just not "idiot-friendly" like Easy CD Creator is.

Second, my version of Nero does not allow me to compile a CD "on the fly," meaning that I need to copy the songs onto the hard drive when they come from different disks before burning the CD. Easy CD Creator allowed me to use multiple source disks when recording "on the fly." I actually set up two source drives when I used Easy CD Creator so I could change the CD in one drive while the other drive was working. In Nero, the only way I have found to record "on the fly" is if I use just one source CD, making "on the fly" compilations impossible. If I want to compile from different CDs, I need to record to my hard drive, first. It might be possible and I just have not figured it out, and later versions might have added it (I have versions 5.0.4.6 and 5.5.6.2). But it was intuitive and easy to figure out on Easy CD Creator.

The version I got with my desktop burner also has a 30-use trial-version MP3 ripper. The full version should include an MP3 ripper.

You can download a trial 30-day version of Nero from their website. If you pay attention to the cookie they place on your computer to track the time you used it, you can turn it into a "permanent" version.

I also suspect that Nero will come out with a version 6, soon, because Version 5.5.xxx.xx has been around for quite some time, now. You might want to use the trial version and hold off buying it until then.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 4:06 pm
by DapperDan
For what it's worth, before somebody spent the bucks on Nero, they should check out the free Exact Audio Copy. It's free, it's extremely accurate about error correction, it's free, and it has nice support for burning discs. You also get to use the free Lame as your MP3 encoder, which everybody seems to agree gives higher quality than any of the non-free encoders.

What EAC doesn't have is any sound editing support. For that, I'd probably check out the also-free open-source Audacity.

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 11:56 pm
by Lawrence
That actually brings up two other huge features of Nero. First, it has error correction that is better than most other programs I have used, including Easy CD Creator. It will correct gaps even on slightly scratched CDs (where the DATA side is scratched). I had a few data-scratched CDs (little pin-sized nicks, not bubbles or long tears) that would skip in any CD player I've tried. Easy CD Creator merely reproduced the errors. I then recorded them onto my hard drive with Nero, and Nero corrected the errors. Don't know how, it just did.

Second, Nero has an extremely idiot proof buffer underrun protection which prevents "coasters." (Learned a new word). I have an old Pentium 2 300 mhx desktop, and have run several programs while burning a CD to intentionally TRY to get the CD burn to fail (just to test it out), and it took quite a bit before I was able to do it. Mostly, it only failed when Windows had been running a while and had ate up memory. With ordinary programs running, it does a great job of protecting from buffer underrun.

Of course, try out the free version of both Nero and Exact Audio Copy and compare for yourself. I've never tried that program, so far as I know. (I've tried several whose names i do not know).

Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2003 5:44 pm
by Lawrence
FYI, I went to Fry's on Friday (3/21), and they had pulled all the old versions of Nero 5.6.(?) off the shelves. The manager said that the corporate offices do so when a new version is about to come out. Whether this new version will be Nero 6.0 or an update in the 5.x.x family, she did not know. She also said that, when they remove the old product like that, the new, replacement stock is shelved within two weeks of the old stock being pulled.

Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 5:25 am
by scratchy
Eddie (& Eva) turned me onto Nero when I was at their Pad about 3 to 4 years ago. I came home and immediatly ripped it off Morpheus. something like 5.2 version. It has never failed a single burn. Using that with a Yamaha, makes burning on the fly easy, fast and reliable.

heck I'm scarred to use a newer version of Nero! this works to well, and it's not broken....

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 5:18 pm
by Lawrence
Agreed. But I have noticed improvements in Nero within the 5.x.x series in the two versions I have. They do not abandon what works, but instead maintain the same interface and features with added features that give even more versatility and even made it easier to use: for instance, the integrated CD label program that comes with the later version is much more flexible and useful with the alter program.

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 8:15 pm
by scratchy
Lawrence wrote:Agreed. But I have noticed improvements in Nero within the 5.x.x series in the two versions I have. They do not abandon what works, but instead maintain the same interface and features with added features that give even more versatility and even made it easier to use: for instance, the integrated CD label program that comes with the later version is much more flexible and useful with the alter program.
Well, thats cool, But you know what I mean I being scarred! It's always when ya try and doing something "newer" you get screwed! hehehe

I've got a new PC so I might as well, drop in some new programs. That being one!

Thanks for the reassurance Lawrence, I'm searching for a Newer version...

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 1:02 pm
by Ron
Why don't you try buying it instead of stealing it? You can get the latest version, you can get support, and you'll be indirectly supporting the software engineers that programed it.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 6:21 pm
by scratchy
Ron wrote:Why don't you try buying it instead of stealing it? You can get the latest version, you can get support, and you'll be indirectly supporting the software engineers that programed it.
hahaha....always thinking of Big Brother aren't ya.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 7:18 pm
by Greg Avakian
Hey, I just downloaded the Nero demo and I can't find a way to list my music library by song -only by artist. Is there a way to list by song title (so I can see how many versions of "Oh lady be good" I have for instance?)

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 7:02 am
by LazyP
Greg Avakian wrote:Hey, I just downloaded the Nero demo and I can't find a way to list my music library by song -only by artist. Is there a way to list by song title (so I can see how many versions of "Oh lady be good" I have for instance?)
Nero is not a listening or database software. It's a cd burner software. I recommend you get som really good music database software for searching your files and then use nero to burn the cds.

/Patrik

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2003 9:39 am
by Ron
scratchy wrote:
Ron wrote:Why don't you try buying it instead of stealing it? You can get the latest version, you can get support, and you'll be indirectly supporting the software engineers that programed it.
hahaha....always thinking of Big Brother aren't ya.
No, I'm thinking about the ordinary software engineers that don't appreciate your theft of software. Can't you afford to buy it on your own?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2003 12:36 pm
by Lawrence
Greg Avakian wrote:Hey, I just downloaded the Nero demo and I can't find a way to list my music library by song -only by artist. Is there a way to list by song title (so I can see how many versions of "Oh lady be good" I have for instance?)
Patrik is correct that the Nero program to which we are referring (Nero Burning ROM) is a burning program, not an integrated listening/burning program. You can listen to tracks on your compilation and such to verify them and edit them, but (as far as I know) Nero Burning Rom can't manage your entire music library like you can with a player program. Instead of having versitile playlist management capabilities, Burning Rom will display the files on your hard drive as they are named and will not identify hidden or embedded information in the files beyond the filenames as some player programs do. (Indeed, integrating Burning Rom with a player program like that might be the next step to Nero 6.0.)

"Nero" does have at least three player/listening/wav-file management programs, one of which ("NeroMix") has the capability to record audio WAV files off a CD onto your computer but not the capability to burn them onto a CD-R. "NeroMediaPlayer" is a very rudientary media player program with even more limited capabilities. So I'm not sure which program you are asking about, Greg: the burning program or one of the player programs.

Although they are not integrated into Burning ROM, I think at least one of these player programs comes with the demo version of Nero Burning-rom.

Burning Rom does use "playlists," but not in the same way as a player program. If you record WAV files off a CD with Burning ROM onto your hard drive, it will save a seperate index of those files in a seperate "playlist" file. It obtains those song and artist names off the internet from one of the music database websites like CDDB. (Although this feature is now common, Nero was one of the first to do it). That playlist file is unique to each time you record songs of a CD. It allows you to drag and drop the playlist instead of the individual songs onto the compilation window, and it will put all the songs you recorded in that playlist onto the compilation.

However, you otherwise select the files to burn onto a CD from a file menu much like Windows explorer.

Also, I'm not sure which program you have used to manage your music files in the past that allows you to re-sort by artist or song name, but it is possible that the database configuration stuff to which you are accustomed might not work in Nero because it does not recognize the same database parameter-stuff that your other program uses. Somewhat the same thing as the problem you ran into with that Sony program.

Hope that helps. Might have just confused you more. :oops: The gist is that Nero Burning-rom is worth it for all the editing capabilities, filters, "burn-proof", and error-correction capabilities you can use on a song-by-song or CD-by-CD basis. It's data management/music-library-indexing capabilities are limited to a Windows Explorer window. In some ways, though, that makes it easier to use for burning CDs.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2003 1:00 pm
by Greg Avakian
Yeah, I didn't realize that file management is a whole seperate issue since I use music match and that cam as a package.

I really don't understand why all this stuff isn't integrated into a single inexpensive program withpout having to get a huge package like sound forge, or BPM.

Laurie has itunes and it does this really well. So did sonic stage. It can't be that tuff to program...

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2003 2:01 pm
by Lawrence
Greg Avakian wrote:I really don't understand why all this stuff isn't integrated into a single inexpensive program withpout having to get a huge package like sound forge, or BPM.

Laurie has itunes and it does this really well. So did sonic stage. It can't be that tuff to program...
Agreed, from a fellow non-programmer. :lol: Not to defend it or pretend that I know the definitive answer, but the lack of integration with a player made Nero easier to figure out for me than Itunes was. I didn't expect playlist management, so it was not a big deal for me to browse using a Windows Explorer-type index. It was easier than learning both a new player interface and a new burning interface. With all its features, Burning-ROM was complicated enough without all that.

Moreover, Burning Rom's focus was just to make the best burning program out there, not the best integrated audio program that burns CDs, manages playlists and libraries, and cleans your kitchen while you're at work. Nero has many burning-specific, editing features that the version of Itunes I used on my friend's computer only wish it had.

Again, though, perhaps that integration is what Burning-ROM 6.0 will provide. Hopefully, as Scratchy noted, doing so will make it simpler, not more difficult to use.