Exporting, Saving, and Uploading?

I

Inspired

New member
I recently recorded a short 2 minute clip with SONAR 2 and went to export it. My intentions are simply to upload it to the web. Here's what happened the first time:

1. Clicked export and chose .wav format.
2. It exported fine, and even played fine within MusicMatch Jukebox.
3. So I went to burn the clip onto a CDR and it seemed to burn fine, but when I played it back: a loud static and you could just barely make out the recording in the background. It was extremely slow, too.

What did I do wrong?

I tried everything above again, but chose the .rma format and everything worked alright, but the recording sounds awful. Real bassy.

What is the preferred format?
How do I save it to the computer for the purpose of uploading to the web?

Basically I need someone to tell me what I did wrong, and walk me through the whole process. Thanks...
 
That happens to me once in a blue moon. Could be a defective CDR, or could be you burned it at too high a speed. Did you use MusicMatch to burn the disc?

As for uploading, it all depends where you're sending it.
 
MadAudio said:
That happens to me once in a blue moon. Could be a defective CDR, or could be you burned it at too high a speed. Did you use MusicMatch to burn the disc?

As for uploading, it all depends where you're sending it.
Click to expand...


I don't think it was a defective CDR, because I tried it 3 different times with the same results. I was using MusicMatch to burn the disc. It played fine, just didn't burn fine. I use a 52x Lite-On burner...
 
Yeah, but at what speed did you actually burn the disc? I never burn anything faster than 6x.
 
First time I burned it at 4x, then 52x. They both produced the same lousy results. At least now I know why it was originally set to 4x! I didn't realize you were supposed to burn them so slow. But still, this wasn't the problem.

With the help of my granddad, I was able to rip the .rma clip into the computer and upload it to the web. The sound is lousy, but this is my first attempt at putting music on the web.

Anyway, What is the best format for exporting your completed projects? .wav, .rma, .mp3, etc.
 
.wav is ideal, but it's usualy too big for places that offer free hosting. 128k mp3 is probably trhe most commonly used.
 
As for your discs, are you burning data discs or music discs? If you are burning music discs, I would suspect the burning software that is performing the conversion from WAV to CDA. Another possibility is that your burner has a bad driver or driver installation. I'd try the fix in this order:

1.) Remove the CD-R from yor hardware list and un-install the CD-R. Go to the website of the CD-R manufacturer and see if they have any updated drivers for that model (or if it's an OEM CD-R supplied with the PC, you may have to go to the PC mfr's website.) Re-install the CD-R with the latest drivers.

2.) If Step 1 didn't cut it, try different burning software. My personal recommendation is CD Architect; I believe you can get a demo copy from the Sonic Fou...er...Sony website that should work well enough and long enough just for testing.

3.) If neither 1 or 2 work for you, I suspect you have a malfunctioning CD-R.

As far as poting music to the web, the question there is for what purpose? If you are intending to share files with another engineer or studio, then you should keep your files in WAV format all the way through.

If you are uploading with the intent to distribute entertainment files for listening, then the standard to use is MP3. From an engineering standpoint the audio quality of MP3 files sucks like an open chest wound, but because they are a lossy compression format, the size of the files are relatively small (typically between 1 and 2 MB per minute of stereo audio), and on most non-audiophile consumer playback systems they sound good enough.

128k and 192k are the most popular bitrates for encoding MP3 files. Lesser bitrates than 128k create smaller files but the sound suffers greatly. Larger bitrates than 192k are more sonically accurate, but start getting rather large and aren't going to sound signifigantly better on your average iPod, boom box or home stereo.

I prefer 192k myself; I personally feel that the increase in playback quality over 128k id far greater than the extra cost in bandwidth, but in cases where bandwidth may be an issue (this includes storage space considerations), or if you expect them to be played mostly on something distinctly non-audiophile, 128k may be more suitable.

G.
 
Inspired said:
I recently recorded a short 2 minute clip with SONAR 2 and went to export it. My intentions are simply to upload it to the web. Here's what happened the first time:

1. Clicked export and chose .wav format.
2. It exported fine, and even played fine within MusicMatch Jukebox.
3. So I went to burn the clip onto a CDR and it seemed to burn fine, but when I played it back: a loud static and you could just barely make out the recording in the background. It was extremely slow, too.

What did I do wrong?

I tried everything above again, but chose the .rma format and everything worked alright, but the recording sounds awful. Real bassy.

What is the preferred format?
How do I save it to the computer for the purpose of uploading to the web?

Basically I need someone to tell me what I did wrong, and walk me through the whole process. Thanks...
Click to expand...

This happened to me back in my early days of CD burning when I tried to burn a wav at 44.100/24 bits... it needed to be at 44.100/16 bits...
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
As for your discs, are you burning data discs or music discs? If you are burning music discs, I would suspect the burning software that is performing the conversion from WAV to CDA. Another possibility is that your burner has a bad driver or driver installation.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, I was burning music discs, and I think you're right about it converting to .cda format. I noticed it was like this, then my granddad somehow converted it to .mp3.

SouthSIDE Glen said:
As far as poting music to the web, the question there is for what purpose?
Click to expand...

Currently I'm just wanting to put music on my website. But in the long run, I would like to be able to complete a demo CD of good quality.

Here's one issue: The first time I went to export my song, I chose the .mp3 format. It went through the whole exporting process, but when it finished, it said it couldn't find the .mp3 encoder. What's another way that I can convert it to mp3?

For information: I have MusicMatch Jukebox, Windows Media Player, and Nero burning software.
 
Inspired said:
What's another way that I can convert it to mp3?

For information: I have MusicMatch Jukebox, Windows Media Player, and Nero burning software.
Click to expand...

Itunes people...Itunes is free and easy
 
Inspired said:
Here's one issue: The first time I went to export my song, I chose the .mp3 format. It went through the whole exporting process, but when it finished, it said it couldn't find the .mp3 encoder. What's another way that I can convert it to mp3?
Click to expand...

My guess is that your software couldn't find the MP3 encoder because it costs a few dollars extra to get that. The reason is that the rights to the prevailing (and highest quality) MP3 encoding scheme - called Fraunhoffer (sp?) encoding - are privately held by the lab that developed it and has to be seperately licensed.

Otherwise, you have the encoder already, but your software Options/Preferences setting that indicates the path and filename to the proper location of the encoder program is incorrect. So, that gives you a few choices.

1.) Go to the software website and check out their user support section and FAQs to see if a) one has to purchase the MP3 option seperately, or, if applicable, b) how to determine the correct file/path setting for the MP3 encoder.

2.) Google/Teoma the web for "MP3 encoder". There used to be scads of free MP3 encoder/converter utilities like "Blade" and others based on the ISO encoding scheme for MP3s that did a decent job (not quite the quality as Fraunhoffer, but only audiophiles or "golden ears" could hear enough of a difference to care.) I think the days of those free encoders may be limited, if not already gone, because of legal issues, but I'm not up to date on that aspect of it. Nevertheless, there should be plenty of info available on MP3 converter/encoder utilities just for the searching.

3.) 7String brought up a great point earlier about the encoding/burning of WAV files that I had totally forgotten about. I also had trouble in my early days when I was first learning Sound Forge playing back (let alone burning) WAV files that were not "standard" 44.1k, 16-bit stereo format, and the symptoms sounded very similar to what you described. If you are indeed burning WAV files (though you replied that you believed they were CDA files, double check to make sure), make sure they are stereo files (I had some trouble with mono ones a long time ago) with a sample rate of 44.1kHz (as opposed to 48kHz or higher) and a 16-bit (as opposed to 24-bit) depth.

G.
 
I did burn it at 44.1/16bit. When I was finally able to get the song burned to a disc, I believe it was Windows Media Player that I used. But it turned it into a .cda file format. That's when my granddad was able to convert it to .mp3. I would like to be able to avoid the whole converting process.
 
Inspired said:
I did burn it at 44.1/16bit. When I was finally able to get the song burned to a disc, I believe it was Windows Media Player that I used. But it turned it into a .cda file format. That's when my granddad was able to convert it to .mp3. I would like to be able to avoid the whole converting process.
Click to expand...

the .CDA file format will be created on the audio disc no matter what program you use or what format you burn it originally as. this is how computers read the Red Book PCM audio CD standard. CDA stands for Compact Disc Audio. There is no need for you to burn the file to a CD just to convert it to an MP3. Download ITunes and use that for CD burning and CD importing/conversion. It will convert and import a standard audio file to MP3, WAVE, AIFF, etc. as well as burn you a standard audio cd.
Windows media player sucks when it comes to importing or converting. They offer several forms of lossy encoding and only one form (a .WMA file which not many audio recording programs recognize) and I'm not even 100% sure the mp3 format comes with it when you download it (although, i might be wrong about that).
 
I swear Benny, I am not chasing you around the forums and picking on your posts, on purpose or by accident :) But I would like to clarify one thing to our friend Inspired.

Inspired, Benny is right; all audio CDs are CDA format, and when you create an audio CD, whatever format your file on you hard drive may be in (WAV, MP3 or something else), it wil be converted to CDA when burnt to audio CD. But I think maybe you're looking for something different.

I originally asked if you were trying to burn an "audio disc" or a "data disc." Unless I'm mistaken, there never was a direct answer given to that question. But I think it's an important question here; based upon some of your inferences throughout the thread (especially your last post before this one), I now think you may be wanting to burn a data disc. Unfortunately some of your terminology is misplaced, I think, which is confusing the thread.

Inspired, are you trying to create a disc that has either MP3 or WAV files on it and not CDA files? If so, you need software that can create "data discs" as well as "audio discs" (a.k.a. standard CDs.)

Your Nero software *should* have that capability and give you that choice - unless there is a "lite" version of Nero that I am not aware of that burns audio CDs only. Take a close look at your Nero software and look for the option of what kind of disc you want to burn. If you actually want to save/burn WAV or MP3 files you already have to the CD in their current format, then you need to select the "data disc" or "data CD" option.

If your version of Nero does not give you a data disc option, then you need software that does. I'm not sure if iTunes does or not, but I don't *think* it does (Benny, correct me if I'm wrong on that one, please.) A real nice alternative that is also free is a piece of software called CDBurnerXP Pro. It is very similar in look and funlctionality to the full version of Nero and to EZ-CD Creator and is freeware. I have been using it for several months now with two different TDK high-speed burners creating both audio and data discs at high speed, and have had excellent results with no error so far (knock wood.)

HTH,

G.
 
no, you're right...ITunes only does audio CD.
i'll admit I really haven't read everyone's post here, so I might have been confused and thought he wanted an Audio CD but was confused as to why it was turning up as a .CDA file. And then maybe he thought that he had to burn it to CD in order to reimport it as an MP3.

Nero works fine for both data and audio CDs.
:cool:
 
I'm not positive exactly what he wants just yet either. Just his last post that said "I would like to be able to avoid the whole converting process" combinined with his several uses of the term "burning WAVs" makes it sound like he either wanted or at least expected the CD to be a WAV file.

As to whether this expectation was premeditated or a simple misunderstanding of formats and architecture I'm not sure yet...waiting for his reply...

G.
 
One thing I failed to mention that might help make more sense of the situation is that I don't have internet access at home. So what I have to do in order to upload something to my website is: burn it onto a disc, and put it in the computer at my Granddad's place, which is where I do all of my on-line stuff at.

SouthSIDE Glen said:
All audio CDs are CDA format, and when you create an audio CD, whatever format your file on you hard drive may be in (WAV, MP3 or something else), it wil be converted to CDA when burnt to audio CD.
Click to expand...

You totally opened my eyes on that explanation. Great info.

SouthSIDE Glen said:
I originally asked if you were trying to burn an "audio disc" or a "data disc."
Click to expand...

With my limited knowledge, I thought I was supposed to be burning my song using "audio disc." I think this is the only method I've utilized so far. My version of NERO offers data or audio. Which should I use?

Summary:

1. I record a song using SONAR.
2. I want to export it in the most feasible and simplest way possible.
3. I then have to burn it in order to transfer to my Granddad's computer.
4. Then I rip it? Once it's on a computer, I know what to do with it from there.

I know, this is a mess! I totally appreciate all the help...
 
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