Subject:Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Posted by: Stace

Date:10/14/2004 12:01:28 PM

I extracted a track off a CD, saved it as WAV, and then did a SAVE-AS to get an Mp3 256kbps file and another SAVE-AS to get an Mp3 192kbps file---solely to compare sound quality. Then burned all 3 to a disc. Sound differences aside, I was surpised that the CD played in every machine I tried, including one about 8 years old. I thought players had to be specifically configured (for lack of a better word) in order to play Mp3, which is why they slap the Mp3 logo on newer units. Can someone enlighten me? Thank you!

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:10/14/2004 1:21:10 PM

How did you burn the disc? If you made an Audio CD then you don't have MP3 files on the disc, you just have uncompressed 44.1KHz 16 bit stereo data. Whatever burning program you used would have converted everything to standard Audio CD format.

If you want MP3 files on a disc as MP3 files you'll have to burn a Data CD, not an Audio CD. These most likely won't work in older players.

A quick way to check is to pop the disc into the CD-ROM drive in your computer and look at the directory in Explorer. If it's an Audio CD you'll see three 1KB .CDA files. If it's a Data CD you'll see the names of the files you burned.

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: Stace

Date:10/14/2004 8:06:15 PM

Thanks for the above info Chienworks. Can you give me more specific directions on how to find the directory in Explorer (did you mean under "Explore?"). I'm a Mac person and need a little more guidance.
Thanks again!

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:10/14/2004 8:21:51 PM

XP & 2000: Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer -> CD drive.
98 & ME: Start -> Programs -> Windows Explorer -> CD drive.

Or Start -> Run, type explorer and press Enter.

Or open up My Computer and look for the CD drive.

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: Stace

Date:10/14/2004 10:44:30 PM

In reply to the above: I burned MP3 files to both an audio CD ("Memorex Music CD-R") and what I was told was a data disc ("Maxell CD-R") and I followed your directions, but in both cases the files are all listed as 1KB CD Audio Tracks.

More frustrating, in both burnings all MP3s were converted to WAV. Now, I am also attempting to burn WAV and MP3 files to the same disc, and the MP3 files all have different bit rates---could that be why the program is burning them all as WAV---which is the format of the first track burned? (FYI: I'm creating this CD-R to compare sound quality of different audio formats).

Additionally, each time I end up with an extra audio track on the CD too!

I will call Sony tomorrow. Fingers are crossed!

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: MJhig

Date:10/15/2004 12:07:57 AM

None of the Sony apps. burn Data disks, they only burn Audio disks (media means nothing here) so your experiment is null using any Sony app. to burn.. As stated above Audio disks are 16/44 .cda format ONLY.

If you want to burn other formats to CD such as .wav, MP3 or anything other than .cda you will need to burn them with some other burning software such as Roxio, Nero, BHA etc, (Not Sony) as DATA disks.

MJ

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: Stace

Date:10/15/2004 9:48:07 AM

Thank you for your help. It seems that Audio Studio will let me save files in MP3, but not burn them, and for that I need other software. I took one of my MP3 files and burnt it to both audio and data disks using 2 other CD creation programs (incl. Roxio's Easy-CD) but I do not believe the tracks burned as MP3s (because both discs play in 4 different players, one 8 years old). Once a CD has been burned, is there a way to check and see just what format/bit rates the tracks are in? I'm assuming I don't have MP3s based on playability. Thank you!

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: MJhig

Date:10/15/2004 10:09:56 AM

Put the CD in your PC, use Windows Explorer to view the contents of the CD. An Audio CD will be .cda, a Data CD will be whatever file you burned.

If you used Roxio to burn a Data CD and chose an MP3 file, it should be an exact copy of that MP3. If you choose to burn an Audio CD then that same MP3 file will be converted to standard 16/44 .cda.

Some newer CD players support MP3 format and some DVD players support MP3, MPEG and JPG.

MJ

Subject:RE: Audio Studio 7 and Mp3 format

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:10/15/2004 10:33:58 AM

Hmmm. Didn't i already say that? ;)

Stace, what exactly is it you want to accomplish? Do you want a disc with MP3 files on it instead of an audio CD so that you can fit more on a disc? Somehow i don't think that's what you're after. I get the feeling that all you are trying to do is compare the quality of different bitrates to see how they sound. If so, you've already finished all the burning you have to do. It's true that the files are decompressed back to full CD size when you burn an Audio CD. However, the quality doesn't "reinflate" as well. An Audio CD track burned from a 32Kbps MP3 file will sound exactly like the 32Kbps file. It won't magically regain the quality of a fully uncompressed file. You'll just have lots and lots of bits storing the same compressed quality.

Subject:RE: Mp3 format

Reply by: Stace

Date:10/15/2004 3:43:03 PM

Sorry folks if this conversation is confusing. Right now I'd be thrilled just to be able to burn just one MP3 file to a CD. The freebie burn programs I have installed won't handle MP3 so I went to CompUsa to look at fancier software and was told by a clerk that it would be easy with WindowsXp & Service Pack 2 (which I have), using Windows Media Player 10 (which I have) by simply making sure I was burning to a data disk and not audio. Media Player's "help" (I use that loosely) said I could elect to use a data disk on the "Items on Device" tab after clicking the icon with the checkmark. But guess what---there isn't any such tab! I give up.

Subject:RE: Mp3 format

Reply by: Stace

Date:10/15/2004 4:03:19 PM

A previous reply (very kind of you!) mentions something I had always wondered about. If you had created a compressed MP3 file and then burned it to an audio CD where it was converted to uncompressed wav, wouldn't the end result be the same in terms of sound quality. The above reply says "yes" because converting to wav would not re-add audio data that was removed when the file was originally compressed into MP3---and while that makes sense to me, on another forum someone said the data would be interpolated to fill out the sound, so they would actually not be the same.
In the meantime a friend just today gave me a CD where he burned all his tracks in MP3 and they turned out all to be in wav instead (he said that would explain why he could only get 13 tracks on the disk). Moral: the ins and outs of burning MP3s is not fully understood. As for me, I'm off to buy "MP3 for Dummies." And thanks again to all who offered aid.

Subject:RE: Mp3 format

Reply by: msterlin

Date:10/16/2004 3:57:58 PM

Stace,
I think the source of confusion for you here is the difference between a 'data' cd and an 'audio' cd. It has nothing to do with the actual type of disc. The cd-r you bought that said 'music cd-r' can be used to burn a data cd; likewise the ones marked 'data cd' can be used to burn an audio disc. There is nothing magical about a 'music cd-r' - It simply contains an embedded code and stand-alone (non computer) burners will only burn to those types of discs because they check for that code.

If you want a disc full of mp3, you need to tell the cd burning program to burn a data cd. In Nero, that would be the cd-rom(iso) compilation type. If you choose the audio cd type, you will get what you have been getting - the mp3 will be decompressed to wave and burned as audio tracks.
Other software is similar - maybe the help will indicate exactly how to specify a data cd instead of an audio cd. Forget about WMP 10, it will only burn audio cds.