Hardware Review of:
Sony CRX145E Recorder
SPRESSA Professional CD-ReWritable 

There are two equations to burning a CD: the hardware that does the burning and the software package that controls the data you are burning on the CD. I’ll start with the Sony SPRESSA CRX145E/CH CD-ReWritable recorder that I added to my want-list when I had a new PC built last June. Since the dealer installed the hardware and software, it was ready to go when I picked it up. The first time I turned on my new PC, there was a Sony CD Extreme icon on my Start screen.

The Sony CRX145E is capable of writing CD-R discs at 10X speed and CD-RW discs at 4X speed. 4X (or quad speed) means that my burner hardware can write (also record or burn) a CD-RW disc at 600 kilobytes per second. This burn rate will record a full 650 MB CD-RW disc in about 18 minutes. At 10X speed, the burner will write 1500 kilobytes per second, or record a full 650 MB CD-R disc in about 7 minutes. The instruction manual indicates that the CRX145E can record CD-R discs at 8X and record CD-RW and CD-R discs at 4X and 2X and CD-R discs at 1X — but I have no idea of why you would want to record that slow. Possibly this would be a good question at Dale Swaffords next CD Burner SIG in February.

My Sony burner is a multi-function device as it is capable of reading at up to 32X (4,800 kilobytes per second) and is a good general use CD-ROM drive as well as a recorder.

The CRX145E has a four megabyte data buffer which is supposed to reduce buffer underruns when writing to CD-RW and CD-R media with some burner software. Buffer underrun is a condition where the drive’s buffer runs out of data while the disc is still being written. The recording of a CD is a system intensive process with some burner software, and the recorder needs a constant stream of data. A buffer underrun occurs when the data stream to the recorder is not fast enough to keep the recorder’s buffer full, causing the recording to abort. In other words, you have created another coaster.

My Sony CRX145E supports the following CD formats:

• CD-Digital Audio; a format for audio CDs playable on audio Cd players.
• CD Extra; Audio and data in multi-session format.
• CD Text; Audio CD with album name; song titles encoded. CD Text information is displayed on CD Text compatable CD players and CD-ROM drives.
• CD-ROM (Mode 1); the format used for most CD-ROM applications.
• CD-ROM  XA (Mode 2 Form 1 and Mode 2 Form 2); CD-ROM Extended Architecture. This standard was created for smoother playback of multimedia content.
• CD-I* (Mode 2 Form 1 and Mode 2 Form 2)
• CD-1 Ready; CD-Interactive is used for home entertainment systems. (My instruction manual says The CRX145E does not have the necessary audio circuitry and decoding functions for CD-1 playback, but can read and record).
• CD-Bridge; a format for a mixture of Kodak Photo CDs and Video CDs; playable on TV set top players and PCs.
• Video CD; playable on TV set-top video CD players and most DVD systems.

The faceplate of the Sony CXR145E is probably like most others. It has an eject button, a volume control and a headphone jack as well as a light signaling drive activity.  There is also a tiny hole which is an Emergency Eject Hole in the event that a CD does not eject at the end of a session. A paperclip is the recommended tool in case this ever happens.

PC Requirements
The Sony CXR145E requires a minimum of a Pentium 233 MHZ or faster CPU, at least 32 MB RAM, Windows 95/98/2000/NT or later; Bus mastering EIDE connection; Hard disk drive with less than 12ms access time and sustained throughput greater than 2 MB per second; latest bus mastering drivers for your IDE hard drive/CD-ROM source drives.

CD Recording methods
There are several options presented to me when recording a CD:

• Disc at Once; this is the recording method when an entire disc is written in a single pass. Data cannot be added at a later time.
• Session at Once; a complete session is written in a single pass (one at a time). Multiple sessions are typically recorded in Tract at Once mode, where the track is written first, then the session information.
• Track at Once; a track can be copied to the disc incrementally (one at a time).
• Multi-session; several sessions can be written to a disc. Each session has at least one track.
• Variable and fixed Packet recording; typically used by back-up software and Drive Letter Access software to add files and folders at a time, instead of tracks/sessions at a time.

Bundled software
My Sony burner was bundled with the following software programs:

• CD Extreme 

allows me to create custom music CDs from any combination of .wav or MP3 files, create single and multi-session data CDs, or perform CD to CD copies.
• Retrospect Express 

lets me create immediate backups, define my own backup scripts (or I can use an EasyScript wizard to create a complete backup procedure by answering a few simple questions).
• abCD

Once formatted, an abCD disc acts just like a large floppy. I can simply drag and drop files from Windows to the drive icon or save directly to the disc from an application.
• MixMan Studio 3.0. 

The Re-mix Studio allows me to load up to 16 musical elements from hundreds of royalty free music samples and loops that are included with the program. I can record voice tracks, and if I had the capability, my own sounds, and put them all together to create “professional” sounding music, then output the mix in .wav or MP3 format for burning.
• Spress Play & Record 

I can select any combination of MP3 or .wav files into the playlist for listening. An eleven band graphic equalizer and real time spectrum analyzer are included, along with several playback mode options. I select music into the record list and burn my own compilation CD which can be played on any standard CD player (although not all CD players are created equal!).

Earlier I wrote that the first CD I created turned out to be a coaster. Without bothering to read the book (who reads instructions the first time we try things, right?), I attempted to do a disc copy of a music CD. Half way through the burn, my burner CD tray slides out (this is your first hint that something didn’t go right) and an error message appeared on my screen. I then went searching for my instruction manual.

Upon reading one of Dale Swaffords helpful Burning a CD articles that have appeared in past issues of the PC Alamode, I remembered seeing something about writing to my Hard Drive before starting the burn. Sure enough, there was a little check box “Make a temporary image on the Hard Drive and copy from there.” I checked the box and had a successful burn. I’ve not found the logic of this extra step in the instruction manual but since it worked, this is what I usually do — make a temp copy on my HD — but this extra step increases the burning procedure by several minutes. Since then, I’ve burned data CDs and photo CDs without problems.

The Sony CRX145E Recorder is available at most reputable PC hardware stores. I got mine at AllGen Computer Warehouse for $269.00. That’s not cheap as far as CD burners sell for these days but my philosophy is, you get what you pay for.

Two days ago, I burned another coaster. I was doing the exact procedure that has worked 10-20 times in the past. I’m sitting there twiddling my thumbs while the burner light is blinking and suddenly the CD burner tray slides out and there is an error message on the screen. The error message doesn’t really tell you anything other than something like: “Jack, you’ve just made a coaster!”  I popped in another blank CD-R disc and repeated the burn procedure that I’ve been doing time after time. I got a perfect burn. Go figure.