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Happy listening

Nearly 50 years ago, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann – two authors with no previous reputation as entertainers – received enthusiastic and unanimous approval for their farrago, At the Drop of a Hat, performed on the stage of London’s Fortune Theatre, opening on January 24th, 1957.

The 2-hour show – presented on a stage empty but for Swann at the piano and Flanders in an invalid’s wheelchair – consisted of songs written by them, some of which became classics. One of these, Song of Reproduction, was about the Hi-Fi craze that was prevalent then (long-playing, silent surface (???) vinyl records had been available from 1950 [Decca] and 1952 [EMI]). The song started like this:
I had a little gramophone
I wound it round and round
And with a sharpish needle
It made a cheerful sound
And then they amplified it
It was much louder then
And we sharpened fibre needles
To make it soft again!
When listening to this I wish that Flanders and Swann were around now to write a revised version exemplifying our experiences with Compact Disc formats (CDs, CD-Rs & CD-RWs ).

Problems with CD players

When the CD was first marketed in 1983 as the ultimate sound carrier that would never wear out, and would play even if you spread jam (jelly to the Americans) on it, we gramophiles thought our problems were solved forever. They did not tell us that lasers wear out, that standards would change, that the rigidity of the earlier chassis’ would be superseded by plastic that flexes, and so on. And, of course, when CDs became commodities, the manufacturers moved on to Super Audio Compact Discs (SACD) and DVDs.

How CD-Rs are made

In 1983, the original CDs were all made in a press from a glass master which carried the “pits” read by the player’s laser. In the early 90s, it was found that, by using a thermoplastic covering that, in those days was coloured with an intense green phthalocyanine dye – merely to indicate that it was not a “proper” (pressed) CD – on the polycarbonate circular “blank” disc it was possible to use one laser to “burn” the pits into the thermoplastic layer and then a second laser operating at a much higher temperature to change the thermoplastic material into a thermoset in which the pits were sealed for life. This type of compact disc was named a Compact Disc Recordable, i.e., a CD-R. It is this type of CD that Dunelm Records has used for the past 14 years.

Playability of CD-Rs

You might think that this invention solved all of our problems; far from it! It soon became evident that the specification of the laser focusing systems on some players was too “loose” and so the CD-Rs would not “play”. The same thing could happen with some of the “plastic” chassis’, the flexibility of which allowed the laser to mistrack. CD players exhibiting such problems with CD-Rs are still being used in many homes.

New generation of CD/CD-R players

Teenagers wanting to make copies of CDs and download music (before the ubiquity of iPods and MP3) led to an improvement in players. Manufacturers indicated these improvements either in the player’s handbook or, sometimes additionally, by affixing a small plate to the case of the player carrying the message “CD-R/RW playback”. With such a machine, there should be no problems with CD-R playback.

About Dunelm Records

Dunelm Records has been making location recordings since 1992. In 2006 more than 260 discs will have been produced. From the beginning, it has issued its products as bespoke CD-Rs. By this means, new and exciting repertoire, played by dedicated, skilled – and often young – performers, has been made available to gramophiles worldwide without the great expense involved in making 500 or more “pressings” and then having to find space to store them! Since the recent changes in the world of the “major” recording companies, sometimes the only way for new performers to be heard is through the sound-carriers of the small companies, of which Dunelm is one.

Manufacturing details

But being small doesn’t mean that we make inferior products. The original recordings are processed entirely in the digital domain, and the waveforms are checked for “glitches” and other artefacts that might spoil your listening enjoyment. Then the master CD-R is tested for suitability before it is “burned”. At the copy-making stage, the duplicating machine automatically checks the suitability of the master as well as the “blank” disc, before it starts to make a copy. When the copy has been made, it is tested automatically again to ensure that it is as perfect as can be. If it is, the readout indicates PASS and the CD-R is presented for labelling and packaging; if it is not, the readout indicates FAIL, and the CD-R has to be removed manually and destroyed by cutting it up with scissors.

Listening tests

In addition to all of this, CD-Rs are selected at random and listening tests are carried out not only on sophisticated players but also on a typical consumer-use one to ensure that all is well. Regarding the players, the most recent types carry a plate somewhere on the case that reads: “CD-R/RW playback”. If it does not, and you hear a “crackling” noise on playback, then you should:

play the CD-R on a compatible player, for example, ask a friend, or visit the machine display in your High Street electrical outlet. [It is quite likely that, if the second player is also an incompatible one, the effect will still be present!] Most CD players in computers are CD-R/RW compatible, too.
clean the lens in your player.
In any normal household atmosphere there is a mixture of water vapour, dust and general detritus that can coat the laser lens in your CD-R player with a “gooey” film. The effect of this film is to diffuse the laser beam making it difficult for it to focus on, and therefore track, the guiding groove on the CD-R. A proprietary lens cleaner – suitable for DVDs as well as CDs – should remove such a film effectively.
clean the surface of the CD-R with a soft, lint-free cloth, wiping the surface from the centre of the disc to the edge, i.e., radially, although this should not be necessary with a new CD-R.

If none of these actions are effective contact Dunelm Records by e-mail: jim@dunelm-records.co.uk or telephone or fax +44 (0)1457 855313 or write to Dunelm Records, 2 Park Close, Glossop, Derbyshire SK13 7RQ, UK.

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