Andy McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ - Section 6

Last-modified: 1997/09/14
Version: 1.11

[6] Software
[6-1] Which software should I use?
[6-1-1] Adaptec - Easy-CD, Easy-CD Pro, and Easy-CD Pro MM
[6-1-2] Adaptec - CD-Creator
[6-1-3] Elektroson - GEAR
[6-1-4] Adaptec - Toast CD-ROM Pro
[6-1-5] CeQuadrat - WinOnCD
[6-1-6] Young Minds, Inc. - SimpliCD
[6-1-7] Golden Hawk Technology (Jeff Arnold) - CDRWIN
[6-1-8] Optical Media International - QuickTOPiX CD
[6-1-9] Creative Digital Research - CDR Publisher
[6-1-10] mkisofs
[6-1-11] Asimware Innovations - MasterISO
[6-1-12] Newtech Infosystems, Inc. (NTI) - CD-Maker and CD-Copy
[6-1-13] Cirrus Technology - CDMaker
[6-1-14] Hohner Midia - Red Roaster
[6-1-15] Dataware Technologies - CD Author
[6-1-16] CreamWare - Triple DAT
[6-1-17] MicroTech - MasterMaker
[6-1-18] Angela Schmidt & Patrick Ohly - MakeCD
[6-1-19] Optical Media International - Audiotracer
[6-1-20] Jörg Schilling - CD Record
[6-1-21] Prassi Software - CD Rep
[6-1-22] Nero Software - SubIgnition
[6-1-23] Dieter Baron and Armin Obersteiner - CD Tools
[6-1-24] PoINT - CDwrite
[6-1-25] PoINT - CDaudio Plus
[6-1-26] Adaptec - Easy CD Creator
[6-1-27] Padus - DiscJuggler
[6-1-28] Ahead Software - Nero
[6-1-29] CharisMac Engineering - Discribe
[6-1-30] István Dósa - DFY$VMSCD
[6-1-31] RSJ Software - RSJ CD Writer
[6-1-32] James Pearson - mkhybrid
[6-2] What other useful software is there?
[6-2-1] Optical Media International - Disc-to-Disk
[6-2-2] Gilles Vollant - WinImage
[6-2-3] Asimware Innovations - AsimCDFS
[6-2-4] Steven Grimm - WorkMan
[6-2-5] Adaptec - Easy-CD Backup
[6-2-6] Cyberdyne Software - CD Worx
[6-3] What is packet writing software?
[6-3-1] Adaptec - DirectCD
[6-4] I want to write my own CD-R software
[6-4-1] PoINT - CDarchive SDK
[6-4-2] Golden Hawk Technology (Jeff Arnold)


Subject: [6] Software

DOS, Win31, Win95, and WinNT all work well, though some recorders are more difficult to configure for Win95 and WinNT than others.

Mac System 7.x works well. UNIX variants (notably FreeBSD and Linux) work, but there aren't a lot of people using them to create CD-Rs.

EMedia Professional has an index of CD-R hardware and software versions, with a different category featured each month. Take a look at http://www.onlineinc.com/emedia/AprEM/news4.html#index for an example.

Subject: [6-1] Which software should I use?

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for; the more expensive software has more features. However, this isn't always the case, and the software with more features isn't necessarily more reliable.

There's little standardization among CD-R drive manufacturers, so not all devices are supported by all programs.

Subject: [6-1-1] Adaptec - Easy-CD, Easy-CD Pro, and Easy-CD Pro MM

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/

The software was developed by a company called Incat, which was purchased by Adaptec in 1995.

A limited version of Easy-CD is part of the Adaptec EZ-SCSI 4.0 utilities.

Easy-CD Pro has been superseded by Adaptec's Easy CD Creator.

Subject: [6-1-2] Adaptec - CD-Creator

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT3.x)
See http://www.corel.com/
See http://www.corel.com/support/web/pages/downfile.htm [upgrades]
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/d_sheets/CDC_broc.html

The software was developed by Corel, and published by them until it was purchased by Adaptec in mid-1996.

The package includes drivers that allow several popular CD-R drives to be used as general-purpose CD readers under Win95. It can also create VideoCD and PhotoCD discs.

Version 2.x is a considerable improvement over version 1.x. Versions older than 2.01.079 had some problems inserting "knacks" into audio CDs.

CD Creator has ben superseded by Adaptec's Easy CD Creator.

Subject: [6-1-3] Elektroson - GEAR

Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (3.1, 95, NT), OS/2, UNIX, Mac
See http://www.oneoffcd.com/cdprod/gear.htm

This is bundled with some drives. Does not support Joliet (important for long Win95 filenames).

Versions older than 4.0 should be upgraded. A number of bugs have been fixed (e.g. one user found that v3.3 left clicks on audio CDs, another was unable to use it with Adaptec EZ-SCSI v4.0d or later).

Subject: [6-1-4] Adaptec - Toast CD-ROM Pro

Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.astarte.de/English/

The software was developed by Astarte, and published by them until it was purchased by Adaptec in early 1997.

This package is recommended for making Mac/PC hybrids, and is the most popular package for the Mac. It has also been sold as "CDitAll".

Software updates are available on the web.

Toast is able to make audio CDs using track-at-once recording that don't have clicks between tracks (if they do, Astarte says it's the fault of your CD recorder).

Subject: [6-1-5] CeQuadrat - WinOnCD

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/

WinOnCD ToGo is a "lite" version that comes bundled with some drives. Can create VideoCD discs and bootable CDROMs. Has very fast virtual CD creation.

Subject: [6-1-6] Young Minds, Inc. - SimpliCD

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.ymi.com

See also "CD Studio" for UNIX and WinNT, and some specialized solutions for things like recording over Novell networks and working with CD-R jukeboxes.

Subject: [6-1-7] Golden Hawk Technology (Jeff Arnold) - CDRWIN

Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/

(CDRWIN is the name of the Win95 version. I don't believe the DOS versions have an official name.)

Contains sophisticated CDROM duplication programs, track-at-once and disc-at-once utilities for sound and data, and other goodies. Some of the software is free, the rest is relatively inexpensive.

These come highly recommended for creating audio CDs, because they give you a great deal of control over the creation process.

Updates for the software are available on the net.

Subject: [6-1-8] Optical Media International - QuickTOPiX

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/html/optical_media.html (demo available)

[ product has been discontinued ]

Subject: [6-1-9] Creative Digital Research - CDR Publisher

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), UNIX
See http://www.cdr1.com (a/k/a http://www.hycd.com/)

Can create Mac/PC/UNIX hybrid CDs (i.e. CDs that work on all three platforms), as well as bootable CDs for PCs and UNIX. If you need a CD that works (and looks good) on Win95, MacOS, and UNIX, this is the program for you.

The Solaris version should be available through Sun's Catalyst program; see http://www.sun.com/sunsoft/catlink/cdr/cdrpub.htm.

Subject: [6-1-10] mkisofs

Platforms supported: UNIX
See ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/mkisofs/mkisofs-1.11.tar.gz

This allows creation of a prototype ISO-9660 filesystem on disk or tape, which can then be copied to a CDR. It supports the Rock Ridge extensions, and can be configured to ignore certain facets of the ISO standard (like maximum directory depth). Newer versions support multisession and bootable discs.

This can be used in conjunction with "cdwrite" or "cdrecord" to write discs under UNIX.

See ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/CD-Writing for a "mini-HOWTO" on writing CDs under Linux.

See http://lidar.ssec.wisc.edu/~forrest/ for a copy of "cdwrite" patched for use with SGI, and ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/hardware/cdrom/cd-writers for the FAQ on SGI CD writing.

X-CD-Roast is a Tcl/Tk/Tix front-end for mkisofs and cdwrite. See http://www.fh-muenchen.de/home/ze/rz/services/projects/xcdroast/e_overview.html

Users without a supported drive can still write the image to an MS-DOS drive, and then use a program like Jeff Arnold's FILE2CD to write the image.

Subject: [6-1-11] Asimware Innovations - MasterISO

Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/ (demo available)

Your basic CD-R mastering package for the Amiga.

Subject: [6-1-12] Newtech Infosystems, Inc. (NTI) - CD-Maker and CD-Copy

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.ntius.com/ (demo available)

CD creation and duplication software. Reportedly works very well on otherwise difficult discs.

They also make "CDR Explorer", free CD-R creation software that works like Win95 Explorer. It's available at their web site.

Subject: [6-1-13] Cirrus Technology - CDMaker

Platforms supported: OS/2
See http://www.cirunite.com/ (demo available)

Drag-and-drop CD creation, written specifically for OS/2. Allows creation of CDs with an HPFS (OS/2) filesystem.

Subject: [6-1-14] Hohner Midia - Red Roaster

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://hohnermidia.com/proaudio.html

Windows-based CD-R software that has some nice features for creating audio discs, including the ability to edit the P-Q subcode data.

The "rrdemo.zip" on the web site is actually a demo of Samplitude Master from SEK´D Software. Samplitude Master is a fancy audio editing program that - among other things - allows you to create ISO images suitable for writing to a CD-R, but the demo package doesn't include software to do the actual writing (the full package includes PoINT CDaudio).

Subject: [6-1-15] Dataware Technologies - CD Author

Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.dataware.com/site/prodserv/cd_rom.htm
See http://www.dataware.de/untern/index.html

CD creation software aimed at the corporate user. Comes with libraries for creating custom applications.

Subject: [6-1-16] CreamWare - Triple DAT

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.creamware.com/

A hardware and software combo for professional-quality sound editing, this now includes an audio CD creation tool.

Subject: [6-1-17] MicroTech - MasterMaker

Platforms supported: DOS
See http://makecd.core.de/ (demo available)

Pre-mastering software that supports the RockRidge extensions. The free demo creates ISO-9660 disc images.

Subject: [6-1-18] Angela Schmidt & Patrick Ohly - MakeCD

Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~un60/MakeCD.html

CD-R creation software that supports the "AS" extensions (which preserve the Amiga protection bits and file comments).

You need AmiCDFS, CacheCDFS, AsimCDFS, or something similar to make use of the "AS" extensions. AmiCDFS is available from http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/disk_cdrom.html. Look for amicdfs*.lha, where '*' is a version number.

Subject: [6-1-19] Optical Media International - Audiotracer

Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/html/optical_media.html

[ product has been discontinued ]

Subject: [6-1-20] Jörg Schilling - CD Record

Platforms supported: UNIX (several variants)
See ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord

A collection of freeware software and drivers for burning CDs under UNIX. The current version supports SunOS, Solaris, Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, SGI-IRIX and HP-UX.

Works best in conjunction with mkisofs (which should be available from the same site).

Subject: [6-1-21] Prassi Software - CD Rep

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.prassi.com/

CD mastering bundled with SCSI Rep, which allows you to write to more than one SCSI CD-R at once. See also section (3-17).

A review can be found at http://www.onlineinc.com/emedia/awards/award8.html.

Subject: [6-1-22] Nero Software - SubIgnition

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.home.aone.net.au/nero/ (free beta version available)

Full-featured audio CD creation.

Subject: [6-1-23] Dieter Baron and Armin Obersteiner - CD Tools

Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.giga.or.at/nih/cdtools.html

Free CD writing tools, with source code.

Subject: [6-1-24] PoINT - CDwrite

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.pointsoft.de/

Full-featured CD recording.

Subject: [6-1-25] PoINT - CDaudio Plus

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.pointsoft.de/

Creates audio CDs, with full control over P/Q subcodes.

Subject: [6-1-26] Adaptec - Easy CD Creator

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/

Adaptec's all-singing, all-dancing combination of Easy CD Pro and CD Creator. Combines the best features of both and costs less, including the ability to create PhotoCDs, VideoCDs, and jewel case inserts. Also includes some new features, including an application called "Spin Doctor" that helps convert from old LPs to CD.

The write buffer management is reported to be so robust that some testers were able to defragment their hard drive while writing a CD.

Subject: [6-1-27] Padus - DiscJuggler

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.padus.com/

Allows you to write to more than one SCSI CD-R at a time. See also section (3-17).

Subject: [6-1-28] Ahead Software - Nero

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)
See http://www.ahead.de/

Comes with "MultiMounter", which appears to be similar to Adaptec's "Session Selector".

Subject: [6-1-29] CharisMac Engineering - Discribe

Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.charismac.com/html/discribe.html

CD creation for the Mac. Supports creation of hybrid CDs.

Subject: [6-1-30] István Dósa - DFY$VMSCD

Platforms supported: VMS (VAX, Alpha)
See http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/vms.html

Write CDs from VMS. Really.

Subject: [6-1-31] RSJ Software - RSJ CD Writer

Platforms supported: Windows (95), OS/2
See http://www.rsj.de/us/default.htm

CD writing with support for ISO-9660, Joliet, and RockRidge extensions.

Subject: [6-1-32] James Pearson - mkhybrid

Platforms supported: UNIX
See http://www.ps.ucl.ac.uk/~jcpearso/mkhybrid.html

This is a mkisofs variant that creates discs in ISO-9660 format with Joliet and HFS extensions.

Subject: [6-2] What other useful software is there?

Software related to CD-Rs that isn't a direct part of the premastering process.

Subject: [6-2-1] Optical Media International - Disc-to-Disk

Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac.
See http://www.microtest.com/html/optical_media.html

[ product has been discontinued ]

Subject: [6-2-2] Gilles Vollant - WinImage

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.winimage.com/

Among other things, this lets you list and extract the contents of an ISO-9660 image.

Subject: [6-2-3] Asimware Innovations - AsimCDFS

Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/

Allows the Amiga to read High Sierra, Mac HFS, and ISO-9660 (including Rock Ridge extensions).

Subject: [6-2-4] Steven Grimm - WorkMan

Platforms supported: UNIX
See http://www.midwinter.com/ftp/WorkMan/

In addition to its primary role as an audio CD player for UNIX workstations, version 1.4 (still in beta) allows SPARC/Solaris2.4+ workstations to extract digital audio into ".au" files.

Subject: [6-2-5] Adaptec - Easy-CD Backup

Platforms supported: Windows See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/

Backup software designed to store data on CD-Rs. Allows incremental backups via multi-session writes, but backups aren't allowed to span multiple volumes.

This is currently available as part of Easy-CD Pro.

Subject: [6-2-6] Cyberdyne Software - CD Worx

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.b.shuttle.de/cyberdyne/cdworx.html

Full-featured extraction and manipulation of audio data from CDs.

Subject: [6-3] What is packet writing software?

Packet writing is an alternative to writing entire tracks or discs. With track-at-once recording there's a maximum of 99 tracks per disc, a minimum track length of 300 blocks, and an additional 150 blocks of overhead for run-in, run-out, pregap, and linking. Packet writing allows several writes per track, with only 7 blocks of overhead per write (4 for run-in, 2 for run-out, and 1 for link). Since it's possible to write packets that are small enough to fit entirely in the CD recoder's buffer, the risk of buffer underruns can be eliminated.

There are some problems with packet writing, mostly due to the inability of older CDROM drives to deal with the gaps between packets. CDROM drives can become confused if they read into the gap, a problem complicated by read-ahead optimizations on some models.

There are two basic "philosophies" behind packet writing, fixed-size and variable-size. With fixed-size packets, the CD recorder writes data whenever it has a full packet. All packets in the same track must have the same size. It's relatively easy for a CDROM drive to skip over the inter-packet gaps if it knows where the gaps are ahead of time, but there's a large installed base of CDROM drives that aren't that smart.

With variable-sized packets, the CDROM drive can't tell ahead of time where the gaps are. The problem can be avoided by laying out the filesystem in such a way that the drive never tries to read from the gaps. One approach is to put the entire file into a single packet, but if the size of a file exceeds the size of the CD recorder write buffer, the risk of buffer underruns returns. An alternative is to write the file in several pieces, but the Level 1 ISO-9660 filesystem supported by most operating systems doesn't support this. Replacing the "redirector" (e.g. MSCDEX) with one that supports Level 3 ISO-9660 solves the problem.

The industry-standard UDF filesystem uses Level 3 multi-extent files, so support for Level 3 ISO-9660 will likely be added to most OSs.

Writing to a CD-R with packets will be slower than writing with standard premastering software. Since the expected application for packet writing is "drive letter access" rather than creating an entire CD, this should not be an issue for most people.

Audio CDs can't be written with packets.

Some CD recorders may only be able to write 99 packets, because the recorder has to calibrate the laser power before writing, and there are only 99 spaces for doing the test writes. Sony and Philips have recently developed ways to work around the problem however, and will presumably make them available to other manufacturers. For details about the problem, see http://www.onlineinc.com/emedia/JanEM/standard1.html.

Drives based on the Sony 920S/940S/960S, Philips CDD2000/CDD2600, JVC XR-W2010, Ricoh MP-6200, and Yamaha CDR-400 mechanisms are capable of packet recording. (This list is not comprehensive; there may be others.)


A glossy overview of packet writing software can be found here: http://www.onlineinc.com/emedia/MayEM/starrett5.html

Details on Adaptec's software, as well as a good overview of the benefits and limitations of packet writing and UDF, can be found at:
http://www.adaptec.com/DirectCD/

A highly technical, if somewhat dated, reference can be found here:
http://www.onlineinc.com/cdrompro/0296CP/02osborn.html

Specifications for the Sony CDR-FS stuff can be found at:
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/ccpg/support/cdrfs/cdrfshome.html

For a technical discussion of packet writing and UDF, visit: http://www.onlineinc.com/emedia/MayEM/mcmurdie5.html

Subject: [6-3-1] Adaptec - DirectCD

Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/

UDF-based packet writing software. Check the compatibility list on the web site to see if it works with your CD recorder and your firmware revision level.

DirectCD versions older than 1.01 conflicted with some scanners. Be sure to check the Adaptec web site for the latest version.

Subject: [6-3-2] CeQuadrat - PacketCD

Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/

UDF-based packet writing software. You can see a press release on http://www.cequadrat.com/news/news.html#2.

Subject: [6-3-3] SmartStorage - SmartCD for Recording95

Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.smartstorage.com/scdr95.htm

Packet writing software intended for shared environments.

Subject: [6-4] I want to write my own CD-R software

Source code and ready-to-link libraries are available, but the more useful products tend to be more expensive. The library authors are usually CD-R software publishers themselves, and aren't about to put themselves out of business. Expect to sign a strict licensing agreement, if they agree to do business at all. Source code for some of the packages (notably Joerg Schilling's "CD Record" and "CD Tools" by Dieter Baron and Armin Obersteiner) is available. See section (6-1-20) and section (6-1-23).

Subject: [6-4-1] PoINT - CDarchive SDK

Platforms supported: Windows, OS/2
See http://www.pointsoft.de/earchiv.html

API and SCSI device drivers.

Subject: [6-4-2] Golden Hawk Technology (Jeff Arnold)

Platforms supported: PC
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/

C++ class libraries. [ Not yet available? ]

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