Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs

Subject: Tech: Track ID on CDs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 05:07 AM

I'm making a master for a "greatest hits" CD for a friend of mine. I have the master finished, and I thought I did what I needed to do to have the tracks identified by name on the CD (I did one master on WinAmp, the other on Windows Media Player). But it didn't work. I put the CD in the player in my car, and the tracks weren't identified.

I have no problem including track ID on MP3 CDs for playing in my car, but can't figure out how to do it for ordinary CDs. I did upload the track names to the GraceNote (through WinAmp) and Windows Media Player databases so the CD will eventually be identified on players connected to the Internet - but isn't there a way to embed this information on a CD?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 08:17 AM

I've been using iTunes on my Mac laptop to do this job. Seems to work OK, even to uploading details to GraceNotes for hitherto unidentified commercial CDs that I load into the iTunes library as mp3s. I don't use the iTunes shop facility, but find the library, playlist and CD-burning options very comprehensive. Don't know whether you get all those with iTunes for PCs?

One problem I couldn't resolve was with a commercially-produced CD where the sound had been recorded at a very low level. I just can't get it to play loud enough to hear properly. (No problem with any other disc). As this is one of the jobs that a "mastering" program should be able to do, iTunes might not answer for Joe's requirements.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 09:22 AM

What you mean is a CD-R. A very different beast from a CD, despite a superficial visual similarity.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 02:11 PM

AFAIK (no guarantee), an Audio CD alias CD-DA in the original specification cannot contain any text whatsoever. There are other formats that can. The question is which of these are compatible to old players. JohnIK will know.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 23 Apr 13 - 09:28 PM

Most burning programs that I have used have a box to check indicating that ID tags are to be burned to the CD. You are probably aware that there is a difference between the ID tag and the file name. If the ID tag is not written to the file, the songs, when written to the CD will most likely be named 'track 1', etc. Because I need things pretty simple, I use Media Monkey, a freeware application, to verify ID tags and to write the tags if there are none. One feature of this program is that multiple tags can be written from file names which saves time and typing. Media Monkey works fine when using MP3 files.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Eddie1
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 03:10 AM

I too would endorse Media Monkey.

Make sure you tick box for including details of CD before burning.
I regularly burn composite CDs for playing on radio shows.

Another advantage of MM is that when CD is burned, re-insert and play using MM. You can then go to "File", "Create Report" and "HTML" This produces a track list giving number, title, artist and duration as well as other info. You can copy this to Word, delete the columns you don't want, print and Robert, as one says, is your Mother's brother!

Eddie

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: treewind
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 03:33 AM

A lot of confusion here!

First, this has nothing to do with the difference between a CD-R (recordable) and a pressed CD. Any of the following could apply to either type.

A CD with MP3 files on it is a CD-ROM, which is computer file system on a CD. Computers can read it but many audio CD players can't. The ID tag is part of the MP3 file header. Some players, especially car players, CAN read CD-ROMs with MP3 files on them, because it's a convenient way of getting about 10x as much music on one CD, at a reduced quality level but good enough for listening in the car...

It is possible to burn an Audio CD from MP3 files - that's an Audio CD and not the same as above.

It IS possible to embed text on an Audio CD. CD-TEXT was invented by Sony and is an extension to the Red Book standard. Some CD burning programs support it - you can put track titles, an album title, an ISRC number for each track and several other pieces of information. If such a program can works from MP3 files, it will almost certianly let you copy the MP3 ID tages into the CD-TEXT track titles.
A CD with CD-TEXT on it is playable on any player, even if the player can't read the text.

CDDB is one of several internet databases of album and track titles identified by clues such as track lengths. It's a somewhat hit-and-miss method but it seems to work well enough. It is quite independent of CD-TEXT.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 03:51 AM

Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 2013 has solved a number of problems for me (at reasonable cost) including burning a CD with automatic track list. A versatile and useful program IMO.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 04:15 AM

According to treewind and Wikipedia, "CD-Text" does not restrict playability at all, and thus is the answer to the OP. The free burning software CDBurnerXP allows the input of such text - presumably most other burners do the same. I did not use it yet, but next time I burn an Audio CD I will try.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 04:36 AM

Thanks for all the information. I rarely burn what my computer calls "Music" CDs (traditional CD format). I usually make "data" CDs with MP3s. I have a hearing loss, and can't tell any difference between high-quality MP3s and a CD.

But I've mastered a few CD-player CDs for people over the years, and they've generally liked the results. One client (my only male client to date - but I was recording his wife, who was wonderful) drove me crazy until I finally got his CD to show track names on Windows Media Player. The others haven't cared about track labels at all - the most recent client didn't care, but I thought I'd make a stab at it to see if it is possible. I may experiment with "CD-Text" sometime, so thanks for that tip, Treewind and Grishka.

With all the MP3 tracks you can fit on a CD, it's essential to have track names on MP3s (and it's so cool on the display on my new Honda...)

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: Howard Jones
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 02:30 PM

I was under the impression that Windows Media Player doesn't read this information off the CD but gets it from an online database. It does this automatically when you rip a CD, or when you ask it to update the media information. When you play a CD you've made yourself it will try to match this with the database but will very likely fail. You can edit the information it downloads, or enter it manually. At least, that's what the FAQ seem to say.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Tim De Baets
Date: 26 May 13 - 02:47 PM

There's a plug-in for WMP that allows it to read CD-Text: WMPCDText.

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 13 - 03:41 AM

That's my understanding, too, Howard - but I had to learn the hard way.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Track ID on home-burned CDs
From: GUEST,Futwick
Date: 27 May 13 - 11:39 PM

I do it the poor man's way:

I rip the CD onto my hard drive but as the rip starts, I hit stop. Then I go to the edit function for each track and enter the track title. I also edit the CD title, artist, year, genre and all that. Then I continue on with the rip. When it's done, I transfer it all to a CD in audio format. It can be a lot of typing and I've still had it not take but it usually does.