Burn on Edited File

[Claire]

I've been unable to burn to CD any of the files I've worked on lately, and it's just occurred to me that the problem may be that my edits have in every case changed the length (duration) of the file. Could it be that the new time cannot be read by my burn software? If so, how would I get around this?

If the problem has nothing to do with a changed time, can anyone suggest an alternate possible cause? Right now the error message is no help at all as it only tells me that something is wrong with my disc. I'm quite sure that isn't it as I've tried both empty R discs and also RW discs.

I'm new to this list and also new to the software, so I hope any directions/instructions provided will take that into account. Thanks.

Claire

[waxcylinder]

Normally the critical thing is to ensure that you export as 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM stereo WAV

This is the Red Book standard for Cds.

I would strongly recommend not using CD-RWs - for a start their forecast life is much shorter (around only two years) - and a lot of CD players struggle with CD-RWs or don't play them at all.

WC

[Claire]

<Normally the critical thing is to ensure that you export as 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM stereo WAV>

Thanks for your response. I checked my Edit/Preferences, and everything is set up as you suggest. However, in the gray legend to the left of the opened file, it says 48000 Hz. I tried exporting as a WAV and then opening again, but the legend was unchanged. Could this be the problem?

Claire

[waxcylinder]

I'm not sure that I know where you mean "the gray legend to the left of the opened file".

You should ideally set your Audacity Preferences prior to recording and editing to 441.kHz 16-bit - do this in Edit>Preferences>Quality

In Edit>Preferences>File Formats set the Uncompressed Export Format to WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM).

All future exports for CD burning should work sweetly (note that if and when you upgrade to 1.3 or the upcoming 1.4 - you will need to set these in slightly different places, basically with 1.3 you get the opportunity to reset on export).

However, even if your exiting Audacity project is at 48kHz and a different bitrate - then Audacity should still downsample correctly if you have selected the Uncompressed Export Format as above.

WC

[Claire]

Given what you say above, it seems my problem isn't with Audacity. After a few hours of work, and using three different kinds of software for burning, I've come to the conclusion that my problem must be tied in with copyright issues -- though no error message has told me that.

In one case, I'm working with narration only (I'm trying to learn Spanish) that I've slowed down in Audacity (Change Tempo) and in the other case it's a track of music that I needed a 5 second intro of silence tacked on. With both WAV files, I managed to get to the end of a burn (with Imgburn) "successfully" -- but it appears from looking at the surface of the CDs that nothing was actually recorded. They certainly don't play in any machine I have.

Claire

[kozikowski]

I think we may need to descend to compulsive English words.

You want to start with an edited sound performance and the goal is to produce a Music CD which will play in your car and anywhere else a music CD will play. Did I get that?

It's less critical that you start with a specific type and flavor of music file than it is to use Music CD Authoring Software. There is a significant difference between Music CDs and Data CDs. Data CDs appear to the system like little shiny hard drives. You can put anything on there; Word Documents, Spreadsheets, Sound Files, short video files, etc. Very few Microsoft spreadsheets will play in your car.

You want to produce a Music CD. One of the Windows Media Player versions and possible more than one (WMP10 and WMP11??), will author and burn Music CDs. I don't do it this way, so this is where you start digging in the instructions.

Stand alone, third party software packages have many different tools for producing CDs. Your job is to get the tool that produces a Music CD.

The "Authoring" part of this involves changing the order of the songs around and changing other characteristics like the silent spacing between songs. The standard is 2 seconds, but you don't have to leave it like that. You can make it longer and shorter. This is all buried in Authoring tools for a Music CD.

Until you get this working, I would drop by Staples or Office Depot or something and buy a short stack of blank Sony CD-R disks. Those are very good and stable. You can use other disks later--after we figure out what's wrong.

Koz

[Claire]

<You want to start with an edited sound performance and the goal is to produce a Music CD which will play in your car and anywhere else a music CD will play. Did I get that?>

Yes.

<It's less critical that you start with a specific type and flavor of music file than it is to use Music CD Authoring Software. There is a significant difference between Music CDs and Data CDs.

The ImgBurn software I used offers both. I believe it was the music option that gave me the *supposedly* successful result.

<You want to produce a Music CD. One of the Windows Media Player versions and possible more than one (WMP10 and WMP11??), will author and burn Music CDs. I don't do it this way, so this is where you start digging in the instructions.

I'm not clear as to why I should start from scratch to learn new software. Is my issue copyright? Would WM solve that? I would be willing to change if I could be certain it would make a difference, but I really would like to know what's causing the problems with the very good software I have now (Audacity allows me to change the speed without changing pitch!) and which has worked well for me in past projects.

Thanks,

Claire

[kozikowski]

<<<but it appears from looking at the surface of the CDs that nothing was actually recorded. >>>

You won't see that. Home burned CDs don't have that cloudy look like home burned DVDs do. It's not unusual for a burned CD to look exactly like a factory fresh one. Sometimes in direct sunlight you can see the very delicate scaring tracks if you hold the disk just right.

We see that you used Audacity for your editing and production which is free and you authored and burned in ImgBurn which is free. Can we assume you bought the cheapest blank CDs that you could find? We can also assume since you're not an exert yet that you left the default burning characteristics set? I give the chances of success about 20%.

Even with very good quality CDs, both of my main authoring and burning programs will produce garbage if I let them go at it without supervision. Just before the burning step, the program should have asked you if you want to use the maximum burning speed. Always say no. One of my machines routinely suggests a burning speed of 56 times normal (56x). I politely decline and reset the software for 16X instead. I stopped producing bad disks immediately.

Has any of this process ever worked?

Koz

[waxcylinder]

Is my issue copyright?

It is extremely unlikely that your issue is copyright or DRM - Audacity doesn't mess with that stuff. It's a bit like a tape recorder - once its in Audacity ok there there ain't no DRM or copyright issues (in fact I use Audacity to record AACs bought from iTunes with DRM to re-record them and thus strip the DRM).

The two basic processes are
1) Recording/editing
2) CD production

And they are separate and separable (provide you get the interface sorted between the two - which is why I addressed the first process for you and guided you as to how to set up Audacity so that you will produce files that are good for CD authoring).

So then it's down to process two. Your CD burner is probably ok - I use RecordNow that came with my Dell - that too prodiuces both data and music CDs and makes a very good fist of producing music CDs. I used to use Nero on my old PC and that worked well too.

Koz' recommendations for process 2 are excellent - particularly a) good quality CD-Rs and b) reducing the burn speed (most folks are too impatient and want it burned as fast as possible - mistake! - no sense of deferred gratification)

Would WM solve that?

Personally I wouldn't touch WMP with a barge-pole ...

WC

[Claire]

<Koz' recommendations for process 2 are excellent - particularly a) good quality CD-RsI

I've been using TDK and Fuji. Should I spring for the Sony? And does it matter if it's a higher speed (52x) than my drive does in fact work at? (The salesperson had assured me not.)

<and b) reducing the burn speed (most folks are too impatient and want it burned as fast as possible - mistake! - no sense of deferred gratification)

I was using the long burn speed. In fact, apart from the possibly below-par brand name discs, it seems like everything with the software and process is okay -- so, let me run this by you: I woke up this morning remembering a past experience with being unable to burn a DVD. This was for an hour-long film I was producing and the process kept going down in the middle of the compilation. It turned out -- after a long time of getting nowhere -- that the compile required a lot of space for a temporary file to be created and my computer was simply too full of photos, film and music to create that file. I was okay once I transferred a huge chunk of those files to an external drive, but that was a couple of years ago and I've since built up another "collection." Does a CD burn work the same way and could this be the reason I'm having a problem now? (One of these two files I'm working with is only 15 minutes long, but it is a WAV file.)

Thanks.

Claire