ok after you use audacity to clean up the files and you want to make a cd do you keep the files and burn the files as wave files or change them to mp3 because wave files are too large…mpe files are condenced…?
LENNY
Use WAV. (I don’t know what MPE is.)
Standard audio CDs use 16-bit/44.1kHz stereo PCM which is the same underlying format as 16-bit/11.1kHz WAV files. But, you don’t have to use 16-bit 44.1 kHz WAV files, your burning application can convert the format.
MP3 is lossy compression. Data is thrown-away during the compression process. With a high-quality (less-compressed high-bitrate) MP3, you may not hear any difference between the MP3 and the original, but there’s no reason to unnecessarily use lossy compression.
Or, you can burn MP3 files as-is to a CD (or DVD) disc. This is called a “data disc” and it has “computer files” on it. But, most standard CD players won’t play them. Some car stereo CD players can play MP3 data-discs, and most DVD players can also play them. Of course, the advantage of an MP3 disc is that you can put 6 hours or more of music on a CD, whereas an audio CD can only hold about 80 minutes of music.
Hi
So your saying I should burn them as wave files…ok but there’s no difference in sound quality…
And these wave files will play on all regular CD players?
Lenny
So your saying I should burn them as wave files…ok but there’s no difference in sound quality…
Audio CDs don’t have WAV files but the actual bytes that represent the audio are exactly the same as 16-bit/44.1kHz WAV files (in a different “digital package”). No difference in the data and no difference in the sound quality.
Your burning software can make an audio CD from files in different formats, but the data will be converted to 16-bit/44.1kHz, uncompressed PCM.
An audio CD made from MP3s is no worse than playing the MP3. The “damage” is done during MP3 compression when data is thrown-away. If you open an MP3 in Audacity, edit it, and export to MP3 again, that’s a 2nd lossy-compression step.
And these wave files will play on all regular CD players?
If you configure your CD burning application to burn an audio CD, it will make an audio CD that plays on a regular CD player.
If you tell your burning application to simply copy the WAV or MP3 files from your hard drive to the CD, you are making a “data” CD that just happens to have audio files. It will play on your computer (just like playing the files on your hard drive) but it won’t play on most audio CD players.
ok thanks…