Burning MP3 CD's ???
 

I just got my alpine 7995 but I cant figure out how make a cd with over a hundred mp3z on it!!! If anyone knows how I use Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum!!
Thanks

I am not sure, never had a problem with it... I just tried it with a 163 files (640.6MB) and it worked fine...

open easy CD creator -> make a data CD -> data CD project -> that opens Easy CD creator

I now have to choose ISO9660 format as my reader does not support other formats

right click on the root folder in the project area -> new -> data CD

right click on the root folder in the project area -> properties -> file system pulldown = ISO9660 -> go to the file system tab -> check the option for long file names -> OK

in the source file area open the directory with the files to burn -> drag them on down to the CD project window

whack the "record" button -> I set my recorder to 20x MAX speed as I have had issues with 40x record -> make sure disc-at-one is selected -> enable "copy to hard drive first" and "under-run protection" -> start recording

I also close all applications other than the burner when I do this (though on a fast machine that should not really be needed).

You're probably making "music" CDs instead of data CDs.

Make sure you're making the equivalent of a CD rom - most programs will convert MP3 to WAV if you burn a music CD - but MP3 is data.

~HH

question
 

can you organize the mp3s into folders on the cd to keep them straight or do you have to search through them all everytime u want to listen to a specific song. i am buying an mp3 player soon and always wondered this.


jeremy

Thanks!!

This works on both CDR's and RW's right??

Re: question
 

You can organize them into folders. Different brands can accept different levels of folders; you could make genre folders, then artist folders within that, then a folder for each album from that artist if your player will read that "deep" - some go deeper. Your player will probably have documentation explaining the hierarchy that you can use.

I have said before though - while I LOVE my MP3 CD player, the navigation has a LOT to be desired; and this is the same with every brand out there, so one is not necessarily better than another. You need to organize your tracks in a certain way if you expect to find anything, because the player just won't help. ID3 tags are useless, because the player does not display the tag until the track starts playing - it's not like you can scroll through track names to find what you want. Without a basic format for orainzing your tracks, you'll be lost. I made the mistake early on of burning a couple CDs with all the tracks from a certain artist in one folder - no album folders, no nothing. It's nearly impossible to find anything - I have a few tracks memorized, but that's it.

I generally just separate each album into its own folder; no artist or genre folders - this works fairly well for me.

Another word of advice - depending on the burning software, you might not get a disc with the tracks in the order you want. Since you are making a DATA CD, the order of the files is not proprietary, like on a music CD. I have found that with certain software, the tracks will burn somewhat alphabetically, or in no particular order whatsoever, or reverse order - I'm not sure why this happens. Since starting to use Nero (thank you Kaaza ;)), I haven't had this issue.

The main difference from one brand to another seems to be the "seek" time. When you load a disc, the player reads the disc info, and this takes a few seconds. Also, since MP3 is not a "streaming" media per se, when one track ends and the next begins, the player reads the ENTIRE track before playing it - this also takes a few seconds. It can be annoying when listening to an album that has no "breaks" between songs on the original, because in MP3 it WILL have track breaks, and currently there is no way to get rid of it (unless you want to make one track of all the songs that "blend" together using some audio editing software).

Different brands seem to have different seek times in this regard. I have heard reports that Pioneers have some of the longest. Seems my Kenwood is about average - the time between tracks seems about the same as a regular CD.

One way to reduce the seek time is to completely disable the reading of the ID3 tags. Trust me - it's cool to see the track/artist scroll across the screen, but it's useless - I got sick of it in 2 days.

I'm hoping the navigation aspect of MP3 players improves soon. I have wanted to buy a new deck for quite a while, but I'm waiting so hopefully the next generation of MP3 CD players will fix the issues associated with the current ones.

Oh, and snyp7 - I think it depends on the player as to whether it accepts both CDRs and RWs - but to my knowledge, nearly all of them DO take either one for MP3 playback.

Don't let these nuisances dissuade you from going MP3 - it definitely kicks ass, and having 250+ tracks on one disc is excellent. The prices for these decks is comparable to regular players now, so why the hell not??

A little time organizing your discs will go a long way in your enjoyment of them as MP3s.

~HH

Eh, dunno if making a pure "data cd" will work.

EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum (is what I use) has an option specifically for MP3 cds. Click on the music cd button (or whatever the top-left button is... can't look at it right now) and the very bottom button in that menu should be "make an mp3 cd" or something similar.

From there, just drag and drop mp3 files, create folders, etc. then burn.

-Jomero

No, I do not think that works for MP3 capable head units. What that does (if I read the help file correctly) is create an audio CD that can be played in any CD-R capable reader (i.e. your disc man, your home CD player). It converts the MP3 audio to a CD bitstream and burns it.

These will play in the MP3 capable HU, but you are limited to just about an hour of music (just like a regular CD). To be able to hold hundreds of MP3s you need to burn a data CD in a format that is compatible with your reader (it reads the MP3 file directly). In the case of most, I think, newer head units they now support the Joliet file system (Microsoft extensions on ISO9660) but my older Z919, for example, does not. If I use Joliet on that reader I get limited to the 8.3 naming, if I want more info in the file name (it does not read ID3 tags) I need to use ISO9660 with long filename support.

I own a Kenwood MP3 player and in the manual they show how to burn the cd, maybe your manual will tell ya how ???

I burn my cds with Nero and never got a problem with it.

How do you get that on(track/artist name)?? is it the program your using, or the cd burner?? people tell me that it's the burner your using and others are saying that it's the program?? cuz i want the name to scroll across the screen so i know what song i'm listening to.

i burn mp3 the same way Jomero explained and i got a kenwood mp3 player(i think its the exceleron 659?? i'll check when i get home) but yah and it works fine!

I use my ripping program to name the tracks.

One of the best I've seen is the upgrade to Windows Media Player (for windows XP) - I was able snag it off Kaaza. It does lots of cool stuff with one click - first, it's a decent ripper for turning CDs into MP3s. Then, you ask it to get the album info, and it snags all the track names, artist - basically everything about the album - and tags the files. It even creates artist folders in My Music, then album folders within that, and then puts the album cover art on the folder icon! Cool!

Most rippers will allow you to edit ID3 tags manually, too.

As far as the player - I don't even remember how to turn the read feature on. Once you are sure you are ripping and burning the MP3s with the ID3 tags intact and correct (ID3 is NOT just the filename), check your manual or maybe you can find an online PDF manual or something to show you how to set the player to read and display the tags.

I find the clock much more useful on my deck, tho. ;)

~HH

As I said does anyone else on here have the alpine 7995 and burn 100's of songs to a mp3 cd??? I get all this information but it doesn't answer my question because I did all of it and it didn't work!!! Don't get me wrong thanks for trying to help but I think it is because the information I got was for use on Kenwood mp3 decks but I hear different stories about different decks!!! Please if anyone owns a 7995 deck please tell me how or I might just try to go with some information that I already have about burning in iso9660 and try it in Joliet format!!!

Thanks for all the help though guys it is really appreciated!!!

No, that's not true. The "make an mp3 cd" option does just that. What it does is adds a "playlist" and an executable file that mp3 players read and use. It doesn't convert the mp3 files to anything else. It doesn't shorten the amount of space available on the disc.

I use a Clarion MP3 Head unit and 700 MB discs. The "create an mp3 cd" option works beautifully and my HU plays them perfectly.

-Jomero

Did the MP3s burn to the CD at all? Or does the CD just not play in the Alpine?

~HH

it doesn't play!! I put the cd in the alpine and it says disc read and then just goes back to the clock!!