Topic: Sound quality question when transfering from SD card to CD?

[DeltaBluesMan]

I have had my zoom H4 recorder for about 30 days now and I am having a problem. When I copy the SD card to the computer then burn a CD I am getting a lot of tic's and a few places where the song sounds like it lost about 2 or 3 seconds. Whats going on? The SD card recordings sound great but when I put then on CD I get the above, what can I do and what causes it? The files are all in wave and the cd burner is on my computer.
HELP!

[rainingvodka]

Do you have any sound editing software to check the wav file?  Seems to me the problem is likely caused by the burning process and not the file itself.  What software do you use to burn CDs?  What kind of burner do you have?  How do you make your CDs -- do you have applications running in the background while doing so?  We need to know exactly what you do to go from SD -> Computer -> CD to help!

[Brian Skalinder]

First step, IMO:  identify whether the file plays back properly in each of the following steps of the process:

• direct from SD card / H4
• on PC, after transferring from SD card
• after burning to CD

Sounds like we know the answer to the first (plays fine) and the last (screwed up), but not the middle.  If the file plays fine from PC, then it's likely the burning process is screwing up somehow.  If the file does not play fine from the PC, then the transfer process is screwing it up.  Once we know which it is, then we can troubleshoot further (with questions like the ones rainingvodka posed).

[dorrcoq]

I had a similar problem when transferring from my Edirol R-09.  Didn't hear ticks, but had gaps missing.  Turns out the USB port I was using wasn't working properly.  I changed ports and the problem disappeared.

[NJFunk]

Make sure nothing else is running when you're doing the transfer.

[DeltaBluesMan]

Ok answer to first question, Do you have any sound editing software to check the wav file? No. Unless, that wouldn't be the program Cubase that came with the recorder would it? What is a good cheap sound editing software?

Plays fine from the recorder from the SD card. I use a CD car kit cassette deal pluged into the recorder earphone jack and it sounds really great. Kinda makes it nice when riding home from a show I can listen to what I just taped.

Also plays fine on the computer.

So it must have been the burning process. Used the standard what-ever-comes-with windows vista home edition. The CD/DVD burner was what came with the computer that is about 6 mo old.

nothing else running in the background that I know of, unless it was playing as it was burning.

Don't forget guys I am a beginner with 3 toes and 2 thumbs on each hand. (and not tech savvy)
Thanks for all the great help so far.

[jeromejello]

Make sure nothing else is running when you're doing the transfer.

and the burning to disc

[firebaugh]

What speed are you burning at?  I never burn audio faster than 8x because I've seen issues similar to what you're saying when burning faster.

[J.Maye]

I had a similar problem; files I knew were fine but burned with tics. Then my burner started burning the first track fine with everything else on the 2nd track no matter how many tracks I was burning, and the display would count back from 99:99 no matter how long the disc was. I ended up replacing my burner and it was all good. I tried everything under the sun first though. If I was a betting man I would say you just need to replace the burner, yours may be starting to really go.