As far as I know my burning software and/or operating system controls the speed. I use a Mac usually with WaveBurner or Toast.

Most of the time, somewhere around 20% of a drive's rated speed is the optimum burning speed.

Most modern drives won't burn at 2x. And slower is most definitely NOT generally "better" most of the time. No doubt, you don't want to go overboard - But 8-12x on a 48-52x drive is very likely going to be the best place to be.

To backup what John said, I always burn audio CDs at 8x - I think I've been doing it since the max was 8x...

Is there any science or theory behind burning audio CDs slower other than the obvious potential for coaster creation?

a goal woud be to optimize pit size; so as to minimize all chances of playback
errors. e.g. when read with a slightly mis-aligned laser.

slower ostensibly means: more laser time per pit
-> hotter burning -> larger pits.

the strength of the recording laser (an unknown variable in the discussion
thus far) would likely be as equal a factor as burn speed.

jeff dinces

Well the optimum burn speed will depend on the media you use. Most of the dye's used now are formulated for higher burn speeds. So if you burned the disc a 2x, you would probably get a worse than normal burn. Really the only way to check is to burn the disc, analyze it with something like plextools or a clover system and see what the results are. Some media like faster, some slower. And don't count on the same brand name to be the same. If you look at where the disc in manufactured, the same company can use 3 different places to have the discs made. Taiwan for a bundle of 30, China for a bundle of 100, Japan for a bundle of 50 as examples.

I'm even wondering whether a DVD / CD burner would be as good as a CD burner for burning CDs. Are the DVD pits smaller? Does the DVD burner know how to make the beam bigger for CDs or does it just hope that the play laser will notice the marks as they go by?

it knows.

Michael Fossenkemper wrote: Well the optimum burn speed will depend on the media you use. Most of the dye's used now are formulated for higher burn speeds. So if you burned the disc a 2x, you would probably get a worse than normal burn. Really the only way to check is to burn the disc, analyze it with something like plextools or a clover system and see what the results are. Some media like faster, some slower. And don't count on the same brand name to be the same. If you look at where the disc in manufactured, the same company can use 3 different places to have the discs made. Taiwan for a bundle of 30, China for a bundle of 100, Japan for a bundle of 50 as examples.

VERY True.

I've done a lot of trial and error research with this on different media and different drives. With my Plextor, 8X seems optimal on Taiyo Yuden media. However, I've recently had so many problems with TY media that I've abandoned them and gone to DiscMakers Premium (with the Hydra Shield). These discs prefer 16X on my Plextor (716 External).

On my Pioneer (no idea of the model #) the TY still preferred 8 but was reliable all the way up to 48. With the DM Premiums, I get best results at 24X but very usable (average of less than 1.2 C1 errors and 0 C2 errors / second) runs.

My rule of thumb for a master disc is >.99 C1 or >0 C2/C3 errors and it's a coaster.

The TYs that I was having problems with would burn great for the first portion (50% or so) of the disc, but would go absolutely nuts after that with C1 error rates approaching 40/sec. This was true at any burn speeds but not a problem yet at all on the DM premiums.

Cheers-
J.

I'm with you, Jeremy, on the Discmaker CDs. I just posted a similar comment about them on another thread here. ZERO problems for me with their Ultra or Premium discs.

As long as the CPU can keep up, I too use 8x burn speed for CDs, whether it's a simple two-track master, or something more complex with effects, etc.

When making lots of copies, my CD duplicators run much faster, but with the DM discs, there seems to be little, if any problems. It's been a long long time now since anyone has returned discs to us with playback issues or problems. 8-)