Using Easy Cd Creator To Make Compilation Cd's

[wwivhobbit]

In one of the early versions of EZCD there was a module that was there specifically for making a "greatest hits" type of cd from many other cds. I don't recall what it was called, but it disappeared and I've never found anything that could replace it.

 

It worked like this. There was a dual pane box that appeared when you ran the program. You'd insert a cd and the title and artist and song titles would appear in the left pane. Then, you'd check off which songs you wanted on your custom cd and it would rip those from that cd and they would appear in the right pane, all the while keeping a running count of how many minutes you've used. When the ripping was finished on that cd, it would pop out and let you insert the next one to keep adding songs till the custom cd was full. At that point you'd click on the burn button and you'd have a cd with only the songs you like on it. At that point it would take you into a label maker and make jewel box inserts with those songs already ready to print.

 

Now, the point of my post here. Since the disappearance of this module in later versions, I've been unable to find anything else that had this wonderfully easy way of doing this. Does anyone know of something I can buy to do this?

 

In fact, if Roxio could drag this out of the archives and make it work on Windows 7, I'd gladly pay for the thing

[sknis]

Several years and versions ago, Roxio separated the audio and the video functions. What you may have been thinking about was called "Creator Classic". That still exists but it is primarily used for burning data to a disc. What you would use now is " Create Music Discs Projects" (preferrably) or either Burn Audio cds or Burn mp3 cds.

 

Here is a screen shot of "Create ...."

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks for the fast reply! I'll look into this. I've also found something called Sonic RecordNow that seems to be able to do it as well. I'll try them and see which one fills the bill

[cdanteek]

In one of the early versions of EZCD there was a module that was there specifically for making a "greatest hits" type of cd from many other cds. I don't recall what it was called, but it disappeared and I've never found anything that could replace it.

 

It worked like this. There was a dual pane box that appeared when you ran the program. You'd insert a cd and the title and artist and song titles would appear in the left pane. Then, you'd check off which songs you wanted on your custom cd and it would rip those from that cd and they would appear in the right pane, all the while keeping a running count of how many minutes you've used. When the ripping was finished on that cd, it would pop out and let you insert the next one to keep adding songs till the custom cd was full. At that point you'd click on the burn button and you'd have a cd with only the songs you like on it. At that point it would take you into a label maker and make jewel box inserts with those songs already ready to print.

 

Now, the point of my post here. Since the disappearance of this module in later versions, I've been unable to find anything else that had this wonderfully easy way of doing this. Does anyone know of something I can buy to do this?

 

In fact, if Roxio could drag this out of the archives and make it work on Windows 7, I'd gladly pay for the thing

 

Sounds like Sound Stream...

 

You can still accomplish what you did in ECD 5 with C2012. Just different and not as easy but it's not called Easy CD Creator anymore.

 

[wwivhobbit]

Yes! I believe you're right about it being Sound Stream! Hmmm... So, if ECD 5 has this Sound Stream, and it runs under XP, I'm all set ??

 

FWIW, I found a program called CDBurnerXP which is freeware, and might work, but it doesn't use CDDB or any other database to draw song titles from, so it all has to be typed in.

[cdanteek]

Yes! I believe you're right about it being Sound Stream! Hmmm... So, if ECD 5 has this Sound Stream, and it runs under XP, I'm all set ??

 

FWIW, I found a program called CDBurnerXP which is freeware, and might work, but it doesn't use CDDB or any other database to draw song titles from, so it all has to be typed in.

 

Have a read around here.>> http://forums.support.roxio.com/topic/32401-installing-ecdc-version-5-in-xp/

[wwivhobbit]

I read that, thanks! I found one program update file, but haven't been able to locate the drive update one. Hopefully I won't need it

[cdanteek]

I read that, thanks! I found one program update file, but haven't been able to locate the drive update one. Hopefully I won't need it

 

If you have any problems stop back and we can hopefully get you some help.

[Brendon]

Thanks for the fast reply! I'll look into this. I've also found something called Sonic RecordNow that seems to be able to do it as well. I'll try them and see which one fills the bill

 

I'm afraid RecordNow isn't Win 7 compatible. Here's a clip from the Corel Knowledgebase that indicates which of their products will run in Windows 7.

 

]The following Corel products work on Windows 7:[/b]

• CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5
  
• Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4
  
• Digital Studio 2010
  
• Home Office
  
• MovieWriter Pro 2010
  
• MovieWriter Pro Ultimate 2010
  
• Painter 11
  
• Painter Essentials 4
  
• Painter Sketch Pad
  
• Paint it! touch
  
• PaintShop Photo Express
  
• PaintShop Photo Pro X3 (Painter Photo Essentials included with PaintShop Pro Photo X3 is also Windows 7 compatible)
  
• VideoStudio Express
  
• VideoStudio Pro X3
  
• WinDVD 2010
  
• WinDVD Pro 2010
  
• WinZip 14
  
• WordPerfect Office X5
  

 

Regards,

Brendon

[wwivhobbit]

Ok, I have ECD 5 installed, including the v5.3.5.10 patch. I read somewhere in these forums about ditching the directcd portion, so I didn't install that module during the installation. I then rebooted and it comes up fine, but when I start up Sound Stream and insert a cd, it says no audio files found. I figured I'd need the drive update file, too, but haven't been able to find a copy of that on this site anywhere.

 

Anyhow, for grins, I closed Sound Stream and picked Make Data cd, and when the explorer type window came up, the drive with the audio cd in it was listed and all the tracks showed up. Closing that down and choosing to make an audio cd brings up the same explorer looking window with the same drive in the list, but when I choose it I get "no audio files found".

 

Is this because I need the drive update, and if so, where can I find that? Could it be because I didn't let it install the Directcd portion? Should I reinstall and install that as well?

 

Oh, one more thought.. I installed this on my running copy of XP, which had all the latest updates and service packs installed. I did uninstall IE 9 and rolled it back to version 6. I also uninstalled WMP 11. I'm not sure which version it went back to.

 

Would it be worthwhile to wipe this and do a clean install of XP and try ECD v5 again, or wouldn't that make any difference in it's ability to see the audio cd's?

[Brendon]

Here's the drive update, driveup5.3.5v.exe. I've renamed it to driveup5.3.5v.txt so that I could attach it to the topic post. Download it and rename it to driveup5.3.5v.exe to use it. I don't know if it will help your problem.

 

driveup5.3.5v.txt

 

The Direct CD component is unrelated. Don't install it.

 

I think you might be 'pushing it uphill' if you've updated your Internet Explorer and Media Player.

 

I haven't had a chance to play with ECDC 5 today, I'll be back here after I've had time to try a few things.

 

Regards,

Brendon

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks! I actually found the official page for updates and grabbed it earlier, but I sure appreciate the effort

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't help. Sound Stream still can't find any audio files when I click on cd as the source. Another thing is the fact that I actually have two dvd burners on my IDE connection. I chose IDE over SATA for the drives to (hopefully) maintain more backwards compatibility, which doesn't seem to help here

 

I'm wondering if having two drives is confusing ECD, but can't find anywhere in the program to define which drive to use, so I just put cd's in each drive and try it. Nothing shows up, unless I choose to make a data cd and then everything shows up as Track01.cda, Track02.cda, etc...

 

I guess the only option at this point is to rip the cd's with another program, put the songs I want together in a folder and burn them that way?

[wwivhobbit]

I just wish Roxio would include this program along with the label maker in it's newer products! I can't be the only DJ in the world who doesn't want to haul 6000+ cd's to every gig

[Brendon]

Okay, I have ECDC5 up and running, and I'm back. A couple of queries please:

-It is SoundStream you were talking about?

-You are getting the "No audio tracks found" message after you insert a CD in your drive?

 

 

If that's the case, what do you see when you click on the configuration icon at top left, then select CD recorder in the box which opens?

 

 

-Can you see either of your burners in the 'Drive' pull-down where my drive F: is shown?

-if you can, what happens in the source window when you put the CD into a drive you can see/select with that pull-down?

 

Brendon

[wwivhobbit]

Yes, it's Sound Stream I'm talking about. When I try to click on the box you've highlighted it's blank here. It's like the program doesn't know I even have a drive in the system.

 

Loke I said above, tho, if I chose to make a data cd, an explorer type window pops up and the drive is listed there just fine. It's only the audio portions of the program that can't seem to see the drive.

[cdanteek]

Yes, it's Sound Stream I'm talking about. When I try to click on the box you've highlighted it's blank here. It's like the program doesn't know I even have a drive in the system.

 

Loke I said above, tho, if I chose to make a data cd, an explorer type window pops up and the drive is listed there just fine. It's only the audio portions of the program that can't seem to see the drive.

 

Brendon's in a different time zone (Christchurch, N.Z.) and crashed now.

 

He should be back later in our day...

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks! I'll check in later

[Brendon]

Yes, it's Sound Stream I'm talking about. When I try to click on the box you've highlighted it's blank here. It's like the program doesn't know I even have a drive in the system.

 

Loke I said above, tho, if I chose to make a data cd, an explorer type window pops up and the drive is listed there just fine. It's only the audio portions of the program that can't seem to see the drive.

 

Thanks. It could well be that the program doesn't recognize your drive.

 

Modern drives will tell a program what they can do, but back in the old days the program had to find the drive in a lookup table to get the right burn parameters. That's why drive updates were necessary as new drives came on the market.

 

I worked out the two different systems that Creator and Direct CD use, but I haven't looked into whatever recognition system SoundStream uses, since you're the first who has reported this problem. I'll have a dig into it, but in the meantime would you please give me the Drive ID of your two burners in case there's something I can patch.

 

To get the drive ID, run your Device Manager, click on the '+' beside DVD/CD-ROM drives, and tell me what the full text is which shows where mine says "BENQ DVD DD DW1640" please.

 

 

 

Regards,

Brendon

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks! I hope I can insert the screen capture like you did above

[wwivhobbit]

Of course, this is device manager from Windows 7 (same machine). If it makes a difference let me know and I can boot up the XP drive. I do most of my work from Windows 7, so have that booted up at the moment

 

Thanks again!

[Brendon]

Okay, I think things are getting a little bit clearer. I don't know if we're edging closer to success, though.

 

First thing to note is that most of these programs use the Windows Registry extensively, so they are only going to work properly in the Operating systems where they're installed. If you're wanting to use them in Windows 7 you'll have to install them in Windows 7. I don't think Easy CD Creator 5 will install in Windows 7. I'm writing this during my lunch break, so I don't have a chance to try Win 7 at the moment, but if you can't get Creator 5 installed in Win 7 you're never going to get SoundStream working properly in there.

 

If you want to use it under XP, you'll have to install it under XP so the necessary registry entries are written, and these entries will only be accessible from the XP registry.

 

There are two disc writing systems used in ECDC5. One is the Direct CD engine, and the other is the Creator engine. I dug some more into SoundStream and it seems that it uses the Creator engine.

 

Creator 5 holds a big list of optical drives it "recognizes", but neither of your two burners are in that list because they came along well after drive updates stopped for Creator 5. It might be possible for me to build a patch for your XP registry to fool Creator into recognizing the drives, and that might solve your problem with SoundStream in XP. Nothing is guaranteed, though, since it's old software with modern drives.

 

Please try installing Creator in Windows 7 if you want to try it, and let me know how it goes. Do a custom install and leave out Direct CD 5.

 

If that doesn't work and you are game to try an XP registry patch, please let me know and I'll work one up for you to try.

 

Regards,

Brendon

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks, Brendon! I haven't tried installing it in Windows 7. I'm happy to boot to XP to use it. I just grabbed the names of the drives while booted to Windows 7, as that's where I live most of the time.

 

Would the names be different under XP? I'll boot it back up tonight and see what they show up as, if that will help. I'm willing to try any registry patches that you may come up with. I really like that SoundStream program for making cd's and would dearly love to be able to use it again.

[wwivhobbit]

To clarify, I have ECD installed under XP. When I want to run it I change drives and boot up XP. I normally only boot up my legacy OS's when I need to run something that won't run under Windows 7, like ECD.

 

The funny thing about this whole thing is that I thought (I know, dangerous..haha) windows programs were written, or *supposed* to be written to utilize hardware as presented by the OS, rather than each program having to have it's own drivers, like in the DOS days. Why wouldn't SoundStream be able to see whatever drives are listed in the XP registry?

[d_deweywright]

It took several years for the drive makers and the software writers to come up with an interface such that the hardware was properly able to tell the software just what it was capable of doing. ECDC 5 was about the last version that required the drive table information to know what the drives capabilities were in order to use the drive. And of course, later drives, just because they could report their capabilities, don't automatically work with an older program that doesn't know how to query the drives for that information. So, yes, newer versions, such as ECD 7/7.5 and beyond can indeed use the hardware based on it's registry and interface capabilities.

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks, Dewey! Yeah, I figured it was something like that. I just thought that it was mandatory as of Windows 95 or 98 for windows programs to query the registry to get the info.

 

It's great that the newer versions do that, but it's sad that the one portion of the program that I've always found the most useful was dropped from the product. Symantec did the same thing with Norton Utilities after version 8. That was the last version that had *anything* useful left in it, and the last Symantec product I've had any use for