Yamaha's newest CDR recorder, the CRW-F1, just hit the shelves this week and it looks like a groundbreaker. It's a very fast CD burner as you might expect (entire CD's in about 3-4 minutes), but Yamaha has developed some proprietary technology that allows this CD recorder to burn labels onto the CDR itself. No special inks, labels or CDR's are required... in fact, no printing is involved. The unused portion of the CDR is used for burning 100x-size pits to form text and images. Also there is special Audio Mastering functions. Here's an independent review with sample pics:
http://www.reviewmakers.com/showdoc.php?review=50

The internal Windows version is now available from either Yamaha.com's website:
http://www.yamaha.com/yec/multimedia/customer/features/feat_prodsF1_flash.html

or from Microwarehouse (800-367-6808). And they cost under $200. The Mac versions (internal SCSI and external combo USB/Firewire) are due out in the next month.

I'm posting this here because some of you may be interested in running short-batch CD's to sell at gigs, and if you've ever dealt with stick-on labels you know how messy and expensive they are. Jewel case inserts are relatively cheap to mass produce so the CDR-F1 should make home CD production a lot easier. Mine arrives tomorrow so I'll tell you how it goes.

If noone else is interested in this topic then I'll drop it, but I thought since I said I'd post my thoughts after I bought my CRW-F1 to go ahead and do so. First and best: the Yamaha CRW-F1 is one of the finest CD recorders on the market and a great buy. It really does burn full CDR's in under three minutes with no problems. For that alone, it deserves consideration in any home studio. Installation was simple and trouble-free on my WinME Dell. Documentation is a bit simplistic but sufficient (except for the labeling feature, see below).

Second, the jury is still out on the special Audio Mastering functions. Reviews say it doesn't do much and I made several tests using this function that seemed to make no difference at all in the quality of an audio CD. I was also hoping that some older CD and DVD players that don't recognize CDR's would recognize "audio-mastered CDR's" but they don't. The AM functions essentially burn slightly wider and deeper "pits" in the CD which is supposed to enhaunce clarity and longevity of the data. Maybe it does but not perceptably. It takes longer to burn a CD and it reduces the amount data that can be stored on a CD. The longevity issue seems valid and for long-term storage of audio masters it seems a good idea to use this feature: I've been hearing about people losing data on CDR's after only five years whereas the advertised shelf life of most CDR's is 75-100 years (watch that UV folks).

And both least and last, the proprietary Yamaha disk labeling technology called Disk T@2 ("tatoo" - it took me a week to get that!). It's a gimmick and not a very good one. By burning 100x-sized pits, the CRW-F1 can create a label on the unused data portion of a CDR. And it works...barely. The software for designing this "tatoo" is difficult to use and poorly documented, and the results vary with the CDR type. On common silver CDR's, the results are practically invisible. You need blue or green Type 0 or Type 5 cyanine CDR's to get the best results, and they aren't widely available (I've read that they aren't reliable either, hence they aren't made as much). Just having colored CDR's doesn't help either... it's the formulation that makes the difference. A sample blue CDR is included with the drive (note: Yamaha doesn't sell CDR's like the included sample nor does anyone I could find). Luckily, the newer Verbatim "super-azo" blue CDR's work nearly as good as the Yamaha sample, and that's not saying much. You REALLY have to look hard to see the "tatoo" and you'd miss it if it wasn't pointed out to you. This might be great for putting a copyright or some other property info on a CDR but NOT for common labeling purposes (BTW: you can add a label to a finished CDR after the fact, so you can go back and add tatoos to your existing CDR's). The tatoo only appears on the data side of the CDR where you don't expect to look for it normally. Don't buy the CDW-F1 for it's "T@2" feature alone, though it will impress your freinds once they hold your CDR up to a bright light and squint.

That's it... the floor is open for questions...

If noone else is interested in this topic then I'll drop it, but I thought since I said I'd post my thoughts after I bought my CRW-F1 to go ahead and do so. First and best: the Yamaha CRW-F1 is one of the finest CD recorders on the market and a great buy. It really does burn full CDR's in under three minutes with no problems. For that alone, it deserves consideration in any home studio. Installation was simple and trouble-free on my WinME Dell. Documentation is a bit simplistic but sufficient (except for the labeling feature, see below).

Second, the jury is still out on the special Audio Mastering functions. Reviews say it doesn't do much and I made several tests using this function that seemed to make no difference at all in the quality of an audio CD. I was also hoping that some older CD and DVD players that don't recognize CDR's would recognize "audio-mastered CDR's" but they don't. The AM functions essentially burn slightly wider and deeper "pits" in the CD which is supposed to enhaunce clarity and longevity of the data. Maybe it does but not perceptably. It takes longer to burn a CD and it reduces the amount data that can be stored on a CD. The longevity issue seems valid and for long-term storage of audio masters it seems a good idea to use this feature: I've been hearing about people losing data on CDR's after only five years whereas the advertised shelf life of most CDR's is 75-100 years (watch that UV folks).

And both least and last, the proprietary Yamaha disk labeling technology called Disk T@2 ("tatoo" - it took me a week to get that!). It's a gimmick and not a very good one. By burning 100x-sized pits, the CRW-F1 can create a label on the unused data portion of a CDR. And it works...barely. The software for designing this "tatoo" is difficult to use and poorly documented, and the results vary with the CDR type. On common silver CDR's, the results are practically invisible. You need blue or green Type 0 or Type 5 cyanine CDR's to get the best results, and they aren't widely available (I've read that they aren't reliable either, hence they aren't made as much). Just having colored CDR's doesn't help either... it's the formulation that makes the difference. A sample blue CDR is included with the drive (note: Yamaha doesn't sell CDR's like the included sample nor does anyone I could find). Luckily, the newer Verbatim "super-azo" blue CDR's work nearly as good as the Yamaha sample, and that's not saying much. You REALLY have to look hard to see the "tatoo" and you'd miss it if it wasn't pointed out to you. This might be great for putting a copyright or some other property info on a CDR but NOT for common labeling purposes (BTW: you can add a label to a finished CDR after the fact, so you can go back and add tatoos to your existing CDR's). The tatoo only appears on the data side of the CDR where you don't expect to look for it normally. Don't buy the CDW-F1 for it's "T@2" feature alone, though it will impress your freinds once they hold your CDR up to a bright light and squint.

That's it... the floor is open for questions...

Esh,

Thanks for the info, sounds like a great burner!

Midnite