Another Alternative?

DjXSoundz wrote on 11/25/2002, 6:25 PM
Could coppying CD's with CDA5 do just as good as if i got them professionaly copied? I saw in the Sonic Foundry magazine (u know...the one they send out to all the people who registered stuff...)and it listed UPC writing on it. Is that the same UPC that record stores require you to have and cd copying companies make u pay like $100 more for ? Also, how does the hidden tracks work...sounds fun to me. And by reading some of the posts here you can make un-burnable cds?? wow! this looks like a good program. SOFO sent me a beta copy but it expired before i got a chance to try it.

thanks
DJ XSOUNDZ

Comments

SonyDennis wrote on 11/26/2002, 7:58 AM
Obtaining a UPC code might still cost money, I don't know. But CDA5 will let you burn it to a disc once you have one. You can also burn a MCN in it's place, as well is ISRC (Industry Standard Recording Code) codes per-track.
///d@
Chienworks wrote on 11/26/2002, 12:35 PM
UPC codes are expensive. They are portioned out in blocks to manufacturers/sellers who then portion them out to their products and suppliers. We bought the smallest block possible (i think 1000 codes), and it cost us $10,000. This is probably prohibitively expensive for a home studio. You could possibly buy single codes from a manufacturer in the recording industry (yes, they are industry specific; you might have problems if you obtain a code from the wrong industry), but i'm not really sure that anyone who owns a block of codes would want to help out a competitor.

The UPC burning feature is probably meant to be useful for those companies who are already established in the recording business.
DjXSoundz wrote on 11/27/2002, 2:37 PM
wait - so in order to sell my cd at local record store i have to pay $10,000??? that doesnt make sense.

btw, in the SOFO flyer it mentions hidden tracks as burning before the first track. i suspect then the way to find these is to go to the beginging of the first track and hit back????????


thanks
DJ XSOUNDZ
SonyDennis wrote on 11/27/2002, 4:30 PM
It's not against the law to sell something that doesn't have a UPC code; the UPC just makes it easier to process inventory and track sales. Many "local artist" CDs in the store don't have UPC codes. However, large "chains" pretty much require them.
///d@
DjXSoundz wrote on 11/29/2002, 10:25 AM
any news on how the burn-before-the-track hidden tracks work?
SonyDennis wrote on 11/29/2002, 4:56 PM
Unfortunately (and I was just as disappointed to hear this as you will be) very few drives support burning audio before track 1. The problem is that the MMC specification does not allow it, so you need a drive mechanism that is not MMC for this feature to work. MMC requires track 1 to start at 150 frames (2 seconds) exactly. If I'm not mistaken, many Philip drives are not MMC and should allow this.

The other method of making hidden tracks it to extend the last track to include a bit of silence and then the hidden track. Any burn drive will support this.

///d@