Thursday, 02 May 2019
What about copying MP3 files onto a writeable (recordable) CD (CD-R or CD-RW)?
It is perfectly feasible to record a set of MP3 files onto a writeable CD in CD-ROM format and play it using a program such as WinAmp on a computer. A 650MB CD will hold about 650 minutes of music in MP3 format. However, as far as I know such a CD cannot be played on a conventional audio CD player because such a device cannot read a computer format disk, nor can it understand MP3 files (as stated above, some DVD players may now have this ability).
There are two physical types of writeable CD’s:
CD-R: These disks can only be written on once. Blank CD-R disks are inexpensive.
CD-RW: These disks can be written on and then re-written a large number of times. Blank CD-RW disks are considerably more expensive than blank CD-R disks.
In addition, both types of writeable CD disks come in two different densities (650MB and a higher figure, 720MB I think) and different write speed compatibilities (X2, X4, X8, etc).
Modern CD-R/CD-RW drives can write to both CD-R and CD-RW disks. Modern CD-ROM drives should be able to read both CD-R and CD-RW disks although older drives may have problems (I think read problems are more likely with CD-RW disks than CD-R disks). If you are considering purchasing a CD-R/CD-RW drive then check the speed at which it can record each type of disk and also the speed at which it can read disks (although most people retain their old CD-ROM drive, so as to make copying disks easier).
CD’s of all physical types (mass produced, CD-R and CD-RW) can have a variety of overall data format, including:
Digital audio format – the format used on the music CD’s you buy in a record shop and play in an audio CD player.
CD-ROM format – the format used on the CD-ROM’s you buy in a computer shop and install programs from on your computer. This is the format to use when writing MP3 files to a CD-R/CD-RW disk.
Photo-CD and CD-i – two attempts at other formats, now largely defunct.
The files on CD-ROM format disks can of course have any software format – WAV, MP3, EXE, DOC, HTM, GIF, JPG and any other type of file. Also, the format can be for DOS/Windows PC’s or Apple Macintosh PC’s (I don’t know if the basic disk format differs for the Apple Mac).
Some CD-R/CD-RW drives (or their software) can only write to disks in one burst, which must not be interrupted. This is known as «disk-at-once». More modern drives (or their software) can also write in several separate bursts, known as «track-at-once». The most modern drives (or software) can also write individual files, known as «packet writing» or «drag and drop» (since files can be drag and dropped to the CD-R/CD-RW drive as if it were a normal disk). If your drive only supports disk-at-once or track-at-once then you need to assemble all the files to be written to a disk before commencing the writing process. You also need to disable any screen saver and power saving options on your PC which might interrupt the writing process. You must also leave the program to complete the writing process without doing anything else on the computer which might interrupt it.
If you want to produce a CD which you can play in a normal audio CD player, then you need to convert the files from MP3 to uncompressed WAV format and you also need to write the disk in the special format required for digital audio CD.
The WinAmp program can convert from any sound file format that it can play (including MP3) to an uncompressed WAV file. To do this: OPTIONS > PREFERENCES > AUDIO I/O > note your current choice of output plug-in (so you can restore it later) > select NULLSOFT DISK WRITER as the output plug-in > CONFIGURE > specify the output directory (the location that the WAV files will be written to). Then when you use WinAmp play a sound file, instead of playing sound through the speakers the program will write a WAV file in the specified directory, with a file name based on that of the source file. A set of files can be converted by opening them at the same time or by means of a playlist. The WAV files are written at much faster than real time. Converting a file from MP3 to uncompressed WAV format will multiply the file size by a factor of ten. Follow the same procedure to restore your normal output plug-in and return WinAmp to its normal operation.
The software provided with a CD-R/CD-RW drive may have an option to create a digital audio CD format disk, given a set of WAV files. If not, then software to do this task is probably widely available (I’ve never tried looking). CD’s produced by this means can be played on a conventional audio CD player but of course can only hold as much as a normal audio CD.
The M3PO audio CD player manufactured by Terratec can also play computer data format CD’s which hold MP3 files. I would guess that this is likely to become a standard feature for audio CD players in the near future. The M3PO can also be fitted with a hard disk for storing a huge number of MP3 tracks.
Hand-held portable stereo «Walkman» units are now available which hold MP3 tracks in electronic memory, the data being downloaded from your PC.
