Mix Cds With Crossfades Burning Blank Tracks Near End

[bbaltimorebrown 0]

I am on a Mac Powerbook running Mac OS Sierra 10.2

 

I've used Roxio for years to create mix CDs by dragging and dropping in playlists from iTunes and then adjusting the crossfades.

 

Recently, when I burn these CDs to a disc they pay great until around track 43 and then the tracks are silent and the disc player sounds like it's searching or having trouble tracking. This happens in my car CD player as well.

 

Any thoughts on why this is happening? I've tried swapping out tracks with no success.

 

The Disc has 53 tracks total that take up 692.8 MB on the disc.

 

thanks,

 

B.

[theoldarchiver 51]

If you save as disc image, and play back from the .Sd2f file, do the tracks 43–53 sound okay then?

(53 tracks would be a high number for many people, but up to 99 is valid and should be supported.)

What does ‘recently’ mean? Since Sierra? Since Toast 16? Since new hardware?

[d_deweywright 116]

The outer edge of the disc does seem to be harder to read for most players. I would also ask what brand of blank disc are you using? You'll want to make sure you're using a good quality disc. Typically Verbatim discs have done well. If you can find JVC/Taiyo-Yuden discs, they're also well regarded.

[cdanteek 216]

 

The Disc has 53 tracks total that take up 692.8 MB on the disc.

 

They have to be in a compressed format to burn that many tracks?

 

You need room to close finalize the CDR.

 

A 80 minute CDR only holds 700mb of data!

[d_deweywright 116]

 

They have to be in a compressed format to burn that many tracks?

 

You need room to close finalize the CDR.

 

A 80 minute CDR only holds 700mb of data!

 

Actually, if it's an actual audio CD, there is no "compressed format." Even if they start out with a lower sample rate, and fewer bits-per-sample, they get "up-converted" when written to an audio CD. So they have to be short, roughly 1 1/2 minute tracks.

[cdanteek 216]

 

Actually, if it's an actual audio CD, there is no "compressed format." Even if they start out with a lower sample rate, and fewer bits-per-sample, they get "up-converted" when written to an audio CD. So they have to be short, roughly 1 1/2 minute tracks.

 

Dave, I know what happens when you burn a Audio CD.

 

OP never stated what he is burning.

 

53, 1 1/2 minute tracks as a audio CD?

[d_deweywright 116]

To me, the terms "mix CD", "crossfade", and "tracks" imply an audio CD. But, I could be wrong. Let's see what we hear back from "B."

[bbaltimorebrown 0]

Hey all, thanks for the feedback.

 

For clarification:

• I'm burning an audio CD.
• Many of the tracks are sound bytes or samples that transition to the next song. That's why there are so many because they are short.
• Crossfades and edits become important because the mix is mostly continuous.
• However, it's important (to me) for the listener to be able to skip ahead if needed.

I'm still testing all of your various suggestions but here's what I've learned so far:

• Toast seems to indicate that there is enough space for the lead out but I deleted a track to make space and it still failed.
• I was using Memorex CD-Rs and tried a Verbatim disc, still failed.
• Recently = I've never had this issue before.
• I saved out an .Sd2f file and it also shows the tracks but they are silent.

When I burn the playlist directly form iTunes (i.e. with no crossfades) the disc burns correctly. That would indicate something is up with one of the tracks or with some sort of crossfade issue but I have no idea how to test that.

 

Again, thanks for your help so far. Other thoughts?

Edited September 26, 2017 by bbaltimorebrown

[d_deweywright 116]

Thanks for letting us know where you're at with this.

 

Memorex CD-R discs don't have a good reputation for quality, nor do most store/generic brands.

 

Since your .SD2F file plays silence on those particular tracks, however, we can't accuse the discs of being the problem at this point.

 

As the .SD2F file seems to be a good way to check for the problem, I'd start by making a copy of your project, and deleting everything up to a couple of tracks before the problem(s) start. Save that as a .SD2F, and see if the problem still exists. Then continue deleting tracks/crossfades 1 at a time, and seeing if there's some point at which everything after that starts working properly.

 

Hopefully someone else will have a better approach.

[cdanteek 216]

 

they pay great until around track 43 and then the tracks are silent

 

Maybe the software doesn't take into account the cross fades?

 

Burn the same first 43 instead of 53, if it works, problem solved.