I find I can record from vinyl via usb port to my hard disc ok. This tells me I have a .aup file even tho I clicked “export as WAV32 file”. When I try to burn the CD from a play list (windows media player) I get a message that the cd cannot accept a .aup file, When I click on the list of suitable programmes it informs me that I need a .cda file. How do I convert to this format?
Ian Lightfoot
To burn a CD you will need to export as 16-bit PCM Stereo WAV (this is the Red Book standard for CDs).
See this article in the Wiki: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_burn_CDs
and this one: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Transferring_tapes_and_records_to_computer_or_CD
WC
The CDA format is the format of the music on the Music CD. The Music CD authoring program should create those for you.
I’m surprised the export step didn’t work. That’s how it’s done.
Koz
Wait, so if I recorded my Axis Bold as love in WAV 32 bit IEEE float, I could never convert it to CD?
Or if I WOULD convert it to 16 bit, would I lose all the quality that I have gained?
OR (lol), should I just from now on convert my LP records into 16 Bit WAV?
Sorry to ask this in this guy’s post but I found this to be quite relevant to my query hehe.
@airhendrix
no you should be able to re-import it and get Audacity to export it at 16-bit PCM Stereo. Audacity will apply dithering, but I doubt that you will be able to hear the difference (I know you have much younger ears than mine and so are in with a fighting chance - but I still doubt that you’d hear the difference due to dithering).
WC
Even if I don’t have dithering option (last time I checked, it was either Sin or Cos WAV) selected, will Audacity still dither the tracks?
Oh and if I actually have the whole album recorded onto one huge WAV, I can still select certain parts of it for certain songs and export each one to mp3 without a problem in quality?
I know I shouldn’t be paranoid about this but I really do love LP’s hehe 
.
The sound standard on a Music CD is 44100 sample rate, 16-bit resolution, Stereo. Oh, and 80 minutes, tops.
That means the top frequency response is about 17 KHz and with dithering tricks up to 20 KHz, the generally accepted limit of human hearing. The difference between overload clipping and noise floor is 96dB which is also beyond most people’s ability to hear it.
When the standard was developed, the Golden Ears all rose up as one and complained that they could hear the difference between their vinyl and the New CD Format. Lots of adjectives were used and they even made up some new ones for the occasion. But the format went forward based on the 99.997% percent of people who were happy listening to it.
That and you didn’t have to worry about cat hair and fingerprints any more.
So if you’re a woman under 16, you will not be happy with the Music CD version of your vinyl. Nobody else will be able to tell. You are urged strongly to Export As WAV each one of your vinyl captures as a Capture Master sound file. Back those up to make safety copies. If you do that at the original Audacity 44100, 32-floating, Stereo format, then you will be able to go “downhill” to any other format that comes along, or listen to them in the original high-quality capture format on the computer.
Remember that vinyl gets “tired” and you can’t do two playings one immediately after the other without hearing muted highs and a lack of definition.
All this is assuming a top quality computer sound system and only the Macs and people who took extraordinary steps with their PCs can say that.
So don’t throws those vinyl records out quite yet.
Koz
Thanks to all for ideas, will proceed encouraged!!
Ian Lightfoot