SlowBurn

No, this isn't an advertisement for Diet Coke, nor is it a promotional stunt for AOL, although their disks do serve a great purpose for what's being observed in the above pic. :) What this article is about actually, is the ALL too common occurrence happening all across the globe........Coaster Mania!!.

In these fast-paced times human beings have become accustomed to doing everything under the sun, yesterday. There is no time out to take a breath, go for a walk, see a nice movie, make love.....yes, I said make love, not have sex, there is a difference. :) Anyway, back to my point.......ummmm, the things I've just mentioned are also being applied to the process of authoring a cd, in other words, burning data/audio to a disk. We have just GOT to get that disk burned in less than 3 minutes, 3 minutes just seems like an ABSOLUTE eternity.........really folks, it's not. To be honest, 5 to 10 minutes is quite good, not only for the sake of the cd, but for the burner itself........I'll tell ya why.

Let me, first, offer this simple analogy..........

Let's say I have a sports car, a Jaguar to be exact. Now, obviously, the speedometer on this elegant beast says 230mph, that's the max speed folks. Ok, I'm reckless right. I don't know what speed zones are, stop signs, yield signs, construction under way, oversized loads on trucks, hell, I'm not even aware that pedestrians are even living beings roaming the streets. So, I hop into this rocket on four wheels, and put the pedal to the floor and just drive like there was no tomorrow. How long do ya think I'm gonna last zipping around at that pace? Not very long at all.......same applies to when you use your computer to burn a cd.

First of all, look at the number that is written on the package, or etched onto the cd itself. It might say either 48x, or even, 52x these days. Although those are nice numbers to go for, MAYBE, every now and then, but ya don't ever want to burn every cd at the top speed for which the cd is rated at. And, it doesn't even matter that your burner is rated at, or, exceeds what the cd itself is rated at. Both the cd and the burner are dependent on the makeup of the computer. If you have an old computer, you can't possibly arrive at the speeds at which the burner and cd are rated at, because, more than likely, either your memory or processor are not up par to handle the speed of the transfer of information. Even so, considering that the computer was a higher end model, with a fast processor with loads of memory, you would still bring the burner itself to a halt before it even had a chance to get going, if not the cd.

The MOST effective thing to do when attempting to burn any cd, no matter what the rating, either of that, or the burner itself, is just to lower the speeds to either half of what the ratings say, or even lower, just to be safer. So, set a 52x cd to 24x or 16x, set a 48x cd to 20x or 12x.

Try it, and in the time that you have while the cd takes this LONG enormous amount of time to complete it's process of burning, why not take time out and make some popcorn............the old fashioned way.........on the stove top. :)