What to do with mp3 file and cue file, need to burn audio CD

[KS555]

I need to burn this to an audio CD in Toast 11. No clue what to do with the cue file. What's the best and fastest way to handle this? Do I need to bring it into Audacity? Or is there another program that will burn an audio CD and split it with this cue file? Thank you

[kozikowski]

Audacity won't burn anything. You're looking for an Audio CD Authoring and Burning program that supports cue sheets.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5208510?tstart=0

iTunes does not make any use of Cue Sheets.
If you want to faithfully reproduce a CD in the future, you should store the disc as a disc image, not as ripped tracks.

Koz

[KS555]

Thank you,
Apologies for writing my post in a hurry and not being clear.
Yes, I am well aware of the difference between Audacity and a burn program. I am burning in toast.
The files were given to me that way. There are mp3 files and corresponding cue files. I've never seen that before and was hoping that perhaps the cue file was something that would automatically load in and split the tracks so that i did not have to do it manually.
Anyone out there familiar with this? Or is it just a file listing the tracks, for information?
Thank you

[KS555]

This is very frustrating that this forum delays posting my response. How long do you have to be in the forum before you get instant posting? Almost makes it unusable.

[kozikowski]

You're spoiled rotten. Many help forums have weeks wait times.

Almost makes it unusable.

That's us. Almost Unusable.

One of the other elves may know a way to deal with this. I don't. Google time.

Koz

[KS555]

Lol I suppose you are right. Spoiled rotten for sure. We want everything NOW these days. And think it's frustrating watching your dinner cook for three whole minutes in the microwave!
Unfortunately the Google Elves have not been kind to me this evening.
As for the cue file, I gave up. It probably has a purpose somewhere. It was quicker to just open up the file and use Silence Finder.
Audacity is quite a handy little program. I'm new to it (not to editing in general) but it has been pretty easy to get around in.

[steve]

Cue files are used by some CD burning programs. They tell the program where the start and end of each CD audio track is (and may include additional information for the CD burning application). From a quick Google search, it appears that current versions of Toast do not support Cue files directly (and neither does iTunes).

Apparently you can use cue sheets with "drutil" from the command line. I've not tried this, but it's something like:

Code: Select all

drutil burn 'path-to-cue-file'

The cue file points to the audio files, so you would need to check that the paths are correct for the locations on your computer.
The manual for drutil is here: http://ss64.com/osx/drutil.html

[cyrano]

I really don't think you need a cue file at all...

Cue files are only needed IF you're burning a "raw" CD file. Usually .bin as file extension.

And that's really ancient. Even the oldest downloads come as an image. Nothing "raw" about it. So everything on an image should burn without a problem. That is one of the goals of any image format. And ISO is an image format too, so it shouldn't need a cue file for anything.

And you can mess with cue files as much as you like. It's just a simple text. Ex:

Code: Select all

FILE“image_name.BIN“BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
INDEX 02 00:03:22
...

I don't know how Toast looks these days. I haven't needed it in over ten years, so my license expired, I'm afraid. Everything you need to burn an audio CD, or a basic mp3 data CD, is in the Finder. Do you need something the Finder or iTunes can't do?

And, BTW, some ISO's can be opened by Disk utility. But you might need to open them from the file menu, as they aren't associated with anything, so double clicking the file won't work. You can burn from Disk utility, although the interface can be a little obtuse, sometimes.

Supposing you have separate mp3 files for each of the songs, just throw in iTunes, order to you likings and burn.

You do need to set iTunes' CD burning prefs right. But you already knew that, I think.

[KS555]

Thanks,
Yeah I gave up on the cue files - and since they were long files, I just brought them into Audacity and used the silence finder to split them.
But as for the Finder, actually I was having some problems with Finder errors while burning on my older Macbook, and then went to Toast and had no trouble at all. On this newer one, data discs for backup have burned pretty well in the Finder. But audio CDs that I have burned for someone else were unpredictable. Toast has handled this issue pretty well.
In a perfect world I wouldn't have to burn an audio CD for anyone, but some people still use them. My client was in his 80s, so there you have it. Now he can play his old out-of-print albums in his car and he is having a blast. =)

[kozikowski]

some people still use them.

Exactly correct. Lori (my lorry) and my sister's car which she got down through family inheritance still play Audio CDs. I prepare disks for her and send them through US Postal Service.

You may be experiencing the Fukushima effect. Apparently, one of the very high quality blank CD making plants in Japan went off-line during the Fukushima disaster leaving us with all second-tier makers. It's visible. I've had fresh blanks where the print coating isn't straight.

Koz