Comments on: new Neil Young on CDR

By: robert green

robert green — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:44:51 +0000

I agree with you, jerrythebarman, that it is kinda cool to get a bonus CDR (usually limited to the first 50 or 100 sold) with a silver purchase. But when you get charged for this FREE bonus… not as cool. And when the same medium is routinely sold for $20-$30 per disc… very uncool.

By: jerrythebarman

jerrythebarman — Tue, 17 May 2011 21:34:45 +0000

I’ve been collecting a long, long time but I gotta confess I have no idea who Lighthouse is (and, yes, of course, I understand it will remain a mystery) but the idea of “free” cdrs w/ purchase of silvers is kinda cool.

By: robert green

robert green — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:40:07 +0000

Hi DLee… so I guess I’m prone to hyperbole in the use of the word “never”. The point still remains… prices for pro-CDR titles are set at this point, and in all likelihood will not come down (another reason not to collect them).

Also, these “gift” titles are not FREE from Lighthouse (as we all know, very little in life is actually “free”). They are added as bonus when you PURCHASE silver pressed product. Gotta pay for something to get something. The comment that some vendors charge EXTRA for these bonus items is further proof that even FREE product has a cost.

To me, the fact that CDRs (that will eventually deteriorate) are given as gift items shows that they are cheap and easy to produce and simply shouldn’t be priced at premium levels. Don’t buy into the madness!

By: DLee

DLee — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:11:18 +0000

Also, the fact that such pro-CD-R (& also pro-DVDR) titles are available even completely free at Lighthouse says something itself that also further makes my point.

By: DLee

DLee — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:05:29 +0000

That’s true only most of the time – but not ALL the time. I can remember at least a couple Pink Floyd pro-CD-R titles a few years ago that sold for just $10 per disc that were NOT free/bonus/gift items at Lighthouse. And there have been a few other pro-CD-R titles that, although they didn’t sell for as low as $10 per disc, they were priced slightly lower than factory-pressed silver originals. And again, there are other sources that sell pro-CD-R titles at prices less than those of factory-pressed silver originals. However, I realize that it’s certainly true that most of the time, most sources sell pro-CD-R titles at full regular prices, very unfortunately. My point was mostly about the usage of the word “NEVER”, which means virtually 0.0%.

By: yenssongs

yenssongs — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:26:45 +0000

Hi DLee, that source sells pro-CD-R’s for 10…but only pro-CD-R’s that are FOR FREE at Lighthouse. These are the free bonus Discs from Lighthouse folks… Regular pro-CD-R release have higher prices.

By: DLee

DLee — Mon, 16 May 2011 05:38:51 +0000

Never?! If you say that, then you obviously must not be a (regular) customer of a certain source that’s prob. the most popular one among the members of this site here – they often charge just $10 per disc for pro-CD-R releases, which is even less than half of their regular price per disc on factory-pressed original silver releases. Unfortunately, I’m not able to tell you what this particular source is for a reason that should be obvious to virtually all boot collectors. They’re not the only source that sells pro-CD-R’s at lower prices.

By: robert green

robert green — Mon, 16 May 2011 05:16:47 +0000

Pro-(Collector)-CDRs will never be priced less than silver cds, so collecting them is a moot point IMHO.

By: DLee

DLee — Sun, 15 May 2011 06:57:07 +0000

I’m not completely sure, but I don’t think Mitsui has always been made in Japan, and may no longer be these days. For the 1st few years I started buying & using blanks, I used only Mitsui exclusively, from approx. 2000 to approx. 2003, when they started to become unplayable in one of my CD players, and so then, after hearing that Mitsui had switched manufacturers to one that was possibly much worse, I switched to Taiyo Yuden, and since then I’ve never had any problem at all that could be attributed to or blamed on the brand.

If you read the descriptive info. on this site about itself on its main/home page, you could see that it actually says the following -

“The focus is upon silver pressed releases, both official and unofficial. With the proliferation of CDR titles you will occasionally find a review posted if it is important enough.”

As for that Springsteen CD-R title that tmoq bought recently, if only the place that sold it to him could have sold it at a much more reasonable price way back years ago when it first became available…..

By: snakebyte

snakebyte — Sat, 14 May 2011 18:25:03 +0000

I have a couple of cdr titles in my collection that i had to have. I do have a real problem paying good money for cdr titles this so called pro-cdr phrase is just nonesence. The companys still producing good quality factory pressed cds should get all our praise as this is the only way to collect our favourite artists and why this site is absolutely correct in only reviewing silvers. It will be a crying shame if cdrs become the norm at that point collecting will be a joke. Keep rocking all and fine collecting

By: classicrawker

classicrawker — Sat, 14 May 2011 02:32:45 +0000

Anytime you get a CDR title you should back them up on good quality Japanese made media. I use Mitsui Gold CDR’s which are expensive, relatively speaking, but worth every penny..TY’s are also good stuff at a more reasonable price…I do the same with my silvers I make copies to play and archive the originals…..Same with pro made DVD-R’s I back them up on Mitsui or TY media…

By: robert green

robert green — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:10:21 +0000

p.s. you can do the same thing with these Stringman titles in a few years.

By: robert green

robert green — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:09:12 +0000

tmoq, just email Orange Records and ask to get some replacements discs or perhaps a refund (due to faulty product). Yeah… that’ll work…

By: tmoq

tmoq — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:53:05 +0000

Good points, Dlee. Though I could have purchased the Springsteen title a few years ago, it would have been at full price, same as a silver, and that’s something I refuse to do.
I started to back up my “pro-cdrs” on good quality cdrs but then storage was becoming an issue so I abandoned that idea.

By: DLee

DLee — Fri, 13 May 2011 05:01:00 +0000

It’s indeed generally very true that CD-R’s are a disturbingly bad trend not worth collecting that I personally try to avoid as much as reasonably possible, but it’s not always 100% true all the time for 100% of collectors. The descriptive info. on this site about itself says that CD-R titles may be featured occasionally if they’re important enough, and some of the CD-R reviews here were written & submitted even before it was said or made clear here that factory-pressed silver originals are supposed to be the focus, mostly. If only tmoq could have had a chance to find & buy his Springsteen CD-R years ago – before it started to degrade & become corrupt….. And if he had done so, he could have backed it up to the very best quality brand of blank CD-R that’s produced, which is probably still Taiyo Yuden these days, & at least was a few years ago. Before that, Taiyo Yuden was prob. the 2nd-best brand behind Mitsui. Very unfortunately, many, or even most, of the audio-only titles of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, & possibly even Syd Barrett that are available were produced & released as only pro-CD-R’s. Some of them are superbly outstanding recordings, & it’s such a shame that they haven’t ever been made available on original factory-pressed original silver.

By: robert green

robert green — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:59:52 +0000

CDR is a bad trend… not worth collecting.

By: tmoq

tmoq — Wed, 11 May 2011 00:21:14 +0000

Wow! Speak of the devil! Keep in mind I hardly ever purchase “pro-cdr” releases, but I recently made an exception.
There’s been a Springsteen perfromance that was never issued on silver (July 9, 1995 Berlin Germany); so I finally broke down and purchased the Orange Records cdr release from 2002. The primary reasons I made the purchase was because, again, the show was never issued on silver and I only paid $9 for it.
Well, I paid $9 too much! I finally popped it in to my cd player and the first & second song were filled with digital noise behind the music. Halfway thru the second song, the music just stopped! The “data” on the cdr had detiorated. I’ve finally learned my lesson -the hard way.

By: tmoq

tmoq — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:59:44 +0000

All good points! Let’s not forget that many cdr’s deteriorate at some point. How many of us have paid good money for a “pro-cdr” title and then have the music turn to digital noise?
Also, there’s a very fine line between what a “pro-cdr” label can release as opposed to what virtually anyone can produce on any modern computer.
That’s why we praise/celebrate silvers on this site-they have a sense of permanence and true collectibility; as opposed to a cdr which to me is the equivalent of a cassette.

By: robert green

robert green — Sun, 08 May 2011 17:11:39 +0000

Yeah jbrum… That might be my #1 complaint, the prices are just insane for CDR’s. Bleck!

By: jbrum77634

jbrum77634 — Sun, 08 May 2011 12:34:21 +0000

I agree generally…I buy some CDRs when there is no choice because I still prefer that to a download. That said most of the Japanese CDR labels are highly professional compared with the early days and modern recordings are exceptionally good from what I’ve bought lately. The issue I have is the cost – I’ve been quoted up to $50 for a single disc release…basically premium label silver disc prices. So hats off to No Label, Godfather, Darker Than Blue etc for giving us quality silvers at reasonable cost.