Audacity Forum

I’m trying to burn standard audio CDs from Audacity Files created in my MAC G5.

I have exported "16bit 44100Hz stereo (Microsoft PCM) WAV" files from audacity and then attempted to burn those from both standard folders, and, from “I-Tunes” folders.

In my “regular” folder experiments, I’ve managed to burn CDs that - though not playable by standard CD players (or recognized by my Windows PC as a music CDs) – contain <*.WAV> files that are recognizable, playable and “editable” in my PC with “Cool Edit” sound editing software.

And, so far, burning with I-Tunes has produced CDs that are playable by QuickTime in the G5, but not in the CD player or even recognized in the PC by Cool Edit.

I notice that standard Audio CDs sound files appear in the PC as Read Only and of the <*.CDA> type.

So, is there some trick I’m missing in Audacity or in my MAC G5 that will allow me to churn out a commercial standard sound CD? (which, I’m assuming should be Burned in the Read Only <*.CDA> format.)

Unless you have an extraordinary machine, iTunes is the only way to produce a "Music CD."

If you put a blank CD in your machine and OK the opening dialog box, OS-X will produce a Data CD. Anything you drag to that disk will retain exactly the same file format. Music, Pictures, Spreadsheets, {word rejected}, anything. You just created a thin, silvery, 700MB hard drive.

=============================

Don't put anything in the CD drive.
Open your music in iTunes. Create a Custom PlayList and drag your music into that PlayList (this is where you get to rearrange the songs).

Click Burn Disk from the little window lower right, or, on some machines, it's buried in the iTunes tools up in the menu bar.

The Main iTunes Dialog Window will tell you to put a blank disk in the machine.

Now put it in.

One quick note. iTunes can be set to import music using many different compression schemes. For low damage and good iPod performance, I like AAC 256kbps. You should change that to AIFF or WAV uncompressed for this work. If you don't, iTunes will compress your music, add damage, then uncompress it and burn it to the Music CD.

Don't forget to put the import settings back when you get done, otherwise you may be stuck with five songs and a full iPod.

iTunes8 > Preferences > General > Insert a CD > Import Settings. Other iTunes have it in a different place, but they all worked like this.

Koz

<<<or even recognized in the PC by Cool Edit.>>>

That's broken. Audacity produces perfectly normal Microsoft WAV files and I go back and forth all the time. I don't think it will like AIFF files, however. Do you have Windows and Mac set to show you file extensions? Good time to start.

Finder > Preferences > Advanced > Show All File Extensions.

I forget where it is on my Windows machines. No serious producer should ever leave the file extensions invisible.

Koz

"Create a Custom PlayList and drag your music into that PlayList"

Thank you!

I just heard it play on the CD player!

Bill