I am using Audacity version . . 2.1.2 on my Dell laptop with Windows 10. I successfully made a recording from vinyl using an ART USB Phono Plus audiophile computer interface.
I edited the recording and saved the audio file. I moved the audio file to Windows Media player as a playlist and burned a CD. The audio file had sound, the CD has no sound.
I know the tracks are on there, I can see my CD player as it counts off the seconds of each track, but I cant hear anything. Any suggestions. I’m using Maxell CD-R blank CDs.
I edited the recording and saved the audio file.
We hang on every word you post, so accuracy is good. Did you actually “save” an audio file? Audacity will not save an audio file. To get an audio file that Windows Media can use for a CD requires Audacity File > Export.
Did I hit it?
I can see my CD player
There is a way to make a show that cancels during playback. Assuming you did everything else right, does the CD play in your car or any other player? If you put it back in the computer, does it play in Windows Media?
Koz
I’m sorry, you are correct. I didn’t “save” the recording, I imported it as a WAV file. And the CD will playback on my laptop on Windows Media player, but not on my CD player.
You mean “exported”. 
Set Media Player to burn an Audio CD not a Data CD (use the “Burn options” button). See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/15062/windows-burn-rip-cds.
Gale
burn an Audio CD not a Data CD
It’s been my experience if you cross those by accident, the Music CD player will not recognize the disk at all, not play “silent tracks.” But I guess that is possible.
You can tell if you’re burning the right disk by the software asking you for the gap between songs. Data CDs have no gap.
Koz
Yes mine too, but I have seen “time counting” on a data CD containing WAV files on one standalone CD player. It counted to 80 minutes then stopped.
If an audio CD was burned, Bruce should check if a known good CD is audible on the player.
Gale
OK, thanks for your input. I decided to scrap that project and start with a fresh recording.I am curious though why when I’m recording a new project it says my audio track is being recorded at 44100HZ with 32 bit float. I think that is the default setting. Seems like I read somewhere in the manual that a WAV audio file should be burned to a CD in
44100HZ with 16 bit float. Is that correct?
32-bit float is just the way the data is stored. 32-bit float gives you more dynamic range, more accuracy if making lots of edits affecting the amplitude of the samples and is faster for computers to calculate.
The actual recording will probably be 16-bit before Audacity expands it to 32-bit float (definitely so, if you’re choosing MME or Windows DirectSound host in Device Toolbar).
It’s best left like that for the reasons above.
It’s preferable for compatibility with all burning applications.
There is no point going above that sample rate and bit depth because the stream on an audio CD must be 44100 Hz 16-bit and will be converted to that if not already so.
Gale
The music format on an Audio CD is 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. People get into trouble when they insist on producing a good quality show and then exporting it as MP3. Most CD Authoring and Burning applications will accept MP3 just fine, but it represents the addition of compression distortion to your show. Once you dance through MP3, the compression damage is permanent, no matter what the CD format is or what you do later.
Audio CDs were designed to replace vinyl at a time when good quality audio compression didn’t exist. If there even is MP3, it’s still buried inside the MPEG video format, not a stand-alone service or tool. So that’s why Music CDs have no options. Options need space and there is no space. Everything has to fit jammed on that one silvery disk. So there are no sound files on the disk, even though there appears to be. It’s one stream with a space-saving index to point to the right place at the right time.
It’s 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. Full stop. No option, etc. The default Audacity export format happens to also be 44100, 16-bit, WAV so it pays handsomely to just go with the defaults.
But that still doesn’t account for your magic sound file. Is it possible to post some of that somewhere? Do you have a file posting service like DropBox? You can only post short segments of sound on the forum, like 10 seconds stereo. But I’m on the edge of my seat to see that work.
Koz
Koz, thanks to you and Gale for all your input. I really appreciate the help. Unfortunately I deleted the entire project: the data file, the WAV file, everything.
I wanted to make sure there was no confusion with a fresh file. So it’s all gone. I don’t use Dropbox anyway. I’m just an untrained monkee banging away at the
keyboard in the hopes that something will work, ha ha.
there was no confusion with a fresh file.
Yes, but.
Since we can’t analyze the old work now, we have no way of knowing what caused the problem.
Which means it could be just waiting for you again.
If you have a damaged microphone system, you could be cranking out one damaged recording after another.
Create a sound test using this format and your microphone system that created the first problem. Don’t apply any corrections, filters or effects except possibly cutting it if it’s too big.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/TestClip/Record_A_Clip.html
Koz