Wrote music CD but can't read it

[pwabrahams]

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?

[bgravato]

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...

[pwabrahams]

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!!!

[bgravato]

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?

[pwabrahams]

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!!

[bgravato]

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...

[pwabrahams]

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.