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How To Write A Cd Review?

How To Write A Cd Review
How To Write A Cd Review When you write a music review, you’re aiming to share your impression of the music with the reader. And when you’re reviewing an album, these tips will help you to write something that is readable and engaging.

How do you write a music CD review?

Tips –

The first paragraph should be a general introduction to what you’re reviewing. Include the title, artist, and an interesting fact about its success or how it was made. The main body of the review needs detailed observations. Use specific vocabulary (e.g. lyrics, fast-paced, catchy melodies ) to comment on particular songs and parts of the music. It is also important to give context. Link the music to the artist’s life, or what inspired them, and the political or social context of the album. Try to make the review interesting and relevant to the reader. You can relate the artist’s work to real-life experience (yours or that of people in general). Use compound adjectives (e.g. fast-paced, foot-tapping, best-selling ) to make your writing highly descriptive. Finish off with a summary of why this album/concert, etc. is important.

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What makes a good album review?

Download Article Download Article Reviewing an album can be a creative, interesting, and meaningful task. To be successful, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with musical terms, research the artist, and listen to the album multiple times. If you stay polite and back up your opinions with facts, you’ll have an honest and valuable review finished before you know it!

  1. 1 Listen to the album multiple times. With every listen, new insights and observations should occur to you. If on the first listen you focused on lyrics or melody, try to stretch yourself to notice something different the next time and the time after. The album took a lot longer to make than it will take to listen to it, so try and respect the effort of the artists and appreciate the complexity.
  2. 2 Listen in different places at different times. Try to bring the music with you as you go about your day. Let it play while you’re working out or doing chores around the house. You may notice things when it’s on in the background that you didn’t notice when you were intently listening – music is funny that way! Advertisement
  3. 3 Familiarize yourself with musical terms. To best qualify, your assessment of the music, do a quick internet search for musical terms, and then try to incorporate them into your review when applicable. Here are a few examples of musical terms that could show up in a review:
    • Beat (the regular rhythmic pattern of the music)
    • Crescendo (growing or becoming louder)
    • Harmony (the simultaneous sounding of two or more notes, as in a vocal harmony)
    • Tempo (the speed the music is played)
  4. 4 Write your initial reactions down. Describe how the music makes you feel, whether the album flows from song to song or if it sounds like each song stands on its own. Jot down any poignant or super catchy lyrics. Use these insights later, when you’re adding detail to your review.
  5. 5 Notice what stands out. If an instrument gets featured more than others, or if the guitar riffs are especially prolific, make a note. Identify your favorite songs and lyrics and the ones that seem to be the most catchy or emotional.
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  1. 1 Research the artist and compile interesting facts. Focus on where they grew up, what their musical influences were, how they were discovered or broke into the music business, and what their future goals are. Try to include information that helps the reader understand the meaning behind the album.
    • A recent breakup or the loss of a family member is worth mentioning if it influenced the tone of the album.
  2. 2 Describe how this album relates to past albums or similar artists. If the band has released previous albums, describe how this album fits in and if it sounds different or shows progress. If this is the band’s first album, describe how it relates to other albums in the genre. Note if the artist or band is progressive, or very similar to other artists in the genre.
  3. 3 Read other album reviews. The National Public Radio’s website, Rolling Stone magazine’s website, and the Pitchfork website are all great, free resources. These will give you a sense of structure and ideas for descriptive words and themes you might look for to expand your review.
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  1. 1 Introduce the artist and the album succinctly. Your introduction should be more substance than fluff, and it should also catch the reader’s attention. They should be able to tell from your introduction whether you liked the album or not and what stood out. Include the album release date.
    • For example: “The Pipe Cleaners debut album, This is Futile, was released August 1st, 2017. Since then, it’s received critical acclaim and sold more than 1,000,000 copies. Even though the vocals seem to get lost in the loud instrumental solos and rushed tempos, the album shines as a modern throwback to classic hair metal.”
  2. 2 Describe the artist and their history. Use your outline and the facts you gathered during your research. This is a great place to mention their previous work, if any, and whether any events influenced the album.
    • For example: “Originally formed in Denver, Colorado, The Pipe Cleaners feature William Uling on vocals, Sarah Uling on guitar, Matt Stein on bass, and Dirk Golding on drums. The Pipe Cleaners went through several drummers before settling on Golding and starting work on their first studio album. Before it was finished, legendary rock producer Brandon Wicks caught a live performance and signed the band to his label, Candle Wicks. He and Nick Paul share executive producer credits. During recording, William and Sarah Uling lost their mother, Patty Uling to cancer.”
  3. 3 Describe the meaning and mood of the album. Look for emotional themes, such as empowerment, freedom, and loss. The mood can be discerned from the lyrics and melodies, and how they make you feel upon listening.
    • For example: “The frequent references to death, specifically in the songs “You’re Still Gone” and “When I Close My Eyes” set a dark, but the hopeful mood on this ambitious debut album. In the piercing ballad, “I Could Have Been,” the major themes of the album all come together, which seem to be death, rebirth, and regret.”
  4. 4 Include emotive words and lyrical details. Try your best to describe the instruments, the melodies, and the lyrics by citing specific examples and referencing the actual lyrics in your review.
    • For example: “The lyrics, “This is painful, it’s so shameful, how much I don’t want to care,” from the song, “Give it Up,” shed light on the struggle to deal with Patty’s death. The haunting guitar riffs on, “So This Means Nothing,” and the harmony between the lead vocalist and backup vocalist Matt Stein on, “Say You Will,” were surprising and moving.”
  5. 5 Write about what the band is doing next. If the album you are reviewing is from a band or artist that is still active, talk about their plans. If they’re going to go on tour, tell your readers when.
    • For example: “The Pipe Cleaners will be going on a U.S. tour with Melvin and the Marauders starting September 25th, 2017. Seattle, Portland, Austin, Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and Miami are included in the 23 stops. After the tour finishes on October 31st in Los Angeles, the band will be collaborating with Brandon Wicks and Shawn Snyder on their next album, which will have a decidedly different feel. According to Nick Golding, we can even expect some country flair.”
  6. 6 End with a recap. Concisely summarize the more important points in your review. Touch on how the album made you feel, and whether it was worth listening to, and why.
    • For example: “After everything they’ve been through over the last two years, The Pipe Cleaners let it all hang out on this raucous, up-tempo, and fresh LP. The ballads set a high note for vocals, the guitar riffs and solos were unplayable for the average musician and therefore incredible and complex, and the lyrics shine across every song. I’ll be looking forward to seeing them perform this fall on their tour and to hearing what they do with their next album.”
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  1. 1 Proofread the review and ask for feedback. You’ll want to fix any spelling or grammar errors, and sentences or ideas that don’t make sense or aren’t developed. If you get questions, especially the same questions from multiple people, it might be worth answering those in the review.
  2. 2 Write critically, but never cruelly. If you didn’t like something about the album, or maybe even the entire thing, provide examples and stay professional in your tone. “The album was terrible,” isn’t constructive or polite. Stick to the facts and use examples like, “The vocals were off-key and the pitch was a little grating,” or, “The instruments were out of sync with each other and it was difficult to understand the vocalist.”
  3. 3 Choose quality over quantity with your word count. Unless you have a specific word count requirement, don’t feel as though your review needs to be lengthy at the expense of substance. If you can accomplish a review that summarizes the album and honors the many layers and ideas it conveys in a few paragraphs, that’s great!
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Add New Question

  • Question How can I best conclude when writing a music review? I think you should conclude by saying what you liked best about the music and whether or not you would buy it.
  • Question How amd where am I supposed to upload this? Type it up and post it on a blog or a musoc community site.
  • Question What if I haven’t heard previous songs by a band? Can I write a good introduction without discussing the sound of previous releases? Maybe try listening to the other songs if you can’t then just focus on that specific song or album.

See more answers Ask a Question 200 characters left Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Submit Advertisement Thanks for submitting a tip for review! Article Summary X To review an album, begin by introducing the artist, including where they’re from, who influenced their music, and what type of music they’ve created in the past.

Then, describe the album in detail, such as the genre of music, notable sounds, and mood of the songs. You can also delve into the meaning of individual songs, or the album as a whole. To support your claims, quote lyrics from the songs and use emotive words, like cathartic, vulnerable, or electric. End your review with a preview of the artist’s next project.

For more tips, including how to avoid common mistakes, read on! Did this summary help you? Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 126,888 times.

How do you write information on a CD?

Here are step-by-step instructions and some helpful tips for writing CDs at the IfA on the workstation fleming, They are based on repeated personal experience, instructions and helpful advice from Pui Hin Rhoads and the IfA computing staff, and the documentation that came with the CD writer and software. I will try to update this document as I encounter new problems or learn new features; I welcome your comments and additions. (Note that there is also now a CD-ROM writer on one of the Macintosh comptuers in the Publications lab – I have not used this writer, and I do not address its operation below. Please see Karen Teramura in Publications for more information.) Files to be written to CD may be staged on any one of fleming ‘s major scratch disks: /fscr, /fscr_s1, /fscr2, or /fscr3, Note that each disk has a different capacity and a different zap schedule – see the root directory on each disk for specifics. Only fscr_s1 has signup capability. Whenever fscr appears below, fscr_s1, fscr2, or fscr3 can be substituted unless otherwise mentioned. This script creates for you the directories /fscr/username/image and /fscr/username/wd, where username is your username. The directory wd is your “working directory,” used by the CD software to store some parameter files. The directory image is the staging area for all directories and files that will be written to the CD. You should place your files in directories and subdirectories within the image directory as you wish them to appear on the finished disc; image acts just like the finished CD’s top-level ” / ” directory. All directory structure that you create inside image will be preserved and duplicated on the CD. Limit yourself to around 630 megabytes per CD. I’ve heard that our CDs can theoretically contain around 650 Mb, and I have successfully written a disc that contains 650351 kb of data on disk (although the completed CD-ROM contains only 647706 kb when measured with the ” du ” command – this roughly 2-Mb difference happens with all CDs I have made, so perhaps the packing of files or the accounting of their sizes is different on CDs than on hard disk). Bear in mind that a CD is written from the inside of the disc outward, and I am told that if the recorder encounters an error it will try to recover by moving farther out and writing again. If one attempts to put close to 650 Mb on the disk, the recorder will no longer have as much room to negotiate an error, and the CD may fail. There are different utilities that you may use to transfer your files from your current workstation to fleming : rcp This is a quick and simple way to transfer files between machines, since it can copy entire nested directory structures with a single command using the -r flag. The -p flag preserves the files’ time and date stamps. For example, to transfer everything in your current directory, use: rcp -rp * fleming:/fscr/username/image I am not aware of any pitfalls to using rcp ; perhaps its only drawback is the lack of a running list of files on the screen as they are copied. See the man page for further details. tar The following is an excerpt, courtesy of Kevin Jim. For more information on using tar with files on both tape and disk, see Kevin’s thorough help page: http://ccd.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jim/kjtar.html A handy, useful Unix trick for those with thousands of files to put onto a CD-ROM in hundreds of directories: use tar instead of ftp, because it can be automated more easily. Here’s how: 1. Create a,rhosts file on fleming with a line like: yourhost username where yourhost is the machine with the data that you want to write to CD.2. On yourhost, cd to the appropriate directory. I like to make many directories off the parent directory. A data directory might look like: % ls 93aug/ 93dec/ 93sep/ 94jul/ 94jun/ 94may/ 3. tar the desired data over: tar xvfpb – 20 93aug/ 93dec/ | rsh fleming ‘(cd /fscr/username/image; tar xvf -)’ 4. After the data has been transferred, be sure to delete the,rhosts file for security reasons. ftp Unfortunately, ftp cannot transfer subdirectories of the directory in you are located in; it will only copy files. You will need to manually construct the desired directory structure on fleming, and manually switch between the subdirectories on your host machine, issuing a new transfer command in each. Take care when using ftp to transfer astronomical data files that you use binary mode : ftp> binary If this mode is not used (i.e., the default ascii mode is used), some data files may be corrupted in transfer. Preparing Files When preparing a data set for archival, I like to make a file named CONTENTS, located in the CD’s base directory, that briefly describes the sources, dates, and organization of the data contained on the disc. You may wish to create something similar to act as a guide to yourself or to others who will use the disc. A very important note: All ownership and permissions that your files and directories have will be preserved when the CD is written. If you want others to be able to access the CD’s files, you should check to make sure that, at minimum, all files are globally readable and that all directories are globally readable and executable, If not, make the necessary changes with chmod, There is also a way to change the default permissions that are given to any new file that you create by setting your umask to the appropriate value, but I am not familiar with this method, so I just use chmod, Allocation See if the CD recorder is available on fleming and allocate it to yourself: % allocate cdwo Starting the CD Software At this point, you are ready to start the CD writing software. When executed, the program opens some interactive X-windows, so if you are operating fleming remotely you will need to type (I recommend in your console window): % xhost fleming and in the fleming window from which you will run the program: % setenv DISPLAY yourhost:0.0 where yourhost is the name of the machine that you are using. Now, to write a Unix disc, type: % mkudsc fscr For a Macintosh-readable disc, type: % mkmdsc fscr mkudsc and mkmdsc are scripts created by our computer staff that invoke the CD writing software with the necessary parameters for each case. If there is any demand in the future, a similar script can also be made for the IBM PC. ( Note: One user of mkmdsc told me that original Unix filenames may be altered by the software, possibly to conform to an 8-character plus 3-character extension, or possibly in an unpredictable manner. Specifically, he found that ” 001.fits ” became ” 001_fits “, and ” dark001.fits ” became ” dark001.fit “.) At this point, the CD Studio software will pop up a window named: Mkdsc 1.11 – cdwo.cfg, Some parameter files are automatically created, including one in your image directory called volume.inf, This file contains many fields, such as title, owner, and date, that you can personalize for your CD by editing volume.inf in your favorite editor. As with your other files, be sure that volume.inf has global read permission when you are done. Formatting Data To begin the file formatting (or “premastering”) step, click on Execute, This will start the little cartoon man chiseling away. In addition, this will open another window, Makedisc: Execution, which will display the results of a scan of your files. This list will include a tally of the number of files whose name lengths exceed 8-characters-with-3-characters-extension. Don’t worry; since the Sun system supports the ISO 9660 Rock Ridge extension, filenames longer than 8 characters and directory structures deeper than 8 levels are acceptable. (Note that this may not be true when writing Macintosh discs; see above comments about using mkmdsc,) These and any other error messages will be stored in the file /fscr/username/wd/errorlog.fil if you wish to examine them later. You will be prompted with an OK button window to start the formatting process. This process, once begun, used to take as long as 90 minutes for a full 600+ megabytes, but now that fleming has been upgraded, it appears to run much faster (on the order of 30 minutes). Proportionately less time is needed for less data. During this time, your files and file structure will be read from fleming ‘s hard disk and rewritten in a new format to the buffer in the large, black “Young Minds, Inc. CD Studio” device located underneath fleming ‘s CPU. You can interrupt this process by clicking on the Abort button (previously the Execute button) during formatting. After a minute or so (why it takes that long, I don’t know), the buffer device and the software will recover, and you can Execute again. When formatting is complete, Abort will change back to Execute, the Execution window will declare at the bottom: Finished dumping CD-ROM image and the little cartoon chiseler will stand back to admire a shiny, completed CD-ROM. Before going on to cut a disc, however, check the Execution window for errors (other than excessive-filename-length), such as file-size changes, or: *** Unable to open outdevice : Permission denied which is what you will see if you forgot to allocate cdwo, Inserting the Disc While your files are being formatted, you can insert your blank CD into the Philips Compact Disc Recorder. Eject the tray by pressing the Open/Close button. Use canned air to blow dust and dirt off of the tray, and inspect it for cleanliness. Do the same for both sides of the blank CD, paying particular attention to the writing side. Do not shake the canned air, and hold the can level to prevent liquid propellant from coming out with the air. Set the disk, write-side down, on the tray and press the Open/Close button again. After the tray retracts, the CD recorder should acknowledge the CD’s presence by illuminating the green “Disc In” light. Cutting the Disc Once formatting is complete, the final step is that of cutting the CD. Click on the CD Studio button. This will prompt another OK button window, asking if you really, truly, absolutely wish to commit this irrevocable act. After passing this point of no return, a small window is created that says that your disc is being cut. After a few seconds, if there are no errors, this window declares: Done. This is untrue! Your disk will actually take about 30 to 40 minutes to cut. However, this allows you to close the little window if you so choose. You can calculate more precisely how long it will take to write your CD by the following formula: divide the number of blocks from cdout (displayed in the Execution window) by 9000, and add 2.2, for the number of minutes needed. While the CD recorder is in operation, the amber Writing light will be lit, except for small pauses. If the Writing light remains off for more than 5 seconds, it is safe to assume that the CD is finished. After your CD is done, the formatted data on the buffer disk will still be intact, and you can cut another identical CD by skipping the formatting process and going directly to the CD Studio button. Checking Your CD It is best to try reading your CD to make sure that it is readable and healthy before quitting and deleting all your files from fleming ‘s disk. For example, if you use fleming ‘s CD-ROM reader, cd0, insert your disk and type: % allocate cd0 % cdmount cd0 Now you can access the CD-ROM just like a read-only hard disk: % cd /cd0 % ls % cp, or whatever else you wish to do. When you are done, leave the CD-ROM directory and unmount the CD: % cd % cdmount -u cd0 Then you are free to eject the disc. Errors When CDs fail during the writing process, they seem to do so catastrophically. Unlike a tape, where only a part of one file might be corrupted, the entire CD will be completely inaccessible. If the writing process fails, the red Error light may be lit when you retrieve the CD from the recorder. When this happens, sometimes the recorder will not release the CD when the Open/Close button is pressed – I found that power cycling the recorder worked in this case. When a bad CD is placed in a CD-ROM reader, a newer reader may simply eject the CD, while an older reader may try to read it at the cost of hanging or crashing the machine. Or a CD that has failed more subtlely may be accepted by a reader, but the reader will simply be unable to access or recognize any of the files. Always check your CD at least briefly for readability before you quit and erase all your files on disk. Cleaning Up Don’t forget to deallocate the CD writer and/or reader when you are done: % allocate -d cdwo % allocate -d cd0 Also, remember to delete your files and directory from your fleming scratch drive, and to cancel your signup if you were using /fscr_s1, Michael Nassir ( [email protected] ) Last modified: September 2, 1997 This webpage: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~mikenas/writecd.html

What is a good written review?

A good review includes enough detail to give others a feel for what happened. Explain which factors contributed to your positive, negative or just so-so experience. You might also offer your view on what the company is doing well, and how they can improve. But keep things friendly and courteous!

What makes a good review good?

What does a good peer review look like? – 1. Start with a (very) brief summary of the paper. This is a useful exercise for both reviewers and authors. If you struggle to summarise what the paper is about, that suggests the authors need to improve the clarity of their writing.

It also lets the authors know what a reader took from their paper – which may not be what they intended! 2. Next, give the Editor an overview of what you thought of the paper. You will typically have to provide a recommendation (e.g. accept, revise or reject), but in the review itself you should give a summary of your reasons for this recommendation.

Some examples:

‘the data appear appropriate for testing the authors’ hypothesis but I have some concerns about the methods. If these can be fixed, then this should become a useful contribution to the literature’. ‘the authors’ have a clear research question and use appropriate methods, but their data are not suitable to provide an answer to their research question. Without additional data collection, this paper is not appropriate for publication’.

3. The rest of your review should provide detailed comments about the manuscript. It is most helpful to Editors and authors if this section is structured in some way. Many reviewers start with the major problems first, then list more minor comments afterwards.

Major comments would be those which need to be addressed before the paper is publishable and/or which will take substantial work to resolve – such as concerns with the methodology or the authors’ interpretation of results. Minor comments could be recommendations for revisions that are not necessarily essential to make the paper publishable – for example, suggestions for additional literature to include, or cosmetic changes.4.

Remember that you have two audiences: the Editor and the authors. Authors need to know what was good about the paper and where improvements could be made. The Editor needs to know if you think the manuscript is a publishable piece of work. Bear in mind that different journals have different criteria for what makes a paper publishable – this information should be accessible on the journal webpage, or you might have been sent guidance to help with this when you accepted the invitation to review.5.

Clarity is important because authors will not be able to respond to your concerns if they don’t fully understand what they are. Reviews are most helpful if they don’t just criticise, but also make constructive suggestions for how concerns may be resolved. Your overall recommendation should be consistent with your comments. There is likely to be an opportunity to provide confidential comments to the Editor to provide further context or justification for your recommendation, but don’t include comments here that are completely different from the main messages of your review. The Editor needs to be able to justify their final decision to the authors using the reviewer comments as part of their evidence.

6. Don’t be afraid to highlight good things about the paper – a good review does not just criticise but also highlights what the authors have done well.7. Your review should always be polite; it is unprofessional to use derogatory language or take a harsh or sarcastic tone (and remember that even if reviewer names are blinded to authors, the Editor knows who you are).

How many times can you write a CD?

CD-RW discs can be erased and burned as many as a thousand times, DVD-RW perhaps a hundred.

Can you write over a music CD?

What Does It Mean To Burn a CD? – Generally speaking, “burning” a CD refers to the process of recording data onto a CD-R. The term ‘burn’, is a simply an informal term for the process. This process is done by transferring data onto disks (with recording capabilities), using a laser.

Can a CD writer read a CD?

CD-R or CD-RW drives are also called CD writers, CD burners, or CD recorders can read the same formats as CD-ROM drives CD-DA, CD-ROM, and CD-R/RW discs but can also write data to inexpensive CD-R (write-once) and CD-RW (rewritable) discs.

What is the common CD format?

The CDA format is an industry standard (referred to as the Red Book audio standard) that is used for encoding music on CDs and audio CDs bought in the high street will use this format.

How does a CD read and write information?

CD-ROM, abbreviation of compact disc read-only memory, type of computer memory in the form of a compact disc that is read by optical means. A CD-ROM drive uses a low-power laser beam to read digitized ( binary ) data that has been encoded in the form of tiny pits on an optical disk.

  • The drive then feeds the data to a computer for processing.
  • The standard compact disc was introduced in 1982 for digital audio reproduction.
  • But, because any type of information can be represented digitally, the standard CD was adapted by the computer industry, beginning in the mid-1980s, as a low-cost storage-and-distribution medium for large computer programs, graphics, and databases,

With a storage capacity of 680 megabytes, the CD-ROM found rapid commercial acceptance as an alternative to so-called floppy disks (with a maximum capacity of 1.4 megabytes). How To Write A Cd Review Britannica Quiz Computers and Technology Quiz Unlike conventional magnetic storage technologies (e.g., tapes, floppy disks, and hard disks), CDs and CD-ROMs are not recordable—hence the tag “read only.” This limitation spurred the development of various recordable magnetic-optical hybrid storage devices; but they generally failed to penetrate beyond the publishing world, where large multimedia files are regularly exchanged, because of incompatibility with standard CD and CD-ROM players.

In the early 1990s a new type of CD became available: CD-Recordable, or CD-R. These discs differ from regular CDs in having a light-sensitive organic dye layer which can be “burned” to produce a chemical “dark” spot, analogous to an ordinary CD’s pits, that can be read by existing CD and CD-ROM players.

Such CDs are also known as WORM discs, for “Write Once Read Many.” A rewritable version based on excitable crystals and known as CD-RW was introduced in the mid-1990s. Because both CD-R and CD-RW recorders originally required a computer to operate, they had limited acceptance outside of use as computer software and data backup devices.

To handle the proliferation of ever-larger multimedia files (audio, graphic, and video) in computer games, educational software, and electronic encyclopaedias—as well as high-definition movies for television entertainment systems—an expanded storage medium, the digital videodisc ( DVD ), was introduced in 1995, and a storage medium with even more capacity, Blu-ray, was introduced in 2002.

However, with the increased storage capacity of computers and the easy distribution of large files over the Internet, the use of CD-ROMs declined in the 21st century. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen,

Can you write over a music CD?

What Does It Mean To Burn a CD? – Generally speaking, “burning” a CD refers to the process of recording data onto a CD-R. The term ‘burn’, is a simply an informal term for the process. This process is done by transferring data onto disks (with recording capabilities), using a laser.