How many MP3s will fit on a CD?

[Harry]

I got frustrated with burning MP3 CDs since I had to number all of the tracks and folders so the discs would play back in order.

The tracks were already numbered after the rips I did, so all I had to do was number the folder names (album names). Easy enough to do with the keyboard: highlight the first one, press F2, hit "Home", type 01 space, down arrow to the next folder - press F2, hit "Home", type "02 space", etc.

My car player uses the fast forward/rewind toggle to skip to the next "folder", (press and hold to advance through a song - press quickly to skip to the next folder), so it's easy enough to navigate around from album to album. It's the "TUNE - CAT - FOLDER" button in the lower right of the audio panel:

The picture's from last summer on a rather hot day and the system was tuned to the radio.

So far I've done three of these wma discs - Alpert, Mendes, and The Corrs. For the Brasil '66 disc, I did HAP up through STILLNESS, added in the two A&M B'77 titles, PAIS and PRIMAL, and for a bit of an extension I added in the HORIZONTE ABERTO album since it fits so well with this period.

Those three discs currently occupy slots 4, 5, and 6 in my CD changer, so I have at this point instant access to over thirty full albums-worth of material.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well this is starting to TICK ME OFF. I completely redid my .wma/TJB project and those annoying sounds are still there.

When I made my first disk, I was doing other work on the computer, so I thought maybe the files were corrupted somehow, since the sounds are so random. So, I deleted all the TJB files from my computer and completely re-ripped them. This time I made sure the computer was not running any other programs and didn't get disturbed during the ripping.

Same when burning. I left it completely alone. And, to be safe I made it "pre-render" before burning the disk.

Result? The sounds are still there and actually worse in some cases. It's a very loud digital "THWAP" sound and completely ruins the otherwise good listening experience. Happens as many as 3 - 4 times in a song, but some songs play through without any problem.

I'm at home now so can't check further until tomorrow, but next I'll see if the sounds are in the files on the hard drive and go from there.

Harry, I assume this isn't happening to you, right? Maybe I need to use some other kind of burning program but I don't have anything except what came on the computer (standard Windows stuff).

ARRGH computers!%#&#

 

[Harry]

No, Mike, I'm not getting any THWAP sounds on my discs, but I'm not using WMP to burn the discs. My computer with the CD-RW drive came with Nero Express software installed (version 6.3.1.26), and that's what I've used to make these discs.

That's not to give this software high praise either - when I've tried to use it to make an exact copy of a disc, I do get some loud pops (maybe THWAPs!) rendering them not usable for my purposes. But so far, with these .wma discs, I've not heard any noises. A couple of times I thought I heard something, backed the track up to see if it would repeat, and the noise must've been road noise or something.

Which version of Windows Media Player are you using? (Not that I have a clue whether or not a newer version woulsd be better!)

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I'm using version 11, the latest.

I might try doing the same thing only with mp3s, but I doubt the sound quality will be as good. Like you said above, the 192k versions are fine for car listening...if I could only get rid of those pops. Experimentation continues. (Maybe I'll try it on another computer...)

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well - the mysterious sounds are not on the hard drive, only on my burned copy. So, maybe a slower burn is in order.

 

[Harry]

Well - the mysterious sounds are not on the hard drive, only on my burned copy. So, maybe a slower burn is in order.

That sounds like a good theory. Worth experimenting with, anyway.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

Mike: try playing some of those same tracks in your computer, from the CD you burned rather than the hard drive. If they don't play back with the "thwap" in the computer's CD drive, then it could be your player in the car is having some read errors.

Maybe MP3s will be easier on the car player? I don't know. IIRC, you can also rip and burn MP3 CDs with the free Winamp player. The Pro version of Winamp I think can rip and/or burn faster than the standard free version.

Another freeware computer program that can rip, convert and burn is EAC (Exact Audio Copy), but it is difficult to configure since MP3 support is not built in. I think you have to install and configure the LAME MP3 encoder.

CDex was another ripping program, which we used when we had our Live365 station going. Not sure if it burns CDs, though.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I do plan on trying that (playing the CD on the computer) but I'm hoping the car stereo isn't at fault...it's a fairly new Pioneer unit. Then again, I've been salivating over the new models!

 

[Rudy]

I do plan on trying that (playing the CD on the computer) but I'm hoping the car stereo isn't at fault...it's a fairly new Pioneer unit. Then again, I've been salivating over the new models!

My dash can take a double-DIN unit. Thing is, I've got 178,000 miles on the beast now, and with my luck, I'd get rid of it for a newer one where I couldn't put my own head unit in.

My Honda in-dash is made by Alpine, and the Alpine-branded add-on changer is actually the same one Honda sold, but for a few hundred more (back in 1997). So, no MP3 capability. I'm sure my next car will have MP3 and WMA capabilities. No way I'd use an ipod in the car though--my eyes aren't so good anymore, and it takes too much time fiddling with the unit while driving, especially when I can't see up close all that well. It would be neat though, to have the whole collection on the road with me...

I'd hate to say it, but I'm thinking the in-dash may just be having problems with playing back the disc. Maybe the internal decoder for WMA can't keep up? Maybe MP3 would work better...?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I tend to not suspect the car stereo simply because the glitches show up in the same spot over and over, even if I remove the disk and put it back in. I'm using good quality disks (Imation) and the computer is only about a year old, so it's a stumper. I haven't tried playing the disk itself on this computer but will later on (my vehicle, with disk in player, is getting its oil changed right now.)

 

[Harry]

I've had this CD with Herb Alpert in there now for days - it's the one I've listened to most since doing this little project, and one song seems to continually show up in the "random" rotation: "Mexico".

It's never been a particular favorite, so it's noticeable every time it's happened (three times this week!). At least it's better than "Talk To The Animals" (a Mr. Bill favorite!).

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I've gotten TTTA twice, and "I'll Be Back" twice, and several others, but have yet to land on any of the "big hits" for some reason. No three-peats yet.

I've kept the disk in my pickup CD player today because I've been doing a lot of errand-running. For some reason today it's been picking out the slow, mournful tunes. I heard "I'll be Back" followed by "Shades of Blue" and when I got to the theatre tonight, it had just begun to play "A Quiet Tear" (a Mr. Bill non-favorite). Sounds like a compilation brewing...."Herb Alpert and the Melancholy Tijuana Brass."

 

[Harry]

I thought I'd jot down the random TjB titles that played this morning on my drive in to work.

It Was A Very Good Year (in the middle as I started the car)
Flea Bag
Talk To The Animals
To Wait For Love
A Walk In The Black Forest
She Touched Me
Shades Of Blue
Zazueira
More And More Amor
Moon River
Cantina Blue
The Love Nest
Numero Cinco
Crea Mi Amor
A Quiet Tear (in the middle as I arrived in my parking place)

I know I've heard "Shades Of Blue" before as well as "Crea Mi Amor". Others that have popped up twice are "Without Her" and "Tijuana Taxi".

The slower songs today seemed to fit the somewhat gloomy weather that we're having.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Today on my way to work I heard "Monday Monday" and about 30 seconds of "Shades of Blue."

I always thought I'd hate a long commute (small town boy that I am) but if I had some great A&M in the car I guess wouldn't mind it so much.

 

[Mr Bill]

...it's better than "Talk To The Animals" (a Mr. Bill favorite!).

...play "A Quiet Tear" (a Mr. Bill non-favorite).

Hey! I resemble those remarks!

--Mr Bill
noting that everyone forgot to tell him it was "Pile-up-on-Mr-Bill day."

 

[Mr Bill]

Speaking of burning your own discs...

Now that I'm home and I have about $45 worth of iTunes cards, it's time for me to burn my V2, Warm and BAC CDs...

Can someone point me to the thread where the steps for making music CDs is?

Also, a little advice on having separate accounts in one househoild would be nice. I do not yet have an account but my wife and daughter do... And unfotunately they are not separate which is causing all kinds of grief as the daughter hates the wife's country music and the wife hates the daughhter's {C}rap and modern Pop. I can only imagine how they'll feel when my jazz, 60s pop and 80s punk/new wave start appearing in the mix!

--Mr Bill

 

[Harry]

Try this thread on burning CDs with ITunes:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7943

As for separate accounts: Idunno.

Artwork thread is here:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7979

Actual artwork links are posted here:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7941

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well I've now tried my CD every way I know how.

- It plays fine (no glitches) in both the computer that made it, and another computer.

- But the glitches DO show up, in the same places, in any of the car stereos here in the store.

Something about Pioneer car stereos maybe? I'd try it in my wife's car, but it only plays MP3s. I guess maybe I'll try this disk in mp3 format, but I think the sound would be a lot less good, eh?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Mr. Bill: You can have 1 account to each e-mail address. Tell your wife and kids to "sign out" of the iTunes (under the Store menu) and then when you get on the computer you would "sign in" that way you should only see your own goodies.

 

[Mr Bill]

It could be the rate at which your player reads the data and it's just too much for the car player to handle -- ie, can't handle the necessary sampling rate. I have similar problems with the two cheap DVD players I have in the kids' rooms. Some DVDs won't play at all and other DVDs will glitch and hang up with "freeze frames" at certain times.

My first thought was maybe digital over-modulation. Rudy could probably essplen it better than I could, but basically you know digital media is all 1s and 0s. When the data for a given point (or frame in video) is all ones or all zeros you get a pop (or blank frame for video). Given the recording industry's penchant for driving levels or "brick-walling" as high as possible, I thought this was a likely cause.

And it could be a combination of both -- brick-walled levels driving the data beyond your player's ability to handle.

--Mr Bill
hoping Rudy can better explain what I'm describing since my background in this phenomenon is based on digital video more than audio)

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I guess I'd buy that explanation if these were K-mart stereos we're dealing with but these are brand-new Pioneer units that are "supposed" to be able to play wma files. They even say "WMA/MP3" on their face plates. I'd think Pioneer wouldn't advertise them as such unless they could really do the job properly. I'm gonna do some research on this (IOW, RTFM or 'read the f#$%ing manual').

 

[Harry]

The irony here is that my car player isn't really documented to play wma discs. There's nothing on the face of the "Bose" player (it says mp3), and the only mention in the manual is in the troubleshooting section, where it says that files other than mp3 or wma are not supported, but it never actually SAYS that it's a wma player - yet it plays fine, and sounds good to boot.

Harry

 

[Mr Bill]

Isn't WMA the same as a regular music CD? Or am I confoozed?

--Mr Bill

 

[Mike Blakesley]

No, it's a compressed format, supposedly "better" than mp3.

You can select the resolution for wma, the best is 192k, but even at that you could fit the entire TJB and T.J.B. catalog on one disk and it sounds very good (except for those damn glitches in my situation.)

 

[Rudy]

I found a few of my MP3 CDs while rearranging my CD racks. I managed to put the entire Steely Dan catalog (the studio albums, plus some extra tracks) onto one disc at 256k. Sounds pretty good. I also did one for Peter Gabriel's studio albums and did a few of those at 320k, the rest at 256k.

MP3 encoding is variable--it can sound really good, but you have to find the right encoders for it. There are three or four well known MPEG codecs out there, and some are better than others. One of them I found was better for very low bitrates (which we used for Live365), while another was better for the highest bitrates.