wave to mp3 to cd, or wave to cd?

Responding to delah, alot of software won't play back 24-bit files, even if your hardware (ie soundcard) supports it. I know Windows Media Player won't play back my 24-bit files, but winamp (and N-Track) will. So that might be the problem. Try playing them back in Cubase.
 
delah said:
im kind of back tracking to the begining of the thread here but i want to make sure i understand. after i record all my tracks and mis them all, get my effects all set etc., i need to mix it all down to two tracks. i use cubasis vst, which i think might be somewhat on the same line to cubase, but the only option i've found was to simply export all audio tracks to a wav. file. is that the same thing or am i missing a step here by not mixing down to the stereo tracks first.

also, my sound card has 24 bit capabilities but when making a cd are you supposed to export to 24bit or 16bit? when i tried to export to 24 bit i couldnt get the .wav file to play at all. it only plays when i export to 16 bit. whats the deal with that?
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Hey, delah.

When you get the mix the way you want, select Export Audio, and select 16 bit, 44.1 kHz, stereo, which is the standard CD format. Keep track of where that file goes; it'll be the one you want to put on the CD. Use your CD software (Nero or CD Creator) to burn an audio CD with the exported .wav files. If you try to create a data CD with the .wav files, it won't play on a regular CD player. As someone said, you'll get about 10 MB per minute.

Good luck!
 
okay, i think i got the handle on exporting my project to wav...thanks for all your input. it does make me wonder though, why do i have a 24bit soundcard if i can only export to 16bit....for a cd that is. i mean, what else would i be exporting my tracks for besides a cd?...or the internet, but since most programs wont play 24bit, whats the advantage?.....
 
delah said:
okay, i think i got the handle on exporting my project to wav...thanks for all your input. it does make me wonder though, why do i have a 24bit soundcard if i can only export to 16bit....for a cd that is. i mean, what else would i be exporting my tracks for besides a cd?...or the internet, but since most programs wont play 24bit, whats the advantage?.....
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I think the idea is to keep it at 24bit for final processing and mastering and to dither down to 16bit when you are done.
 
If possible stay in 24bit until you are burning the CD. If you record, and bounce in 24bit then you can master in 24bit and at the very end convert to 16bit, only for the reason that CD only uses 16bits.
There are CDs that use 20bits and play on normal CD players. But im not too sure exactly what the masterer converts it to at the end. 16bit or 24bit?
I mean would there be much point in converting it to 16bit for it then to be burned onto a CD that has 20bits?
 
delah said:
okay, i think i got the handle on exporting my project to wav...thanks for all your input. it does make me wonder though, why do i have a 24bit soundcard if i can only export to 16bit....for a cd that is. i mean, what else would i be exporting my tracks for besides a cd?...or the internet, but since most programs wont play 24bit, whats the advantage?.....
Click to expand...

24 bit gives you a lot more dynamic range to work with when you are tracking (recording), making it much easier to avoid overloads.
 
Halion said:
a cd is always wave audio, regardless of what it was before you put in on the CD (mp3, wma, real audio or whatever). The program you use for buring first decodes/decrypts all the audio files and then burns them. Turning a wave into an mp3 will only decrease the quality, not the size, since it will be turned back into a wave once you burn it anyway.
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This answer is the most relavant. most everybody else got off track in answering you.
 
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