Any opinions as to the Windows CD recording software which gives the best bang for the buck would be appreciated. From what I hear, Adaptec EasyCD is not really fantastic. I’m not quite sure what to make of Nero ROM: the demo didn’t work on my computer.
Any other brands or software packages to consider? The package that came with my HP 8100 External CD burner is lousy.
Publicblast
[sub]P.S. I tried searching the archive. My apologies if this thread has been done before, but if it was then I couldn’t find it…[/sub]
I like Nero Burning ROM the best for audio CDs. You have the most flexibility as far as lead-in times for tracks, nifty filters for doing your own fade-outs, etc.
For data discs, Easy CD Creator is good enough, but so is Nero. I guess if I had to choose one for data discs, then I’d go with ECDC, but overall I’d definitely pick Nero.
I use both Nero and Easy CD–Nero is better but it causes massive software compatibilities with a lot of my other programs because of the way it hijacks my computer’s drives, so I only install it when I have a lot of burning to do at once. Easy CD is useful for more impulsive burns since it’s a little more…gentle…on my other programs. Just my two cents.
Nero for audio CDs as you can set pauses between tracks (like Montfort said) and the titling options- audio CD burned with Nero have all of the info show up on a CD player that supports CD text.
EZCD Creator is fine for data CDs, although I’ve used DiskJuggler and Nero without problems.
I have used both Nero and EasyCDCreater… Nero works flawlessly. I continually had problems with ECDC so I bought Nero. I recently had a problem with my hardware and had the drive replaced. With the new drive came a new version of ECDC… the interface is better than it used to be, but I tried it and it still failed attempting to burn my CD. When I immediately tried Nero, it worked perfectly.
I don’t know what the underlying problem is, but I don’t care. I’ll just continue to use Nero.
For audio CDs, Adaptec Jam. (I guess that’d be Roxio Jam nowadays? Or have they merged Jam into Toast? How cute!)
Jam is da bomb for doing audio CDs. Among other things, it verifies MP3s in test mode, letting you know if you have noise-corruption errors in an MP3. It also lets you edit the space between tracks.
Most importantly, it doesn’t make coasters. Audio CDs burn with a 100% success rate.
Yes, I will concur with the vote for Adaptec Jam, that’s what I use. It offers the most control over the final product, you can actually produce Orange Book qualified CD masters with it, or just use it at defaults and blast CDs simple as pie. But it aint cheap.
Weird. I’ve had very much the opposite experience with the two proggies. Just goes to show how different computers can be sometimes, huh?
Personally, Nero does everything I want it to flawlessly, though EZ CDs interface and wizards are a little easier to figure out/use. For “advanced” features, though, Nero is much easier to use, where EZ CD tends to, as I recall, either bury or not have certain features.