I’ve almost got this figured out. Just have a couple of issues.
I labeled all of my songs. I used the Export>Multiple to save them to a folder. First question, the files were saved alphabetically by their label name. How can I get them to save in track # sequence?
Then I burned them to a CD using Windows Media Player.
So far so good.
But when I open iTunes and import them from the CD, all it picks up is Track 01, Track 02, etc. It failed to recognize the label names.
Where are you looking? The files are saved by label name. They also have Track number metadata unless you removed it when you exported.
CD’s do not take metadata from the burned audio files. They require CD-Text. See that article for software that can burn or read CD-Text. For example you can burn CD-Text using iTunes and can read it with VLC.
Why are you bothering to burn a CD - you can just export WAV or AIFF files and import those into iTunes (where you can concert them to compressed MP3 or AAC) - or you can export MP3 or AAC for direct import into iTunes. This way you will retain the trackname metadata.
Even if you are burning a CD to play in a CD player you may still find it easier to do what I suggest above and just burn a CD for playing, not iTunes loading.
First, I’m burning to a CD because that’s how I want to permanently store them. I import them into iTunes so that I can load them to my iPod for portability but the CD is my end game.
I’m using Windows Explorer to look in the folder that Audacity exports to. And yes, they are arranged by label, alphabetically. But that’s not how they are arranged on the original album so I want them arranged by track # so that I can simply import the list to Media Player and burn the CD. I did not remove the track information. Once I drag the file list into Windows Media Player I can move the songs around and put them in track sequence but that’s a lot of work and I hoped Audacity would give me an option on export to sort by track name or track number.
Here’s what I’ve done to get where I want but I’m hoping there’s a shorter path. I opened Media Player. Then I opened the Audacity folder containing the files. I dragged one of the songs from the Audacity folder to the play list. Then I right clicked the song in the play list and selected ‘Open File Location’. This shows me the Audacity folder using the Music template. Now I can sort by track number (it’s one of the columns). I then delete the one song from the playlist, highlight all of the songs in the Audacity folder, then drag them to the play list. Now they’re arranged in track sequence. One thing that would shortcut this process is to somehow change the template of the folder. Whether I create the folder first or allow Audacity to create the folder, when I open it in Windows Explorer its type is ‘File Folder’. How do I change it to type ‘Music’? That way I can remove the step of copying one song to Media Player just so I can open the folder like a music folder.
I know I can export directly to iTunes, but I want to be able to import from CD. Like if I want to loan my CD to a friend. According to the CD-Text link below Windows Media Player 10+ supports CD-Text. I’m using v12. But according to the site, even v12 requires the WMPCDText plug-in. I’ll save that for a later experiment. Once I get the songs arranged on the CD in track sequence.
Thanks for your help and suggestions. Still got a lot to learn.
Just be careful here then - be aware that unlike commercially pressed CDs the home-burning CD process is a photo-chemical one so you should keep them in dark storage away from sunlight (and I would also have duplicate copies). To test the photo-chemical nature, just take one, place some masking tape across the shiny side and place it shiny side up on a window sill for a week or so - and then peel off the masking tape.
My permananent storage is two copies of the WAV files stored on two external USB disks (if I was being hyper cautious I would really keep an offsite copy too).
Like you I started out making CDs but I never play them now as I have a hi-fi jukebox gizmo (Cocktail Audio X30 with 2TB disk) that plays my WAV files - much easier than digging out the CDs
The problem here is that CDs do not carry metadata by and large. In fact proper CDs, audio CDs, don’t even carry WAV files. When you burn a set of WAVs to a CD it creates a single long spiral of audio from the centre outwards and also a TOC (Table of Contents) which tells your CD player where each “track” starts.
Personally I’ve always preferred to export the WAVs and then work the metadata in iTunes, I just find it easier that way.
I agree with wc - there is no such thing as a “permanent” CD - it is a shortlived degradable format, unike vinyl which would last a lifetime if looked after.
For permanence, digital audio must be stored on a hard spinning disk and backed up to another spinning disk and the cloud.
What I would suggest is switching to Details view in Explorer, then click on “Date modified” so you see an upwards-pointing arrow, which will sort the newest file at the bottom. Then when you drag the files into the Windows Media Player burn list, you will have the files in the correct burn order.
Or, drag the files in sorted alphanumerically, then click the icon with the checkmark above the burn list called “List options”. “Sort list by > Date taken” appears to sort the list earliest item first.
Yet another possibility if you want to sort alphanumerically in Explorer is to add a numerical prefix before the track name in Export Multiple. Select the radio button “Numbering before Label/Track Name” in the “Name Files” section of Export Multiple. Then the first file will be prefixed with “01”, the next with “02” and so on. Then dragging the files in to the burn list while sorted alphanumerically will give you the correct burn order.
Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. I’ve almost got it down now. I realize CDs are not permanent. I plan to keep my vinyls around. CDs lack of longevity isn’t restricted to their physical short comings. Who knows now long it will take for them to go the way of the floppy disk? Or the format changes so drastically they’re no longer readable by any reader on the market.
But I did finally figure out how to get the list to display properly. I export the songs into their own folder and change the template from ‘documents’ to ‘music’ and voila, when I display the details a new column with a pound symbol (#) appears which I can sort by.
I’ve got one more issue looming over my head now.
I am using Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 7. I have burned 2 CDs. The first CD plays fine in my car player but the second one does not. The player ejects it. I thought I did everything the same for both CDs but I must have missed a small step. Admittedly, my first attempt was a bunch of trials and errors and I may have omitted a small step with the second one. I use all of the default settings in Media Player to burn the CD.
