Best Audio CD Burning Software??? Windows Media Player compresses files ! A No No

[bizmord]

It seems to me like the Windows Media Player is actually compressing file size?? can that be? for Audio CDs.

I had 6 WAV songs I added to Audio CD. Total size was 700mb while my CD-r is exactly 750mb. Somehow software says only 50% is full and it goes by total song length.

I still kept it at 6 songs and burned the CD. After burn, looking at the CD write side it clearly shows that it used up 50% of available surface. So what is happening??? is it compressing my WAV files to smaller MB ?

thank you.

P.S. Is there a better software to use for CD burning??

 

[cpp]

Exact Audio Copy

dBpoweramp (not free)

 

[Lulimet]

dbpoweramp for me. Well worth the $35 I paid for it.

 

[rojo]

It seems to me like the Windows Media Player is actually compressing file size?? can that be? for Audio CDs.

I had 6 WAV songs I added to Audio CD. Total size was 700mb while my CD-r is exactly 750mb. Somehow software says only 50% is full and it goes by total song length.

I still kept it at 6 songs and burned the CD. After burn, looking at the CD write side it clearly shows that it used up 50% of available surface. So what is happening??? is it compressing my WAV files to smaller MB ?

thank you.

P.S. Is there a better software to use for CD burning??

I assume you mean compression as in MP3 compression and not dynamics compression. No, CD audio is about 10 megs per minute (source), no matter what program you use to burn. You know how discs are labeled 80 minutes, 74 minutes, or similar? Your half-full disc probably has 35 - 40 minutes' worth of 16-bit, 44.1kHz stereo audio.

But no, there's nothing wrong with using Windows Media Player to burn your CD's. As I said before, your CD's will end up 88.2kb * 2 per second regardless of what you use to burn, and regardless of whether they started out as WAV, FLAC, MP3, OGG, MP4 or whatever. The source format can affect the end result insomuch as they have varying qualities and amounts of loss in their native formats. But you really aren't saving any extra quality by ripping CDs to 24/192, and no program can burn 24/192 to CD audio without downsampling.

It's important that you recognize the difference between burning an audio CD and burning a data CD containing audio files. You can burn excessively high bitrate audio files to a data CD as data files and get the satisfaction of seeing the entire disc used, but most CD players won't be able to play it. What it sounds like you have in mind is more a means of backup and archival than burning something useable in a hi-fi system.

If you are uncomfortable using WMP to master and burn, I like ImgBurn for burning discs. To master a layout, you have to do Tools --> Create CUE File. But beyond that, it's pretty simple and flexible, and it includes no malware. And it is much more flexible than WMP, allowing you to customize the pregap between tracks, and tweak CD text if you wish.

There are lots of other freeware and open source CD burner programs to be found on sites such as download.com and Snapfiles, but pay attention to the components you're agreeing to install! I know Starburn Free, for example, includes piggyback scumware and you have to read very carefully to opt out. I don't recall whether CDBurnerXP includes adware / toolbars or not, but the advice in bold is worthwhile to keep in mind whenever installing anything regardless.

Roxio Easy CD Creator used to be my favorite commercial mastering / burning suite. It's probably the most intuitive CD burning software I've used, but it's very bloated.

Occasionally, Giveaway Of The Day offers CD burning programs. If you check there from time to time, you might get lucky.

 

[bizmord]

I assume you mean compression as in MP3 compression and not dynamics compression. No, CD audio is about 10 megs per minute (source), no matter what program you use to burn. You know how discs are labeled 80 minutes, 74 minutes, or similar? Your half-full disc probably has 35 - 40 minutes' worth of 16-bit, 44.1kHz stereo audio.

But no, there's nothing wrong with using Windows Media Player to burn your CD's. As I said before, your CD's will end up 88.2kb * 2 per second regardless of what you use to burn, and regardless of whether they started out as WAV, FLAC, MP3, OGG, MP4 or whatever. The source format can affect the end result insomuch as they have varying qualities and amounts of loss in their native formats. But you really aren't saving any extra quality by ripping CDs to 24/192, and no program can burn 24/192 to CD audio without downsampling.

It's important that you recognize the difference between burning an audio CD and burning a data CD containing audio files. You can burn excessively high bitrate audio files to a data CD as data files and get the satisfaction of seeing the entire disc used, but most CD players won't be able to play it. What it sounds like you have in mind is more a means of backup and archival than burning something useable in a hi-fi system.

If you are uncomfortable using WMP to master and burn, I like ImgBurn for burning discs. To master a layout, you have to do Tools --> Create CUE File. But beyond that, it's pretty simple and flexible, and it includes no malware. And it is much more flexible than WMP, allowing you to customize the pregap between tracks, and tweak CD text if you wish.

There are lots of other freeware and open source CD burner programs to be found on sites such as download.com and Snapfiles, but pay attention to the components you're agreeing to install! I know Starburn Free, for example, includes piggyback scumware and you have to read very carefully to opt out. I don't recall whether CDBurnerXP includes adware / toolbars or not, but the advice in bold is worthwhile to keep in mind whenever installing anything regardless.

Roxio Easy CD Creator used to be my favorite commercial mastering / burning suite. It's probably the most intuitive CD burning software I've used, but it's very bloated.

Occasionally, Giveaway Of The Day offers CD burning programs. If you check there from time to time, you might get lucky.

Very interesting point ... so when I burn a WAV file that is 200mb and recording is in 5130kbps 192 quality .... what I hear out of my SACD/CD player is no where close to that file capability ??? It gets "downsampled" to standard CD music file that maybe 1411kbps or something like that?

 

[rojo]

Something like that, I guess. If you want higher than 16-bit, 44.1kHz quality, you won't be able to achieve that with a CD, unless your player can read a data CD's hierarchical filesystem like a flash drive and can play WAV or FLAC files.

But it's not worth worrying about, really. While excessively high bitrate audio formats are perhaps worthwhile for studio mastering for extra headroom, anything beyond 44.1kHz is just bragging rights / below-average phallus compensation for end users. Unless you're a bat, the downsampling won't be audible at all.

 

[bizmord]

Something like that, I guess. If you want higher than 16-bit, 44.1kHz quality, you won't be able to achieve that with a CD, unless your player can read a data CD's hierarchical filesystem like a flash drive and can play WAV or FLAC files.

But it's not worth worrying about, really. While excessively high bitrate audio formats are perhaps worthwhile for studio mastering for extra headroom, anything beyond 44.1kHz is just bragging rights / below-average phallus compensation for end users. Unless you're a bat, the downsampling won't be audible at all.

So what you're saying is .... if I play a recorded Audio CD that pushes every high end recording to standard CD quality of 44.1khz and 1411kbps on my SACD/CD player via analog to AVR versus playing same 200mb 5116kbps audio FLAC file on my BluRay USB ..... sound won't really be different?

meaning ... CD player will compensate with it's high quality DAC and even though file is uncompressed in the USB, it will be limited by other factors like a weak DAC or connection coming from bluray player that's not meant for high quality audio playback?

 

[ecologydoc]

It would be overkill if all you want to do is burn discs, but I like NERO 2014 for lots of audio and video functionality. I recode audio files a lot with it.

 

[rojo]

I make no assertions about the superiority of one DAC over another. The other factors limiting whatever gains might've been achieved by higher sampled audio are your hearing, and probably the range of your speakers. 44.1kHz is plenty high enough to encompass the full range of human hearing. There's some complicated math to explain this, but basically a 44.1kHz sample is capable of handling frequencies up to 22,050Hz without loss.

 

[its phillip]

I haven't burned a cd in ages but I used to use something called cdburnerxp.

 

[GranteedEV]

I always try to use open source software when possible.

Check out xdrtfe or Infrarecorder.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I use AVS Audio Converter and rip everything to ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and place the files on my iPad to stream to my Denon. Obviously, I can't install every single song on the iPad, but I can install a lot. Each ALAC music file is only about 7-10MB. I don't listen to every song from every album anyway. I only listen to about 300 songs I like.

It doesn't matter if the file is compressed as long as it is LOSSLESS, which means it will have the same exact quality as the original CD.