Burning mp3 files

[gsusser]

I'm going slightly insane trying to do what I think is a fairly simple thing. I want to burn an iTunes playlist to a cd so all the tagging info shows up. In other words, I want the track tags to be readable in any computer. I don't care if I burn the cd in mp3 format or AIFF. The reason I want it in one of these formats is so the disk is playable on most cd players. All of my tracks are presently in apple lossless format. These are the steps I've been taking. If there's another or better way to do this, please let me know.

 

1. I convert the apple lossless files to mp3 in iTunes. I do this because it appears if I don't, I lose the tagging info on the cd.

 

2. I then drag the tracks to Toast. However, I lose the artist name on the cd. Also, for some odd reason, burning it in Toast seems to take up a few more seconds of space than it does on iTunes. Why is that?

 

So, is this the process I should be going through? I tried doing this in iTunes but it doesn't seem to wanna burn an audio mp3 cd.

 

Thx, glenn

[tsantee]

Thank you.

 

It's more important to me that the cd is readable by all or most cd players as I will be sending them out to friends. So, then my only option is to burn as an audio file which will in turn be in the format .AIFF? Is there any advantage to using Toast to do this as opposed to iTunes?

Toast has a lot of Audio CD options not present with iTunes and you don't need to first place audio tracks in a playlist with Toast (nor even into iTunes). But for common usage you'll be fine using iTunes to burn the audio CD. When it is done you can eject and reinsert the burned CD and use iTunes to upload the track/artist/album info to CDDB. Toast can do that, too.

[gsusser]

When it is done you can eject and reinsert the burned CD and use iTunes to upload the track/artist/album info to CDDB. Toast can do that, too.

 

Would you mind explaining how to do that with either program? Many thanks.

[gsusser]

Just to add, I really don't understand when you say re-insert the burned CD and submit the info to CDDB. The CD has no info... it reads Track 1, Track 2, etc.

 

I followed the instructions in Toast to no avail. I chose the CD-TEXT option. I went into edit disc and gave it a title but I left the artist name blank since it is a compilation. Sorry if this is obvious, but it's not to me.

[tsantee]

Just to add, I really don't understand when you say re-insert the burned CD and submit the info to CDDB. The CD has no info... it reads Track 1, Track 2, etc.

 

I followed the instructions in Toast to no avail. I chose the CD-TEXT option. I went into edit disc and gave it a title but I left the artist name blank since it is a compilation. Sorry if this is obvious, but it's not to me.

1. Insert the audio CD and open Toast.

2. Choose Disc Info from the Toast Recorder menu. In the window that appears you should see any album title and track names you had entered before burning the disc.

3. Open iTunes (if it isn't aleady open). Click on the "Audio CD" name and press command+I to get the CD Info window. Fill in what information you want. Choose Compilation album. You can use Various Artists in the Artist field if you like. Close that window.

4. Select the first track and press Command+I to get the Track Info window. Click the Info tab.

5. Refer to the track names in the Toast Disc Info window and enter those in the iTunes window.

6. When you are finished you will see "Submit Track Names" is active in the iTunes Advanced menu.

 

If you were to do a lot of this then I suggest getting the CD Text to CD Info applescript at www.dougscripts.com. You won't need to keyboard anything with that script except for any information you want to include that isn't part of the CD Text.

 

Don't bother trying to upload the info to CDDB with Toast because it just adds more steps to do that. To do that you'd have to eject the disc after entering the info in iTunes, reinsert the disc and then the Submit CD Track Names option becomes available.

[gsusser]

1. Insert the audio CD and open Toast.

2. Choose Disc Info from the Toast Recorder menu. In the window that appears you should see any album title and track names you had entered before burning the disc.

3. Open iTunes (if it isn't aleady open). Click on the "Audio CD" name and press command+I to get the CD Info window. Fill in what information you want. Choose Compilation album. You can use Various Artists in the Artist field if you like. Close that window.

4. Select the first track and press Command+I to get the Track Info window. Click the Info tab.

5. Refer to the track names in the Toast Disc Info window and enter those in the iTunes window.

6. When you are finished you will see "Submit Track Names" is active in the iTunes Advanced menu.

 

If you were to do a lot of this then I suggest getting the CD Text to CD Info applescript at www.dougscripts.com. You won't need to keyboard anything with that script except for any information you want to include that isn't part of the CD Text.

 

Don't bother trying to upload the info to CDDB with Toast because it just adds more steps to do that. To do that you'd have to eject the disc after entering the info in iTunes, reinsert the disc and then the Submit CD Track Names option becomes available.

 

THANK YOU THANK YOU! Especially for your patience. I'm new to the Mac and also a little brain dead. It took a while to figure out how to run a script -- thanks for opening a whole new world to me. I ran the applescript CD text to CD Info and it worked fine except I got "various artists" for the artist name. Is that something I'll just have to live with and edit on my own? You're the greatest.

[tsantee]

An MP3 audio CD is basically a data disc with MP3 tracks. The ID tags are part of the files so nothing extra is required for them to appear when playing on an MP3 device. If you want something that plays on regular CD players that don't have MP3 capability then you have to use the Audio CD format which doesn't use ID tags at all. So you can have ID tags in a format that most CD players don't play or you can have no ID tags in a format that nearly all CD players will play.

 

Which brings us to the subject of an audio CD with CD Text. There are a few audio CD players that can read CD Text track information from an audio CD. Most cannot. Computers don't read CD Text, either. To get audio CD track information to appear on multiple computers it is necessary to upload that information to the online CDDB where it is automatically downloaded when a matching disc is inserted for the first time in a computer that is connected to the Internet.

 

Use MP3 disc in the Toast Audio window if you want ID tags. I'd create my MP3 playlists in iTunes and then use the Toast Media Browser to transfer the playlists to the audio window. Click on "My Disc" and change the name of the disc itself to whatever you want.

[gsusser]

Thank you.

 

It's more important to me that the cd is readable by all or most cd players as I will be sending them out to friends. So, then my only option is to burn as an audio file which will in turn be in the format .AIFF? Is there any advantage to using Toast to do this as opposed to iTunes?