Help Please! Problem with sound quality when recording discs
 

I am having a problem when recording discs on my pc. Every time I burn a disc and copy music that I have saved in Itunes from Limewire, when I play it on any hi-fi or CD player there is a sort of 'scratching' or 'static' kind of sound. This obviously affects the listening quality of the disc, but I just don't know what is causing it. I can still here the sounds on the disc fine, but this scratching sound that sounds like static electricity ruins it.
I have tried looking for the cause of this but, so far I have been unable to figure out what it is. I have even tried burining at slower speeds, but this too doesn't work either.
I would appreciate any help that anyone could give me on this please.
Thanks.

I used to get this when I used 'cheap' CD-R's ... ones made in China or Taiwan. lol :D The cheap disks sometimes played ok at first but within 6-12 months would got distorted or noisey. Buy decent disks. :)

Check the music before you burn it. Does it sound ok on the computer? Does the disk sound ok on the computer if you play the CD through iTunes?

Burn at minimum speed your disks allow. Even though my burner can burn at 52 speed, I buy medium speed disks, burn at around 4 or 8 speed.

Are you using CD-R's or CD-RW"s? Some stereo systems nowadays can play CD-RW's. As can some dvd players. However the reflectivity on RW"s is so low it's more difficult for most players to detect it properly & read the disk info portion to know where to start or where each song stops, etc. thus skips or does not play at all or possibly noisey.

Re:Recording problem
 

Hi. Thanks for your reply.
I am actually using Sony writable CDs (CD_r 700MB), I had a pack of 50 of these, and the first few I burnt were ok, but recently every one has been getting this sound on them. So, I wouldn't say these were particularly cheap.

I have been burning at 8 speed, so I will follow your advice and try to burn at an even lower speed and see what happens.

If this doesn't stop the problem then I don't know what else to do.
Thanks for your reply.

Unless it's a bad batch of disks. That sometimes happens that a portion of the disks are faulty before you get them.

Cleaned your burner recently? Cleaned your CD player recently? Clean both using a cd cleaner disk.

Did you try playing the trouble-some disks on your computer or elsewhere? DVD players for example usually have the ability to play CD's. Try playing it there, feeding it through your amplifier. If still noise, just try playing through your TV. If no noise, then might be an issue with your stereo unless other disks play fine.

If I'm having problems with burning a particular disk, I start to use RW's, then play on my dvd player to check if they play ok. This saves disks. :D Playing first on your computer after burning is also a starting point.

IMHO Sony discs SUXORS.....I had a whole batch that when data was archived on them it would take (for example) 15 minutes to get the data back off of them....bleh...I've never had one single problem with Memorex or Imation discs...