What Causes Clicking Sound On Recorded CDs?

 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
I have a Sony CD recorder and I record cassette tapes to CD. When I play the finalized CD in deck A, I almost always get this clicking sound (like a needle at the end of a record). But if I play CD in deck B (recording deck)they mostly play fine. When I play the Cds in a Aiwa Cd player they play fine. Regular Cds play with no problems
in deck A, except on some 2-CD imports, 1 disc will play fine in deck A and 1 will have that clicking sound, but will play fine in deck B.
I use Memorex Music 80 minute CD-Rs.
The repair shop said to use only Music Cd-R that don't have 700MB listed on the disc (they said use those for only computers). I tried a Sony CD-R without 700 MB listed and still got the clicking sound. Would a 74 minute Cd-R work any better?
I'd be grateful if anyone can solve this 3 year mystery, no one seems to know what the problem is. It's frustrating to spend hours recording a Cd-R from selections from 20-25 tapes and not be able to make a copy.
 

Gold Member
Username: Project6

Post Number: 2567
Registered: Dec-03
try writing to the cd-r at slower speeds. No faster than 8x write, slower would be better.
 

Anonymous
 
Thanks Berny for the advice. I record at slowest speed. I record 1 tape selection at a time to CD. Just can't figure this out.
 

Gold Member
Username: Project6

Post Number: 2596
Registered: Dec-03
Are you recording direct to the CD or are you downloading it to your computer first?
 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
I'm recording directly to the Sony CD recorder from my Cassette deck. I'm not using a computer.
 

Gold Member
Username: Project6

Post Number: 2609
Registered: Dec-03
That could be the problem. You are probably picking up the noise from the tape transport. It happened to me before while going to an analog recorder and drove me bananas because I couldn't figure out what was happening.

Also, you can try grounding the 2 units together.
 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
Thanks for the information! By grounding the 2 units together how would I do that? I'm kind of a beginner at this.

I have been able to record quite a few CDs that play fine in Deck B (recording Deck) but start clicking in Deck A (so I can't make a copy of recorded CD)
 

Gold Member
Username: Project6

Post Number: 2626
Registered: Dec-03
You can ground them together by attaching a wire from the chassis of the units. Use one of the screws that hold the chassis cover.

How are you recording? Do you pick a selection from the tape, after a selection, do you pause the tape and then the cd recorder? Or is it a continuous transfer? If you are pausing betwen sessions the noise from the tape pausing will also be recorded.

 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
For recording I pick a selection from a tape and when song is over, I stop CD recorder (don't pause). I then put in next tape and set proper recording level and record one song and so on until I've recorded 25-30 tracks from 20-30 tapes. Before I do any recording, I have CD recorder on pause and play parts of every track I will be recording and I write down what would be best recording level for each track, so when CD is recorded, every track will have about the same volume.
Really appreciate all your advice! Much more than I've been able to find these last 3 years. If I hadn't invested so much in CD recorder I would try to learn how to record from computer.
 

Gold Member
Username: Project6

Post Number: 2635
Registered: Dec-03
Wow, very meticulous work! i haven't done that type of recording since I tried to put all my vinyl on a reel to reel tape:-)
I may be dating myself here, LOL!

Let me know how it turns out, I am very curious!

I wish you well!
 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
Will let you know if I ever solve this problem. Thanks for all your time and advice!

Another strange thing is sometimes the Cds I record will play all the way through just fine, other times around the 2nd half of the Cd, that irritating clicking sound. Almost makes me want to go back to recording on cassette tapes.

Hope you were able to get all your vinyl recorded satisfactory. I recorded most of mine on cassette tapes and even some recorded 20 years ago still sound good.
 

Ray H
Unregistered guest
Your problem relates to head tracking inacuracy on the laser in deck A...probably the most used deck. Internal error correction circuitry in the deck is designed to overcome data loss due to scratches and cannot mask the loss of large amounts of data from spindle or tracking mis-alignment...hence the tssst noise.
Tracks toward the end of the read head's travel range experience the most misalignment as the rack & pinion mechanism of the head transport is usually only made of a plastic polymer like MINDEL or ZYTEL (think nylon). In some decks, the lubricant is not applied properly...or at all, leading to wear over time. The effect is more pronounced at higher recording speeds. try mastering from the B deck then check for the presence of the clicks.
 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
That makes the most sense I've heard in 3 years that I've had this problem! What I do is record on the B deck at slowest speed and many of the CDs I've recorded play fine on deck B. But on deck A nearly every CD I record from deck B has this clicking sound. I seldom use deck A, except for prerecorded CDs. Which play fine. Except for a couple imports.
Is there anything you would recommend that might stop this clicking sound? I bought this Sony RCD-W1 Cd recorder from Best Buy 3 years ago and have less than a year left on my warranty. I've returned 2 Cd recorders of the same brand already and Best Buy sent my current Cd recorder to their main service shop in California from Minnesota.
About a month later it came back. The only advice
was on a piece of paper showing what Cd-R to use.
They recommended using a Memorex Music CD-R that doesn't have 700MB on the label. I can't find them anymore. Though did try a Sony Music CD-R without 700MB on label and same problem.
 

Gold Member
Username: Project6

Post Number: 2658
Registered: Dec-03
Rats! I knew it was more technical than I thought.
CD Blues I hope you get a solution for this problem. I am interested in knowing how it turns out.

cheers

sorry I couldn't help you more.
 

CDBlues
Unregistered guest
Finally was able to play a CD-R in deck A without that clicking sound. What I did was try a Music CD-R that doesn't have 700 MB on the label and instead of recording 78-80 minutes, I recorded 40 -65 minutes on 2 CD-R. Both played fine, something that hasn't happened in a long time.
Lately when I would play a CD-R with 700 MB on label, I'd get that clicking sound right away. I'll have to play the CDs a few times without clicking before I know for sure that my problems solved. But am hopeful.
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