Audacity Forum

I used Audacity with Export/Multiple to generate a directory with 6 WAV files. I then went into k3b to attempt to burn that directory onto a CD as a music CD. I tried twice, once with the Auto mode and once with DAO mode (with a different CD for each attempt). Each time the burn appeared to go normally. When I put the burned CD back into the drive, it appeared to be blank, but still could not be written onto -- the attempted write simply hung. I don't know if I did something wrong in Audacity or in K3b. k3b listed the directory as containing 6 WAV files, which looked correct.

What might I have done wrong?

Has it ever worked before?

Are you sure you selected music cd and not data cd?

If you drag a directory to a new music cd project, in the project window, it will show the track names of the tracks inside that folder... if it shows a directoy then you're probably working with a data cd project...

In k3b I selected New Audio CD Project. I just tried copying the individual files into the project window, but got the same result as copying the directory. Either way the window shows 6 WAV files, and the tab says "Audio CD0". However, if I click on Burn and then "Only create image" and then look at the image file in /tmp, it turns out to have 6 .wav files. That would suggest that indeed it's writing in a data format. But since I specifically selected Music format, I don't know how to change that. The Burn window has the title Audio Project.

Addendum: It seems that the CD I burned will play in another players, but not in the one on which it was written. Very weird!!!

I believe you're doing it right.

Sometimes computer cd-rom's are a bit "too sensitive" and might not read some burned cds... Can you read normal (original) audio cds on it? For audio cds I usually avoid writing at the top burning speed. Try burning a cd at slower speed (4x or 8x).

Which k3b version do you have? Which other options have you selected on the burning dialog? Is this the first audio cd you burn?

bgravato wrote:I believe you're doing it right.

Sometimes computer cd-rom's are a bit "too sensitive" and might not read some burned cds... Can you read normal (original) audio cds on it?

Yes. In fact, I tried going into the k3b ripping dialog and mounting a standard music CD. It mounted correctly. I then tried the questionable one again. It still appeared to be blank.

For audio cds I usually avoid writing at the top burning speed. Try burning a cd at slower speed (4x or 8x).

I tried 4x but k3b bumped it up to 10x because that's the lowest the drive supports. And at 10x I still have the same problem.

Which k3b version do you have? Which other options have you selected on the burning dialog? Is this the first audio cd you burn?

I have k3b 2.0.1. I used the default options. And yes, this is the first audio CD I've tried burning on this machine.

What's really strange is that I can play this audio CD on an ordinary CD player, or even on another computer. It's only the computer (an Asus laptop) where it was written that can't play it!!

It's also possible that the optics on your cd-rom drive are dying... Usually they're more sensitive with burned cds.

If you can read it on normal cd players (those usually have better optics than cd-roms and are able to read cds that sometimes the computers can't), then it doesn't seem to be any problem with audacity's exported files nor with k3b...

I've reluctantly concluded that it's probably an exotic hardware problem. "Exotic" because the behavior is the opposite of what one normally expects with flaky drives. Sometimes a drive can read its own CDs but foreign drives can't read them. Here it's the other way around.