Burning Music to CD's....help

[MSHardeman]

I have a little project going that I need some help on. I have been transferring some old LP records to digital format and now I am looking to burn them to CD. The files are currently in WAV format and I would like to do two things with them.

First, I want to burn each album to a CD that can be played in any car or home stereo.

Second, I would like to convert the WAV files to mp3 so I can put them on an iPod (I know the iPod will read WAV files, but I would like to save space with the mp3's).

Does anyone have an opinion (I know you do) on software to do this? I have Roxio on my computer, and when I used it to write a "music CD that can be played in your car or home stereo" it ended up writing some strange 1K files that nothing can read. What gives? Can iTunes convert WAV's to mp3's?

Any help would be appreciated.

[nfpgasmask]

Mark, I have done this with great success with the most of my vinyl and tape collction. First off, I would ditch Roxio post haste and get a copy of Ahead Nero Burning ROM. Nero is an easy, and superb tool for burning media of all types.

For recording my music, I use and old version of Sound Forge. I record everything in 44kHz stereo, track by track. I also use Sound Forge to clean up my vinyl recordings a little. I snip off the dead space at the beginning and end of the track and if there are really bad pops, I supress them a little in the wave form. But that said, I also use a decent quality record cleaning brush and record cleaning solution or Windex right before I record. After I record each track, I also file and name them appropriately for my usage:

(Artist/Album/Artist - Album - Track Number leading zero - Track Name.mp3)

So, once I have my .wavs recorded for each track, I simply open Nero and burn each album to CD. These CDs will play in any regular CD player I own.

Then, using Exact Audio Copy, I simply compress each track to .MP3. EAC will maintain the same file name, but convert them to .MP3 at whatever bit rate you want.

To take things a step further, I then use ID3-TagIT to update each track's ID3 tag to the appropriate name so when I put my music on my Zen, everything works correctly.

Bart

[MSHardeman]

Bart,

How did I know that you would be one of the first to respond?:grinb: Actually, as I was writting the original post I was thinking that I should just PM you to cut out the middle man.

I found a good guy/company online (DAK) that sells a "kit" to record your LP's to digital format. They sell an entire kit (record player, mixer, program) or you can buy one piece at a time. The record player that they where selling was a belt drive, and I wanted to go direct drive for better tracking so I picked up a Technics MK1200 (or is it 1200MK) off of Ebay. I did buy the mixer and conversion program from DAK and it has worked great. The program came with a "DePopper" that surpresses the pops for you and doesn't affect the quality of the recording. The recording program allows you to name the files as you've listed above, so I'm good there too. The Depopper only works on WAV files, so now I have gigabites of music files that I need to convert to mp3's; and that is where my problem is coming in.

I'll have to hunt down Nero and the TagIT software so I can get everything squared away.

Thanks for the information so far.

[nfpgasmask]

Well, it sounds like you are done with the hard part then. All you REALLY need now is EAC, just download it from here:

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

That will convert all the files to MP3, and do a good job at it. You can also use a program called "CDex". This program works really well for converting wav to mp3 as well. Just Google it, that program is also really good, and I think it is free also.

Now, once you have MP3s, I have no idea how to get them to work on that rediculously over-popular device you call an i-POD, but we won't go there! ;)

Roxio should have the ability to burn a music CD from wav files, but then again, I hate Roxio and stopped using it like 6 years ago, so I don't really know.

Bart

[froggg]

I think nero 8 has an option to convert audio files built in...

[crager34]

This is a fairly straight forward process (converting from .wav - .mp3) or other formats. The software now-a-days are very user friendly. I would suggest if your going to .mp3, stay in the 128 to 160 bit range. I think you will find the sound quality just fine for your listening pleasure. The higher the bit rate, the larger the file becomes. I think standard is 128.

Hope this helps and adds to the discussion.

Also, you can cram alot of .mp3's onto a regular CD (a couple 100), or more on a DVD (up towards 1000 I think), or more on BlueRay (???? not sure). You will need to burn a CD as a "data" disk. Not sure about the others.

I don't do CD's anymore. I use my walkman phone, AUX jack in my car stereo, or bluetooth for headphones. ALL-IN-ONE play-ya!! PADOW!! :cool:

[nfpgasmask]

[QUOTE=crager34;125078]This is a fairly straight forward process (converting from .wav - .mp3) or other formats. The software now-a-days are very user friendly. I would suggest if your going to .mp3, stay in the 128 to 160 bit range. I think you will find the sound quality just fine for your listening pleasure. The higher the bit rate, the larger the file becomes. I think standard is 128.
QUOTE]

My hearing sucks, but I still ripped all my CDs at 192. I think this was a good choice, I think there is an audible difference. I have heard some 128 stuff and if you listen closely, you can hear some digital loss. But thats just me, and I'm no audiophile.

Bart

[froggg]

burning mp3's as a data disc would only play if your player was an mp3 player(and maybe not then)-you need to burn mp3's as an audio disc to play as requested by mshardeman quote I want to burn each album to a CD that can be played in any car or home stereo unquote

[Bulldoggie]

[QUOTE=crager34;125078]This is a fairly straight forward process (converting from .wav - .mp3) or other formats. The software now-a-days are very user friendly. I would suggest if your going to .mp3, stay in the 128 to 160 bit range. I think you will find the sound quality just fine for your listening pleasure. The higher the bit rate, the larger the file becomes. I think standard is 128.
QUOTE]

My hearing sucks, but I still ripped all my CDs at 192. I think this was a good choice, I think there is an audible difference. I have heard some 128 stuff and if you listen closely, you can hear some digital loss. But thats just me, and I'm no audiophile.

Bart

128 is the absolute minimum bit rate
>160 more better :gring:
Ofcourse if the source is Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen, your source was recorded by a mic in the garage rafters. Even the FBI couldn't clean that one up :p
I avoid .wav files. They are just the odd man out, IMHO.
AIFF is the standard CD format

[nfpgasmask]

burning mp3's as a data disc would only play if your player was an mp3 player(and maybe not then)-you need to burn mp3's as an audio disc to play as requested by mshardeman quote I want to burn each album to a CD that can be played in any car or home stereo unquote

Right, but what programs like Nero will do when you want to burn MP3s to a CD and make them work like a traditional CD, is do the conversion to wav or aiff for you behind the scenes. The problem with that, is you are taking a compressed mp3 file, and then converting it back to wav, and all the lossyness goes with it. If you record a 44kHz stereo .wav file from the original source, you absolutely DO NOT WANT to convert that file to mp3 first, and then use a program like Nero to make a "audio CD" for you, because all its doing is converting that same file, that you just compressed, right back to wav. You cannot reverse a compressed file back to the original uncompressed format. Once the digital information is lost, its lost. Now all that said, it just depends on how much you care about your music. But considering the fact that Mark is going through all of this to preserve some vinyl, why compress the data down before making an audio CD?

Bart

[MSHardeman]

Exactly guys. This little project is actually for my Dads birthday. I am taking all of his old vinyl records and putting them on an iPod for him in mp3 format, but I am also going to burn each album to CD so he can play them in his car. I will ALSO burn an mp3 CD for him to have as a backup, plus I think his car plays mp3 CD's. The program that I used to record the vinyl created WAV files so I will use those to burn the individual CD's. I will then make a copy of the WAV files and compress those into mp3 to put on the iPod and the mp3 CD's.

This has become quite the project, but it's been fun listening to all of his old LP's. They have been bringing back memories that where buried in the dark recesses of my mind.

Thanks for everyone's help, and keep the suggestions coming.

Mark