the best CDR tool around...cannot be copied (Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.0)

Member Name: kornkid2001

Product:	Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.0
Date:	09/03/02 (2496 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of features, easy layout, make audio cds from mp3s

Disadvantages: is slightly out of date

When I first purchased a cd-writer last christmas, I needed a software program which would cope with all my copying needs, thus came adaptec easy cd creator version 4. I got it with my cd-writer so i decided to install it as it had the writer drivers on. Little did I know that I would find the easiest and best cd creating and copying tool around.


Installation
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You will need around a 100mb of free space on your hard drive to hold cd creator. Insert the cd and the menu will popup asking for you to install it. It will ask you to install easy cd creator or direct cd which is a added feature ( I will explain later) Once you have chosen to install/uninstall then the installtion will begin. With it, Sub-programs are given, you can choose to install them programs by selecting or deselecting them. It will install all of the stuff that you have asked to, then it will tell you to restart your computer. Once your computer is restarted then you will be ready to use this breath of fresh air :).


Writing Terminology
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It is important for you to know what everything means so I have put up this section so that you can find out what eveything means and how to work it.

Track At Once - Writing in this method, date is written to a cd a track at a time which means that when its writing, after it has done one track, it will pause for a 2nd second gap, then begin writing the next track.

Session At Once - This is where the cd is split into two sessions, when you are recording say an audio and date files to a cd, it splits them up into two sessions. Once one session is finished there is a gap, and then the cd is closed.

Disc At Once - This is where it burns the whole data onto a cd without stopping or turning the laser off, it also closes the cd so that no date can be recorded onto it after. This is good for writing whole movies to a cd.


Features
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br>Easy Cd Creator - This is what you will use most. You can burn date, audio, mixed mode or bootable cds from. A very useful feature indeed and you will probably spend most of your time here as it has everything you need. Making a data cd is used for maybe backing up your hard drive onto a cd or tranfering a load of files which may be needed on another computer ( for eg drivers). This is a handy tool. Also making an audio cd is a big feature which i use, If you have mp3's, you can burn them onto a cd so that they are able to play on any standard audio cd player. A bit of genius, the interface is as easy as drag and drop.

Cd Copier - This is where you make exact duplicates of audio cd's. I use this to back up my existing audio or video games that iam scared that may break lol. It will tell you to choose your source and destination drive, If you have a single cd/cdrw drive then it will copy all the data onto the hard drive first and then when thats done it will ask you to insert a blank cdr. Then copying will begin. If you are copying a game or a audio disc with digital audio then it will test for the extraction speed so it can make an exact duplicate copy. Once recorded, the cd is then ejected for you. Your cd drive must be capable of DAE, which is for digital audio extraction.

Jewel Case Creator - This is used to create your own custom cd case covers. This is nice if you have an audio cd that you have copied but dont want the original copy, hence this comes into play. You have themes to choose from to help you on your way. You can import your own Jpeg or bitmap graphics also, so that you can have pictures on the front page. This is an excellent addition.


Cd Spin Doctor - This is for cutting out them hisses in your audio, vinyl, tape or mp3 files. Its a useful, but i thought it was very complicated to use. When you purchase cd creator you will be given a cable which goes from your sound card to your stereo, from here, using
spin doctor, you can record old vinyl to cds so that you wont have low quality hissing music again, or you can record your old cherished classic tapes so that they will never get broken. It has various effects that you can add, morph and reverb are my too favourites as you can change the sound and pitch of the music. Theres a tool which takes out the hissing and the pops before they are recorded to a cd which is a absolute gem. A good fun tool.


Extras
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Easy cd creator also comes with a few extras:

Sound Editor - This is like the software you get with soundcards. It can test, sample and cut mp3 files into wav files. It has a equalizer to so you can mess about with the sound, if you have a microphone you can have a lot of phone by recording and then editing your voice on the sound card. Files are only savable in WAV format.

Video Cd Creator - This plays MPEG movie files on normal VCD, CD players or any DVD players. If you have mpeg files you drag and drop them into any sequence that you see fit then burn them to a cd, if you have AVI, RM files then you will need to get hold of a converter which changes them into MPEG format, then you can watch your favourite computer movie clips on your home tele.

Web Checkup - A useful tool for when you drivers go out of date and the software does too. It automatically uses your internet connection to search for updates and then automatically downloads them so your never being old ever again lol.


Direct CD
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This is another tool which came with easy cd creator. After installing I restared my computer, when it restarted it had a tray icon saying direct cd. It burns a file system into a blank cd so you can save files to cd just like you would do in explorer. It has the explorer interface so you can drag and drop files into a cd layout and it will burn them on for you. A useful bit of software but the only problem is that i found it very di
fficult to disable it, I had to uninstall the program because it took around 2mb of memory just sat there in the system tray.


Conclusion
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On a whole, Adaptec have came up with a world class program which nothing beats ( except adaptecs easy cd creator 5) Its a simple and easy program to use and has all the features which a every day cd creator or copier person might need. It costs around £50 from micro direct and is well worth the money as its the only cd-r software that I found that does the job for that kind of money.

Summary: