I want to create an audio CD for to play on a standalone CD player. I burned the file with the Windows Media Player (number of the version I could not find), Win 8.1, to a DVD-R. I tried the DVD, because I have many of them, but no CD-R. That did not work, so I assume the DVD is the culprit and I should get a CD-R, as described? After burning the CD, what file format is displayed, for above mentioned purpose? Because the tut mentioned what format will not work, but not what will work.
Many thanks for your advice.
Audacity 2.1.3 is very old and should be updated. The current version is Audacity 2.2.2 and is available via the Audacity website: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/
There is a tutorial in the manual about recording to CD: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/burning_music_files_to_a_cd.html
In short:
- Each track that you want on the CD should be a separate audio file.
- Each audio file should be “WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM” with a sample rate of 44100 Hz.
- The CD burning software should be set to create an “Audio CD” (not a “data CD”)
- The disk should be a CD-R (not “CD-RW” and not “DVD”)
Yeah… Regular CD players cannot read DVD discs at all and they can’t read “computer files” (WAV or MP3 etc.). Audio CDs are a special format and your burning software can make the conversion.
You can burn WAV or MP3 files onto a disc as “data”. It will play in a computer and many (most?) DVD players will also play it.
I use this version, it seems, there is no other portable version available. I will check this again.
Assuming, just a CD-R will work, I bought Sony CD-R, cd recordable, 700 MB, Mo 1x-48x. As only an audio CD will work, I asked the shopkeeper, checked that on the Sony website and in a forum, if this is an audio CD, not a data CD, usable on all CD players. They could not tell. On the package is nothing mentioned. Is this the right CD?
Many thanks for your advice.
use this version, it seems, there is no other portable version available.
It should be OK as long as you can make a WAV file.
Assuming, just a CD-R will work, I bought Sony CD-R, cd recordable, 700 MB, Mo 1x-48x. As only an audio CD will work, I asked the shopkeeper, checked that on the Sony website and in a forum, if this is an audio CD, not a data CD, usable on all CD players.
The BLANK CD-R’s are all the same.* The burning application (Windows Media Player) determines how the data is formatted on the CD.
…The same is true with DVDs. You can burn any audio/video file onto a blank DVD, but it takes special software to make a proper video DVD with the VIDEO_TS folder, VOB files, and the other required files, and the optional menu & chapters, etc.
Note that some older CD players cannot play CD-R. So, you might want to try a different CD player. (Commercial CDs are “pressed”, not 'burned", and they are “easier” to read.)
…It’s also possible to get a bad blank or a “bad burn”. I once had a package of 50 (or 100?) DVDs and half of them turned-out unplayable or there were spots where the video was messed-up. After I figured-out what was happening I threw the remaining ones in the trash and I bought another brand. (I might have a bad batch of CDs now, because I got two bad-burns yesterday.)
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If you’ve made an audio CD, in Windows Explorer you should see:
Track01.cda
Track02.cda
Track03.cda…
And the file sizes should show-up as 1K. That’s all “fake”, just to give you some information. There are no “cda” files on an audio CD… There are no “computer files” at all.
Since the cda files don’t exist, you can’t copy or drag them to your hard drive. You have to “rip” the CD to create regular computer files.
If you see file names like this:
Beat It.WAV
or
Thriller.MP3
That’s NOT an audio CD… That’s a “data CD” with audio files. And, you CAN copy those MP3 or WAV files to your hard drive. Most DVD players will play WAV and MP3 files, and some car stereo CD players can play them, but it’s NOT a proper audio CD.
…You need to have Windows configured to show the file extensions (WAV or MP3, etc.).
***** At one time they were selling CD-R’s marked “for audio use”. These were the same but with a special tax/fee to pay musical artists when you copy their music. I don’t believe these are sold anymore. Or, if you see them marked “for audio”, it could just be marketing nonsense.
The BLANK CD-R’s are all the same.* The burning application (Windows Media Player) determines how the data is formatted on the CD.
Why says the tut to get an audio CD-R, instead a data CD-R?
The tutorial in the Audacity manual says:
it is important to choose the option to burn an “Audio CD” or “Music CD” and not a “Data CD”
This is referring to an option in the CD burning software.
The main types of optical disk that may be purchased are:
- Commercial CDs and DVDs (pre-recorded)
- CD-R (this is what you need for burning audio CDs that will play on most CD players)
- CD-RW (rewritable CDs, should be used for data only as few audio CD players will play them).
- DVD-R (mostly for video).
Most stand-alone CD players accept commercial CDs and CD-Rs only, and in the case of CD-R they must be recorded as “audio CD”.
Sorry for that dumb quest. Read that tut again-I got that totally wrong. I hope after the eye surgery such mistakes will be much less occur.