By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 09:05 am:

I'm having problems in copying CD tracks to make a new CD and hope someone here can point me in the right direction.
I've successfully burnt a CD from tracks that I've downloaded from Kazaa, but when I try to do the same with CDs from my collection - it doesn't work. The problem seems to be that the files (tracks) are not recognised and get deleted once I click on "burn." ...I simply end up with a disc in my HiFi unit that shows the text of the song title of the first track, but doesn't have any music on it.
I've clicked and dragged the files (tracks) to compile a new CD and wonder why they aren't saved.
A computer guy came to see me the other day to try and show me what to do - converting the tracks from WAV to MP3 files; but Ritchie told me this was not required. Anyway, the guy's English wasn't very good (I live in Taiwan) and my Chinese is worse, and I'm still stuck.
Help!
Graham

By Eli (152.163.188.68) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 09:32 am:

What software are you using???

Roxio Platinum 5 works great for me.
Platinum 6 is out as well. Those programs are a cinch to use and very user friendly and self explanitory.
You can either copy an entire cd with one click or you can custom make one very easily.

By LG Nilsson (212.247.9.242) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 09:38 am:

Graham,

I'll send an e-mail to you about this in a few hours when I get home!

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 11:20 am:

Hello Eli - I'm using Nero - which is also easy-peezy. I don't have a problem doing the clicking and dragging - it's keeping the files that has me beat.
Cheers, Graham

By Eli (151.197.124.23) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 10:10 pm:

Are you saving them to your hard drive properly?

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 10:29 pm:

Eli, and Lars
Saving the tracks on my computer - that's the problem.
Lars has mentioned converting the files to MP3 - is this really required? I guess it is, as things are not working at the moment.
Lars, the computer guy installed Alto MP3 Maker for me.
Thanks for the help,
Graham

By Carl Dixon London (62.31.40.155) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 05:36 am:

You could extract the CD tracks and convert them to wav files, to a folder on your pc. Then burn from the hard drive, rather than CD to CD. It looks like an option/properties issue, maybe. As for Kazaa, I hear this could be termed as 'SpyWare', look at:

http://www.imilly.com/kazaa.htm

http://grc.com/oo/cbc.htm

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 05:44 am:

Hi Carl
I thought the files on the CDs were WAV, and I had to convert them to MP3. Excuse me for sounding totally clueless - but I am!
When I downloaded Kazaa, I also opted for some software programs that prevent (I hope) spies getting into my computer, but thanks for letting me know.
Cheers,
Graham

By Ritchie (62.254.0.9) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 06:57 am:

Graham

Sorry - I was trying to cantact a friend of mine about this for you, but he's on holiday. I'll mail you offboard.

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 10:09 am:

Thanks Ritchie,
Here's the latest....
I can make a new CD from CDs I have - but the compilation isn't saved on the computer, even though I've "saved" it. When I open the CD file - it's blank. Which means I can't make a 3rd copy. I have to use the 1st copy to make subsequent ones, and these don't have any text (track title and artist) which I've typed up for each track.
I'm getting there! Any advice and info' on saving the text?
TIA, Graham

By Horse (159.53.238.241) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 10:13 am:

Coolcat,

Tisk..Tisk...Tisk... For Shame. Are you getting free music? And on top of that...actually admitting to it..! Have you no scrupples?

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 11:10 am:

Hi Horse,
Actually there's very little soul on Kazaa, which is what I guess you're refering to by getting something for free.
The tracks I'm really interested in duplicating are from CDs that people have sent to me. I've previously compiled tapes for friends, but CDs have obviously become the norm now.
On the topic of downloading music from the likes of Kazaa - you've made a valid point and it's something that record companies will doubtlessly be focusing on in the very near future. I admit to feeling guilty about using Kazaa - but the little music that I have downloaded has been to sample stuff that I certainly wouldn't go out and buy... I just made a CD for my daughter (Ruby) with 12 different songs that have her name in it... Ruby Tuesday etc'.
Going to back to my previous post - the tracks that I've downloaded and compiled into a CD do save the text in the saved file that I've created, but the "CD" tracks get lost!
Graham

By Horse (159.53.238.241) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 02:17 pm:

Coolcat,

Just teasing you a little bit. By all means, we don't want to have you sitting out there with a shortage of soul. That could be a bad thing. I personally think the record companies put themselves in this dilema. Enjoy all the soul you can. Just Horsin' around

By acooolcat (61.222.95.58) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 11:36 pm:

Here's the latest news from the home-CD-recording front...
The CD I compiled didn't actually loose the tracks, but - I can't skip from track to track; I have to sit and listen to all of the CD if I want to hear the track I want. For example - if I want to hear track number 7, I have to listen to tracks one to six first. This is very inconvinient. Why does it do that? If I try to skip, the CD player "sticks" and I have to abort and start again.
What do the techies here suggest?
Graham

By RD (63.188.32.104) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 11:43 pm:

Non tech advice here, but once you burn something on a CDR that's it. You can't add, delete or edit anything. If you burned the tracks on a CDRW you could delete the tracks and burn them again. Your problem, however, maybe your CD player, have you tried to play the disc on another CD player?

By acooolcat (61.222.95.58) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 11:52 pm:

Hi RD
No, I only have one CD player at the moment; I've lent my Walkman to a pal.
I'm familiar with the problems of re-recording that you've mention and don't think that's the issue here.
But, I've heard that software called AudioGrabber is what I need and will check this out - thanks Ritchie.
Graham

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 12:31 am:

More than likely that cd was burned on a portable burner. It sounds like someone recorded all of the songs on one track.

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 04:45 am:

Hi Sis,
I've got a CD that someone sent to me that has the same problem as mine - unable to skip tracks. But the CD that I recorded was a list of seperate tracks, so I don't think that's the problem.
Thanks,
Graham

By Ritchie (62.254.0.9) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 05:16 am:

From what you've said here and offlist, it sounds like some of the problems are down to the CD player you have, especially as you've mentioned that your own CDRs seem to play OK on the computer's disc drive. Not all audio CD players are happy with CDRs, and a CD which will play successfully on one person's may skip or even reject on another's. To complicate the issue, certain brands of player are more comfortable with particular types of CDR, so the whole affair is a total minefield! I'll mail you again later with some more suggestions :o)

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 05:35 am:

Thanks Ritchie - I'll get my hands on a second CD player this weekend and give my CD a spin.
Graham
PS
I've just been reading about Madonna's latest album being available on music-sharing websites such as Kazaa - before it's official release. Understandably Madonna and her record company are not impressed and they've flooded the sites with fake files that contain no music - just a short message from the singer asking, "What the f#@! do you think you're doing?

By Larry (12.141.160.25) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 11:22 am:

acoolcat,

There are 2 ways I can think of where multiple songs will appear as one track on a burned CD. 1) all songs were originally created and saved as one (1) .mp3 file or 2) You're burning as Disk-at-once mode.

Check your burning s/w in particular, look for a "Track-at-Once" switch. This mode does 2 things: 1) keeps separate tracks separated, 2) adds a 2-3 second gap between tracks.

Disk-at-once mode takes all tracks and rolls them into one. Good luck with it.

By Ritchie (62.254.0.9) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 06:47 pm:

Things are getting complicated here! Audio CDs should ALWAYS be burned DAO (disc at once). This honestly does not turn everything into one single music track, just one single CD "session" - i.e. the laser burns continuously throughout the CD-burning process - that's tracks and gaps. Burning a CD TAO (track-at-once) stops the laser between each (musical) track, and can add an unwanted "click" each time as it picks up burning again from where it left off. This can sometimes be audible when the CD is played back, and is obviously to be avoided.

The 2 or 3 second countdowns are often added by default by most software when burning audio to CD, irrespective of whether the session is TAO or DAO. In Nero (which Graham has) they can be deselected (no "gap" or countdown) - which is useful for Live recordings, where the music should ideally run continuously, with each track segueing straight into the next.

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 07:04 pm:

One round in favor of the computer programs sharing files. Court said they cannot control what users trade over the computer system.

By acooolcat (61.58.83.13) on Saturday, April 26, 2003 - 01:24 am:

Hi Larry,
While using Nero it's possible to alter the time gap between tracks, but I usually stick to the 2 seconds that's pre-set.
As Ritchie states - you'd only want to have continuous music if it was a "live" recording.
Many thanks,
Graham

By Clay (66.73.178.214) on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 07:56 am:

Graham,
email me and I'll give you an option that may make
recording a lot easier.......Peace

By acooolcat (61.58.181.126) on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 09:45 am:

Thanks Clay. I've just spent the best part of today going in circles... I'm giddy.
Graham