I have had this problem for awhile but it is getting really irrating after going through 11 discs just to get one to burn all 16 songs in the project. Sometimes it misses the first track - sometimes the third, sometimes the 11 track.

I have tried slowing the burn down - speeding the burn up - taking out all transitions - shortening transitions - every combination of tactics.

Yes I have the latest drivers/firmware for my CD Burner - it is a 52/32/X52/16 cd/dvd burner.

What is the solution? Has anyone else had this problem?


Even with the buffers set to 1.25 and recording at the slowest speed 12X I'm still getting glitches...

Is it just me or am i doing something wrong?

Give us some more info....
What program in the suite are you using?
What is the source of the tracks? MP3/WMA ? are they from a download site?
Are you creating CD's or DVD's?

All we know is that it skips tracks,

I am making CD's only - in "advanced projects" in Roxio 8 (I have used Roxio since roxio 5) I only use it for CD making. I haver made over 600 CD compilations with Napster tracks and only now in "8" am i constantly running into this problem.

The tracks are Napster Tracks and/ or CD tracks (happens with both) - Sometimes one is skipped sometimes another is skipped (they are not burned onto the CD just dead air for the full alotted time of the track) For instance I could have A Napster tack (WMA) followed by another and 12 more of the same. The first time through Number 1 track will burn number 2 won't and all the rest will burn. Toss that CD try again - this time maybe number 1 won't burn number four won't burn but all the rest will be fine. Does that explain it better.

I don't remember that "Advanced Projects" is an application. What is the name of the application in the top of the screen that opens? Are you talking about a Napster program? If so, wrong company/place.

I'm not going to get into an argument with your but for the most part, music purchased (rented) from an on-line store has DRM issues that don't allow you to burn the music to a compilation disc directly.

It almost sounds like you are making a combination mp3/WMA/wav discs like you can in Creator Classic where you are just copying the files to a disc. If you have V8, use Music Disc Creator to make audio discs. That changed between earlier versions and V8.

OK I'll try again - I am using ROXIO Easy Media Creator 8. In the audio (nothing to do with DVD just CD) I am making CD compilation discs as I have for the last 6 or 7 years with roxio. In EMC 8 there is an area named "advanced projects" (see image provided)

When I make a compilation CD using my own purchased in the plastic jewel case or Napster tracks downloaded without the jewel case (one or the other not both together) I run into the afore mentioned problem of some tracks not burning at all leaving dead air where the song should be. This would probably be a DRM issue if it was the same track each time consistantly but it isn't. The track that doesn't burn isn't necessarily the same track but different tracks in the compilation sometime the first sometimes the third and so on. Does this make it more understandable?

Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 - Audio - advanced projects-

Threw me for a minute. That's just another way to get to Music Disc Creator.
I understand the problem.. Are all the music files wav to begin with or are you using the program to convert other formats to wav? Please try opening Music Disc Creator from the Home Applications menu or from the Windows Start Programs menu. Sometimes the home page ans/or the backway into the applications have some glitches. Try a project and burn it to an RW disc so you won't waste another one if this is not the solution.

Thanks for the advice...I tried it but it still did the same thing. I was hoping that you had found the solution.

The best I can do is turn off all other runniing programs. Increase my buffer to 2.mg and slow my speed down to 12 X (2.1mg) even then it's still cross your fingers. This last disc was the hardest one to burn It took well over 18 discs to get a copy that would work. ROXIO 8 is still IMHO the best for CD music writing and I will contiue to use it over all the others but it sure isn't getting any easier to make music CD's -

BTW could someone please recommend what they believe to be the best discs for copying to. Maybe another brand than what I'm using will change my luck. thanks for the help

None are wav files they are all either Napster tracks of Windows media or from purchased CD tracks. No wav files.

I would still think that the Napster tracks would be protected by DRM. Tell us again what kind of disc you are trying to make audio or mp3 or DVD.

Try converting or reconverting the files to the format you want. Open Sound Editor, add the music and then export the clips to a folder. You can select your preferred format. Try making a CD with them.

Sometimes the sampling rate, the bit rate or other is such that there is a problem with the program using the files. This has worked for people who have had non DRM music as mp3 and they would not add to VideoWave. I suspect it might be something like that.

As for brand of discs, see what your burner manufacturer recommends. They usually have a list on their web site.

This may or may not matter but,is the burner by chance an SATA drive?I've seen other posts on these boards where people are having similar troubles and have SATA drives.

Not a sata its ATAPI (EIDE)

I am making audio CD's only no DVD no mp3 no wav.

The CD when made will play but - there will be at least one track that won't burn and for the alloted time there will be dead air.

( I have now slowed my burner down to as low as it will go SONY CD/RW/DVD-ROM CRX320AE which for this burner is 12X and increased my buffer to 2 mg)

Napster is DRM protected but since it is purchased through their licensing protocol you "are" allowed to burn CD's with it (I've done this for years). If you don't purchase the rights Npaster will issue a notice saying that you don't have the rights to burn the track and will not allow you to add it to your CD (see image) If you have purchased the track it is allowed in the project and can be burned.

Isn't all Napster music mp3 to start with? How did you convert it to WMA? Forgive me but I haven't looked at Napster for a long time and now I really can't find much information on the web. I did see that you were allowed to make discs and put the music onto three computers but not much else. Perhaps I have fixated on the Napster files. Does it matter were the music comes from that skips?

Are you going to try putting the music in Sound Editor and then exporting it from there to burn?

the music doesn't "skip" -

Lets say I am making a CD (audio only) that is made up of 15 tracks
(from Napster or from my own CD's)
I go to Music Disc Creator - add them to a project and then burn.

Inevitably one or more of the tracks will not burn to disc. The space where the track would be is just dead air. It isn't a specific track or a specific location on the disc it is random.

I think you'll find that's DRM - as far as I am aware, all the legitimate download music sites require that you use their own software to create CDs - it's not possible to use the downloaded tracks in another program. I know iTunes definitely does that and it's almost certain Napster does too

As you see I'm not a guru by any means but I have created many hundreds of discs. Many of them exclusively DRM protected music. using only ROXIO software

Roxio has always been my choice. I like the ease of use and after so many years of working with it most of what I do (since I only use it for CD's) is second nature.

Tonight I tried to make one that has no DRM encoding on it using only 5 tracks. the first time track one failed the second time tracks three and four failed.

On the third burn I got a CD disc. This is just 5 songs nothing fancy.

Prior to doing this I turned all of my other software off.

Next - I am going to move my ROXIO version 8 to a machine which has only it and my music. It has two CD burners - the first a NEC 7800A my oldest burner which I can slow to a burn speed of 4X and a Sony CRX 320 AE which runs at 32X and I can slow to 12X burn speed.

Today I went out and bought Kodak, TDK and Sony CDR's -
tomorrow the experiments begin.

If a clean machine with a 3.0GHz pentium 4 and 2 gigs of ram can't burn a CD without blanking out then I don't know what else to do.

there is no problem with Napster burning to a CD - as is stated in Napsters FAQ - it uses ROXIO (Sonic) software for the burn. (see image file)

Also - just so you completely understand - I am not using Napster to burn the CD's. This is just an example to let you see that Napster itself "is" fully compatible (always has been) with ROXIO.

According to Napster and their technical support team once I have purchased the music and downloaded it to my computer. I can use my ROXIO/Sonic software on my computer to create and burn compilation discs that I have purchased rights to.

As I should in the above posts - If I don't own the rights I am not allowed to include it in the compilation disc. Napster will pop up and say you don't own this- you can't burn this (as you can see in the supplied image with the big red X in it).

(As far as iTunes - don't use them never will - they aren't even involved in the equation.)

I'll throw another possibility out there.It could be that you're beginning to have troubles with that drive.You'll find out if you move to the other machine and things go smoothly.
Have you been able to sucessfully burn other things (not music) with that same drive?It could be that the laser is having tracking problems.

As stated in the other threads I have made several hundred of CD"s using this drive as well as photo discs - no problems. Both my burners on the machione have the same problems when making discs in ROXIO 8.

Not much luck. even after moving everything to an empty machine I am still ending up with dead tracks.

best luck I had today was using Memorex 52X cd-r and burning at optimal speed with a 1.5 mg buffer - I got a whole CD to burn with only two scratch sounds (which is about the sound of a needle skipping on a vinyl record).

It may be the DRM on the CD's that the record companies have added and it may just be the software (although I still think ROXIO is the best for this type of project).

I can only say that I am disappointed that recording CD's is not what it use to be and has really taken the satisfaction of putting any compilation CD's together for me.

Once you've burned through 14 to 15 blank CD-R's and not gotten a clean copy it makes you wonder if it's even worth the trouble or the cost. If it wasn't for the fact that it is a necessary part of what I do I would just quit even trying.

Thanks for all your input and if I ever find a solution to this I'll make sure I post it here first.

Did you ever try adding that music to Sound Editor and then exporting it to the format of your choice and burning from those files? I had suggested it earlier but my suggestion may have been missed.

The idea about the drive being bad is that after several hundred CDs, the laser and drive mechanism may be getting worn and at the end of its useful life. CD/DVD drives are, after all, mechanical devices that can, and do, wear out after awhile. It's possible that what you're seeing is the drive dying. Fortunately, drives aren't too expensive anymore, so it would be a fairly affordable experiment to get a new drive. If it started making good discs everytime, it would pay for itself fairly quickly if you're going through 15 discs to get one good one.

It's a new drive - replaced the old Sony drive a month - but thanks for the reply - the secondary CD drive on the system also has the same problem.

It's either the software or the DRM that is added by the record companies.

I just burn and toss until one of them gets close to being useable - If I'm lucky i can get a good burn in 4 CDR's if not it can take 30 CDR's..... such is life now that we are slaves to the RIAA (Don't get me wrong - I'm happy to pay for the rights to the song - It's just that when I pay for those rights I want all of them)..

Just another thought,have you tried burning to an iso and then to a disc with Disc Copier?I know this is a long way around but just trying things.
Another thing is even though they're new drives are you sure the firmware is up to date?

Okay... have you tried using Napster to burn the discs? I know you said you've always used Roxio, but try using Napster and let us know what happens.

Also, what happens with Data discs? Same thing? First time every time? Again, trying to narrow the problem.

Data is fine - Napster isn't

It looks as I am having a similiar problem I have now burnt 5 discs and all of them have skipped 9 tracks. Always the same tracks and there appears no reason as the tracks will play quite happily inside music disc creator, in windows media player or even when streamed to a mp3 client.
All tracks where originally ripped as mp3 from CD's. In fact some of the tracks that are skipped are off the same album which makes no sense at all. I have tried various settings for the write speed but no difference.

Regards

I have come to the conclusion that it is whatever protection the monopolized RIAA czars have now included to keep us from making use of the music we buy the rights to.

A true monopolization in ever sense of the term.

Try ripping those tracks as .wav files, from your CD.

Fascinating! I've run into similar problems with Roxio EMC 8 - Music Disk Creator. Sometimes a song just doesn't get recorded -- just blank space. Other times, songs get recorded, but they skip like crazy -- and it is invariably a song or two well down in the recording list, like song 17 and/or 18. Sometimes everything gets recorded, but some songs won't play on one of the car CD players (a 6-year old Alpine unit). Totally unpredictable, except that I cannot get a full CD recorded without at least one these errors. I have switched CD drives, I have switched blank CD brands, I have slowed down the CD recording speed -- all to no avail. The songs come from actual CDs -- I'm making compilations of different artists whose CD's I own.

The computer has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 processor, 2 GB RAM, plenty of hard disk space, top notch Asus motherboard, top quality CD/DVD drives, Windows XP Pro fully updated - it's one of about 60 computers I've built. Now this important -- everything had been working just fine in Roxio until about 2 months ago. I have no idea what has caused this change in behavior, but it sounds a lot like the problems you've run into. Naturally, Roxio's automated tech support is useless. I've almost had all I can take from Roxio and I've been using it since version 3. I tried version 9 and returned it for a refund because it could not read projects created in Version 8 or previous versions.



Fascinating! I've run into similar problems with Roxio EMC 8 - Music Disk Creator. Sometimes a song just doesn't get recorded -- just blank space. Other times, songs get recorded, but they skip like crazy -- and it is invariably a song or two well down in the recording list, like song 17 and/or 18. Sometimes everything gets recorded, but some songs won't play on one of the car CD players (a 6-year old Alpine unit). Totally unpredictable, except that I cannot get a full CD recorded without at least one these errors. I have switched CD drives, I have switched blank CD brands, I have slowed down the CD recording speed -- all to no avail. The songs come from actual CDs -- I'm making compilations of different artists whose CD's I own.

The computer has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 processor, 2 GB RAM, plenty of hard disk space, top notch Asus motherboard, top quality CD/DVD drives, Windows XP Pro fully updated - it's one of about 60 computers I've built. Now this important -- everything had been working just fine in Roxio until about 2 months ago. I have no idea what has caused this change in behavior, but it sounds a lot like the problems you've run into. Naturally, Roxio's automated tech support is useless. I've almost had all I can take from Roxio and I've been using it since version 3. I tried version 9 and returned it for a refund because it could not read projects created in Version 8 or previous versions.

Try turning off your virus protection when you are burning. If it is active, it may be screening everything you do slowing down the transfer of the music to the burner. Make sure that "plenty of hard disc space" is defragmented frequently.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try turning off my antivirus (and, of course, disconnecting from the network) while recording. My hard drive is perfectly defragmented -- I use Diskeeper 2007 which keeps it always defragmented (this recording problem started long after I started using Diskeeper 2007 and long after I started using Kaspersky Internet Security -- finally all of our computers are Norton-free!).

Thanks again. I'll report whether or not turning off the anti-virus makes any difference (frankly I'd be very, very surprised if it makes a difference; I've built about 60 Windows computers and never run into this problem before).

Turn off the Kaspersky, when you are burning, too.

On a side note. I have used Diskeeper since version 6 or 7. I have been using version 10, since it came out, and still like it. How do you like the Diskeeper 2007?

Thanks. I will try burning with Kaspersky off, although it had worked just fine with Kaspersky on unitl about 2 months ago.

Regarding Diskeeper 2007 -- it's great! It now defrags in the background - whenever needed -- so I haven't had to run it manually at all. I've got Diskeeper Pro Premier 2007 which has a few additional features compared to other less expensive versions. I'm pretty sure you can download a 30-45 day free trial. They've done a good job of updating it. I must say that Diskeeper and Kaspersky are two of the better companies I've bought from -- excellent and responsive tech support based in the USA -- live people who actually pay attention to your support needs. (They'll probably get run out of the industry for that)

Thanks for the information. I will probably upgrade to the 2007 Pro version. And, LOL on them getting run out of the industry for giving real support.

I had run into similar problems detailed in another thread. The solution seems to be two-fold:
(1) Turn off your anti-virus protection. Seriously -- I can't imagine why it causes these recording problems, but another person here suggested I try this.
(2) Ratchet down the recording speed. Even though my drive is 52X, slowing down recording to 40X worked.

Doing both (1) and (2) seems to have worked for me. I've successfully burned 4 CDs now. When I "pause protection" (I use Kaspersky Internet Security) I also "Block Network Traffic" so nothing from the Internet can attack my computer. Trend Micro's PC-Cillin also has this ability to block the Internet from your computer while you've got protection disabled.

I hope this will work for you. With apologies to Bill Clinton, I really do feel your pain.