More CDR dye issues: “It was a very informative article you had in your inSync issue about CD’s and dyes (see TTOTD 3/22/99). You mention that “The only thing that matters is what works well in your machine.” But when burning CD’s of original music for distribution to a Publisher/A&R person, the thing that is of the most concern is will it play at all in someone ELSE’S CD player. Any thoughts/advise on that?”
Yes, I have thoughts on everything. I just can’t put most of them in print. You make a great, if obvious, point. The real concern is how the CD will play in the machine it is destined for. You cannot control or anticipate what this will be so there is only so much you can do. You have to assume it will be a low quality machine (though I have found little correlation between a machine’s quality ($$) and its ability to play marginal CD’s). The only things you have control over are the CD media, the writer/burner, and the software (if you are not using a stand-alone CD recorder). From there you must make discs and try them on every CD player you can get your hands on. If they work in all the machines you try then odds are they will work in almost anything. If they only work in half or 3/4 of the machines then you need to make a change and start over. As mentioned in the 3/22 inSync article the media and the hardware has vastly improved in the past couple of years, so with the right combination everyone should be able to make discs that will play on 95% to 99% of all CD players.
If you need a 100% foolproof solution have your CD’s duplicated by a professional CD manufacturing house. This can get costly for small runs, but the end result is a much more professional looking product and one that is 100% reliable.