Burning a final WAV cd problem

[Jaticus]

Hello y'all,


So my album is finished, 12 tracks, all of them WAV, average around 85mb each. Problem, when burned onto an audio cd (not data), the tracks play but nothing can be heard. Iv tried in thru a generic cd player and thru itunes and windows, no sound, even though the cd has been burned.

Iv tried making the cd using adobe audition 3 and just simply using windows but alas, failure. Am i missing something here? I am right in saying a commerial cd SHOULD be burned onto a cd as WAVs for best quality right?

Any suggestions?

Cheers

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Yes and no. When you tell software to specifically burn an audio CD, it's actually burning in CDA (CD Audio) format. The guts of CDA files are identical to the guts of WAV files, but CDA has some extra wrapper info in them meant specifically for the CD player.

If you're telling it to specifically burn WAV files, you're telling it to burn data files, not audio disc files. I don't know how AA3's File menu is worded, but it should not give you the option of burining WAVs to an audio CD, because those are two different things.

Also, if you have 12 tracks averaging 85MB each, that comes out to 970MB, which is about one-third more than the maximum an audio CD can hold at their maximum of 650-700MB.

G.

 

[RAMI]

....Glen's the man.

Also, though....Make sure your Wav files are 16bit, not 24.

 

[Jaticus]

How would you suggest i go about the problem of sizing down the WAV files? Surely i would have to convert them to something horrible then back again to reduce them. Im pritty sure AA3 would convert them to CDA seeing as its quite a good programme, and when iv explore the burned cd to see what was going on all that was visible was extreamly small "cd audio" files which i assume is what your talking about.#

edit: oh god how do i convert to 16? i think there 24 at the mo.

edit: it say when highlights that the files are 3072kbps

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Also, though....Make sure your Wav files are 16bit, not 24.

That may explain the large file sizes (ether that or he got 12 songs over 8 minutes long each . )

G.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

How would you suggest i go about the problem of sizing down the WAV files? Surely i would have to convert them to something horrible then back again to reduce them. Im pritty sure AA3 would convert them to CDA seeing as its quite a good programme, and when iv explore the burned cd to see what was going on all that was visible was extreamly small "cd audio" files which i assume is what your talking about.

You have kind of the wrong picture, Jaticus.

It's not a question of file size of the files you're loading into AA. Nor do you need to compress or convert anything, or pick another file format to "get them to fit".

If you tell the software to burn an audio CD, that's it. By definition, an audio CD contains CDA files that are basically 44.1k/16-bit WAV files with some header info thrown in. That DOES NOT MEAN that you tell it to burn 44.1k/16bit WAV files, or files of any other format, WAV or anything else. As soon as you do so, you are telling it to create a data CD, not an audio CD.

Now, in your case, it sounds like - based upon your file sizes - the WAV files you have on your hard drive and in Audition itself are 24-bit WAV files. That is perfectly good. What you may need to do, perhaps, is to manually dither them down to 16-bit beofoe you tell AA to burn the audio CD, though I would think that it should do so automatically. Maybe someone else here who uses AA3 can clear up how AA3's workflow handles that.

Bottom line, though, Jaticus, is the instant you tell it to burn files to the CD in any format other than CDA, you are telling it to make a data CD, not an audio CD.

G.

 

[Jaticus]

Hmmmm it seems like there arent many AA users on here, is this a cubase forum? Ok i'll try and "dither".

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Hmmmm it seems like there arent many AA users on here, is this a cubase forum? Ok i'll try and "dither".

There arre plenty of AA useers on this forum; you're just expecting too fast of a response, especially on a Saturday afternoon when most people are not anywhere near their computers .

What you need to do, Jaticus is look in AAs online help files for "Burn an audio CD". That should tell you exactoly what you need to do.

G.

 

[Jaticus]

Arrrg, im having a bad time today, i have "dithered" and just as you prophesied Glen the size of the WAV has gone, but its gone from bloody 85 odd mbs to 18.8! I feel like iv just performed lipo suction on my music 18.8 is basically a good mp3 just about, the file info is telling me its bit rate is 705kpbs, i "converted the sample type", nows it 44100 16 bit mono I THINK, is this right?

 

[RAMI]

Arrrg, im having a bad time today, i have "dithered" and just as you prophesied Glen the size of the WAV has gone, but its gone from bloody 85 odd mbs to 18.8! I feel like iv just performed lipo suction on my music 18.8 is basically a good mp3 just about, the file info is telling me its bit rate is 705kpbs, i "converted the sample type", nows it 44100 16 bit mono I THINK, is this right?

You're doing something wrong. They should stay stereo, if they were stereo to start with.

I don't know the AA program. Does it not say something in the manual about burning CD's???

How much is that program, anyway???

 

[Jaticus]

AA costs around $450 i think, in England its more, its a good programme with alot on offer, very flexible i just dont know how to use it yet. Thus far iv managed to keep it stereo, 16bit 44.1, average size is about 45mb now, does that sound right/reasonable?

 

[ido1957]

AA costs around $450 i think, in England its more, its a good programme with alot on offer, very flexible i just dont know how to use it yet. Thus far iv managed to keep it stereo, 16bit 44.1, average size is about 45mb now, does that sound right/reasonable?

That sounds like the right size....did you burn and test the CD?

 

[Jaticus]

Yeh, still nothing, as far as i can tell everything is right, i burn the cd and no sound comes out, you can play the tracks but no sound.

 

[ido1957]

What program are you using to burn the CD? The only manual I can find is AA 2.02 and it does not have a burn CD option.

Note: If you plan to burn the waveform to compact disc using another program, unchecking the box is highly recommended.
Some CD recording interprets non-audio information incorrectly and will place an unpleasant burst of noise as the beginning
of each CD track.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Thus far iv managed to keep it stereo, 16bit 44.1, average size is about 45mb now, does that sound right/reasonable?

A stereo WAV file at 44.1/16 should average around 10MB/minute, so if your songs average somewhere around 4.5 minutes in length (give or take), that sounds about right.

Again, I'm not familiar with anything past AA 1.x, but it sounds like you still may be selecting the wrong burn option. Just what option are you choosing?

Either that or your CD burner has compatibility problems. Can you burn playable CDs of any type on that burner with any other software?

EDIT: Umm, dumb question, but are you sure you have the CD volume turned up in your Windows mixer ?

G.

 

[Jaticus]

Ok the WAV sizes look normal, as for AA having the right option i cant see any controls that let you select anything, so i can only assume it serves the purpose of writing audio cds, because it lets you tag the artist details and UPC number, and individual commerical codes for each track. Iv tested the Cds on itunes player, generic cd player and WMP, none have been sucessful. Any thoughts? Any other free burning programmes whihc youd recommend should we not find a solution?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Can't help you if you don't answer the questions we give you, bud

Are you sure you have the CD volume turned up in your Windows mixer?

Have you tried playing the CD back in more than one player?

Again, I'm not familiar with anything past AA 1.x, but it sounds like you still may be selecting the wrong burn option. Just what option are you choosing? How are you actually doing it?

Are you following what it says in the online help?

Can you burn playable CDs of any type on that burner with any other software?

G.

 

[MessianicDreams]

Any other free burning programmes whihc youd recommend should we not find a solution?

umm..burn it using iTunes?

 

[Jaticus]

The issue has been resolved but i dont know why. All the tracks were loaded into the cd list view, and i tried using the "group wave normalise" function, which basically puts all the tracks to near enough the same volume level, and now it works. Why that simple little function changed the whole affair i have no idea, all it does is level out the album, nothing else. Sigh* oh well.

PS. Silly Q but seeing as WAVs cant be tagged with info eg. artist, track name, how can i provide this info when i start selling the cd?

 

[michaelst]

I don't know if it's the same in every burning application, but in general, you need to save it as a project, then write text to the cd when burning.