Dave, Sean's gone to a technical conference, so he probably won't
get back to you for a while. FWIW, here are my quickie answers:
MP3: I know nothing first-hand about MP3. I don't use my PC
for serious audio. I haven't even hooked up my MPEG DVD add-on
card. Aren't you glad I filled you in <G>?
CD Labels: Depends on what you want out of the labels.
The stick-on labels that come with the Yamaha are
junk. That is, they work ok, but they don't look very good.
They're partially transparent.
I use them for backup disks, and print them with a laser
printer. It's tedious setting up the formats, but once you
have made a few basic templates, you can bang 'em out.
Keep the little plastic gizmo, though. That makes it easy
to put the label on squarely (roundly); hard without it.
Label makers sell EXPENSIVE label application kits, but
the process is so simple with the plastic guide that
I can't imagine any real improvement. Incidentally,
the guide is made to work on a CD held in a jewel box
(don't recall if that was stated anywhere or not).
If you want a nice-looking finished product, the labels
made by Stick-It Right (I'm NOT making this up - at least
that's the label on the package) are
absolutely opaque and completely cover the CD manufacturer's
label. You can print them on laser or ink-jet and
get as fancy as you want. Really gives a finished
professional look to the result. A bit pricy a year or
so ago when I bought 'em; about $25/100. Add 2 bits per
CD <ggg>.
I write on the CD directly occasionally. What seems to
work best is the permanent marker called a "Sharpie"
from Sanford. I bought a pack of 18 at Costco for 7.95.
The non-perm markers tend to rub off and smear.
I usually write on a junk label and apply it afterwards
rather than the CD itself, but with a soft pen I doubt
that that's really necessary. However, the data's right
under that lacquer, so you never know. I think some
early CDs were susceptible to bleed-through from these
pens, but I think that's been fixed. It may never have
been more than speculation for all I know.
CD Creator Deluxe: Dunno as I know exactly what the
differences are, but I have approx 1,000 LPs of which
I want to transcribe my most favorite (and irreplaceable)
ones to CD. Creator Deluxe has software for that sort of
thing. I have no idea how effective it is compared to
other sources, but that was a consideration. Then there's
a wave editing studio that let's you snip, join, and
play with audio files. Again I have no idea how effective
these particular tools are compared to others.
I think the basics between Creator and Creator Deluxe
are pretty much the same: Digital audio extraction;
track selection and ordering; and burning in any of
several formats. From reading the Yamaha manual it sounds
like these are essentially identical between the versions.
That's where the real value is.
Worth the cost? Doubt it, but it depends on what you
want to do with it. I wish I could tell you how well the
bells and whistles work, but I haven't had time to do
any of it. I FINISHED my dissertation 25 years ago <GG>.
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