When a burn goes bad, especially when it fails repeatedly, the question arises: is it hardware, firmware, software, operating system, configuration or medium? Or is it something else?
That question cannot be answered simply and often requires extended analysis. Unfortunately, that analysis is very difficult by remote control - if your hands are not on the system, the job reduces to judging a beauty contest blindfolded. (Come to think of it ... no, you know what I mean.)
Assuming that your problem is with mastering and your drive will write erasable discs, get a few of a good brand. Burn something to each disc to be sure that it works well in your system, then do a full erase and file the discs away.
When you have a problem burn, pull out one of the erasables and repeat the burn there. (You'll erase it later, so nothing will be lost except some time.) If the problem does not appear on those discs which you know are good, it's almost certainly the medium or the speed. If the problem occurs with a write-once at the speed you used for the erasable - it's your medium.
Yes, that test is too easy, but it works. Why not use another write-once blank and forget the erasable? Because it wastes a disc (no big deal at current prices) and because the other line may have other problems. This way, you know the disc is good.
When you analyze a disc with CD-R Diagnostic at its most detailed level (Complete Scan), it comes as close to measuring BLER (Block Level Error Rate) as your hardware allows. In many cases, it actually gets down to that point. It reports the total errors it found and those which are not corrected. That is a very powerful set of data. The total error count is a measure of the quality of the burn. It takes a pretty poor burn or a physically damaged disc to get an uncorrected data error, but the total shows you how hard your drive has to work to get good results. Note that comparing bytes does not tell you how much error correction was done. As a result, it doesn't let you know how close you are to problems.
Try using different media and different speeds to see how error rates vary. You probably have two readers since a writer is also a reader. Try the same disc in both to see how dependent the writer/speed/medium combination is on the reader you use. When you try a new medium, don't just assume that if it works, it's good or even that if the files match with WINDIFF or another program you can count on the disc. Get below the level of corrected errors to see the best way to use that line of blanks.
These two programs work somewhat differently and report differently in extracting audio from your drives. Like CD-R Diagnostic, they provide insight into how well your readers work on any particular writer/speed/medium combination. Running either program, you will quickly discover that the quality of DAE can vary a great deal with the nature of the original disc. Very few readers will deliver the same results on a CD-R that they do on a pressed disc. When you change any of the parameters of your CD-R burn, the performance of your reader(s) is likely to change as well.
Don't wait until a critical operation fails to find out that you have a problem. Get what you need to do the analysis when everything is working right. Check out the erasables and learn the software you will need. When the crisis comes, you will be ready to deal with it. The same idea leads to another conclusion: don't wait until you run out of blanks to pick up more. Make sure you have enough on hand for any anticipated project when you order or buy your next batch. Otherwise, when you must get XYZ gold/green 80's for the job, they will be unavailable - and you'll be stuck. That's not the time to research other lines to see what you can substitute.
E-mail me at cdrecording@mrichter.com
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