Music Files on a CD

[Penguin]

A friend of mine burned some music files on to a CD. He tested them on his CD-ROM and they worked fine. He then tried them in his car and they did not work. I remember reading somewhere that ther is a certain format that you need to burn music at in order for it to work in any CD player. At least I think that was what I read.

Does anyone know how to burn music onto a CD so it will work in any CD player?

FYI. Some of the music is in MP3 format and the others he got of a regular CD.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[justbarron]

Not all stereos will play mp3 formats.

[Penguin]

I understand that, I was just tryiing to figure out how to burn the music files on to a Cd so they would work with all players.

[shecky981]

In order to burn music to a CDR that will work in all players, you need to be in a WAV format.

Easy CD Creator or Nero will let you make an "audio" CD and will put the files into this format. As far as formatting MP3 files into WAV files and dragging them onto a CDR I'm not exactly sure if you can do it like that or not in terms of the file structure on the CDR (looks at Craig fer guidance??)

Be aware that this makes the files MUCH larger and you will only be able to fit as much music onto a burned CD as you can get on a regular CD you get in the music store. Also be aware that you need to use a CD-R, NOT a CD-RW to do this. i would STRONGLY suggest using a CDR that is rated for "Music" or "Audio" as you will not get pops or hisses that you may get on a regular CDR.

I tend to go thru about a 50 CD spindle every month, personally =) I like the Memorex Music CDR's .

[Penguin]

Thanks shecky981.

Thatis what I was looking for.

[Cricket]

Hi Penguin,

Your friend will have to rip the music tracks to .wav format and then burn them to CD-R disks. The burn will have to be done in one session and the disk has to be closed.

Cricket

[morriswindgate]

You may have to play around with differant brands of Blank CD-Rs as sometimes depending on the shade and color of the dye they may not play. And also remember some cd-players just will not play a cd-r type audio disk.

[janaak]

Mainly, CD-Rs are needed for playback, not CD-RW discs.
Secondly, new burn programs like Easy CD Creator 5, Nero, will convert the MP3z into the wav tracks that be burned into the disc.
Third, if you want to change ripped wavs to MP3 format you'll need a program that does this... (I have Xing, but I don't know if it is a old program since I have never seen it nor talked about.)

Mp3z don't work in regular cd players, I know there are data + music cds out how to make one is far beyond my comprehension... or maybe I need a different burn program? (currently Nero)

[freemans]

Just a note. Easy CD 5.x will automatically convert mp3 to wav when creating Music CD's

[shecky981]

a CD MEDIA tutorial couresty of your buddy and mine, Shecky

CD-R = lowest cost blank CD. a write-once media, useful for archiving data (images, video, text, etc.)

CD-R AUDIO / CD-R MUSIC = a higher grade CDR for making music CDs to play in regular consumer CD players (car stereo, home stereo, etc)

CD-RW = a rewriteable blank CD that acts like a big floppy disk. You can add and remove data at will, tho, every time you do so, you loose disk stability. more expensive than CDR media, also will degrade much faster (meaning data will "melt" off the disk much much much sooner than a CDR. i have heard numbers of as little as a 10 year lifespan for CDRW, whereas CDR i have heard should go at LEAST 100 years)

CD MEDIA TYPES:

Music CD = a Audio or Music CDR with music on it in WAV format, to be played in normal muisc players (car, home, etc) will hold a maximum of 80 minutes of music using an 80 minute CDR

MP3 CD = a CDR with MP3's burned onto it in MP3 format. will hold roughly 150 songs, but, can only be played in consumer players that SPECIFICALLY say they support MP3 CDs. (RioVolt is a good example of a portable MP3 CD player)

VCD = a Video CD. sort of like a poor man's DVD, this is a video CDR that can only be played in PC's and a few DVD players that specifically support VCD format.

NOTES & STUFF:
to rip from MP3 to WAV you can use either the included converters in EasyCD Creator or Nero. To rip from WAV (a regular store bought music CD) to MP3 most people on here seem to like CDex. VCD's i have not played with, so, i dunno. for regular CDRs, i would try and get the cheapest possible. for Music CDRs, i would spend a bit more money to get abrabd name.

enjoy!

[poops]

curious, what is .cda? i have an audio cd i tried burning,
the tracks were in cda format. wasn't able to play on my computer.
i'll convert tracks if i can to wav but i'm just wondering what the deal is with cda

[reboot]

You don't need to be concerned with what format. CDA is just a .wav burned in such a way as to be read by "normal" players, house, car, etc.
Here's an article to help you burn an audio CD that WILL play in normal players: http://www.pcmech.com/showdoc/72/

[morriswindgate]

CDA=Compact DisK Audio