Author Topic: Your fav' audio CD burner? (Read 59273 times)

Curt · « **on:** May 06, 2008, 03:00 PM »

I never took interest in how to burn audio CDs, because I didn't have the need. But last week a girl friend asked me to make the audio from some YouTube video files playable on her tiny ghetto blaster, so I was forced to give it a try. I had a copy of Nero Essential 7 which was impressive to me in many ways, so I carefully followed the procedure and burned a CD. Of course the disc was playable, and she was happy with it - but I was not! I am "absolutely certain" that I did as I was supposed to do - maybe - and before starting the burn I double checked if the filenames were listed right, and all such things. But nevertheless, the CD's info was not readable to any other player! I mean, the music was okay, but the file names and all other info had gone - all the disc had to say on the other players was "Track 1" + "Unknown this, and unknown that", "Track 2" + "Unknown.." and so on. None of the important informations were saved - no artist, no track name, no nothing.

As I said, Nero was impressive to me in many ways, but I got so upset that I removed all of it without hesitating - thus saving 385 MB! Their photo manager was 135 MB, or something, so I removed that one too, just for the fun of it... So today I saved half a GIGA in just two clicks!

Now I will try out my StarBurn 10 (35 MB) from GAOTD, it seems to offer most, but not all, of what Nero could do, but I keep thinking to myself: "I wonder what the other DC'ers are using?" $:-\$

So my question to 'you' is:
What do you use to burn audio CDs that will show all proper info?

Your fav' audio CD burner?

- name your fav's, forum!

edbro · « **Reply #1 on:** May 06, 2008, 03:08 PM »

J.River Media Center. Outstanding program IMHO.

http://www.jrmediacenter.com/

yotta · « **Reply #2 on:** May 06, 2008, 03:32 PM »

I'd second that, although iv'e only used the free version (media jukebox - google it), for general cd burning (and audio) i would reccomend infra recorder - sorry, i would link, but im using ie8 and its taking like a minute just to display a line of text, and using 50 cpu at the same time.

Curt · « **Reply #3 on:** May 06, 2008, 03:57 PM »

I have heard many good things about JR Media Center, but I really didn't care that much - I thought I already had what I would ever need. But I will try it, I guess - it is forty dollars... Will JR also convert various file types, and maybe extract MP3 from .FLV and .AVI files?

I have never before heard about Infra Recorder http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
- I will have to check this one out as well!

iphigenie · « **Reply #4 on:** May 06, 2008, 04:08 PM »

I think you can burn from the free version. --goes check-- yup, it has a burn option.
I cant say I have used it, when I wanted to do an audioCD I used ashampoo's tool.

Curt · « **Reply #5 on:** May 06, 2008, 05:57 PM »

- I have the entire Ashampoo catalogue, but I used Nero because I wanted to get the best result... Guess I should have taken more time to at least TRY to remember what other choices I already had at hand! But I am glad to hear Ashampoo will do it's job.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #6 on:** May 06, 2008, 07:00 PM »

I know this isn't audio related but I have started using Nero 7 again having had a lot of problems with coasters from Dual Layer DVDs. Nero seems to burn them consistently whereas I have had a few issues with ImgBurn and AShampoo Burning Suite.

Having said that I was very selective on how I reinstalled Nero - just the BurningROM and a few associated tools - none of the video stuff.

kimmchii · « **Reply #7 on:** May 06, 2008, 09:45 PM »

i just bought a new laptop and i try to use everything "portable" (no installation), for burner i use Nero 7 portable, love it.

Curt · « **Reply #8 on:** May 07, 2008, 01:18 AM »

Yes, Nero 7 was excellent in many ways. And what's more: I have discovered what button I should have clicked, but didn't - so it might even have been able to do the job right, if only I had understood what button to click... Well: too late! And Nero 8 is just too expensive for me. But now I come to wonder how I managed to get my hands on Nero 7 Essentials in the first place? Has it been on GAOTD or something?? Hmm, come to think twice about it, I guess it came with one of my USB hard drives. Maybe I should check this and reinstall Essentials, to check if the error once again not was the program, but me...

Steven Avery · « **Reply #9 on:** May 07, 2008, 01:40 AM »

Hi Folks,

I don't burn CD's much, but I needed one for a backup of a minicomputer access utility.
So I looked for freeware and ended up with :

InfraRecorder (open source, fully freeware)
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ : and it worked fine.
Forums
http://sourceforge.n....php?forum_id=603122 (not super-active)

This was one review article I used,
Recommended CDBurnerXP Pro or DeepBurner, doesn't mention InfraRecorder
http://pc-hacks.blog...urning-software.html
Best Free CD Burning Software - Oct 25, 2007

Others I considered were

CDBurner XP (fully freeware, no $ product)
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
Forums (very nicely set up, as is FAQ, and website)
http://forum.cdburnerxp.se/

Deepburner (uses Starburn engine - pro version $25)
http://www.deepburner.com/index.php
Forums
http://www.deepburner.com/forum/
Comparison Pro and Free
http://www.deepburne...er&prr=provsfree

Starburn (Freeware, Network Product $500)
http://www.rocketdiv...wnload_starburn.html
Forum
http://www.rocketdivision.com/forum/

Express Burn (Freeware, Plus does DVD, Bluray, about $30)
http://www.nch.com.au/burn/
Forums
http://nch.invisionz...dex.php?showforum=15

BurnAware Free Edition (Home Edition $30)
http://www.glorylogi...m/overview-free.html
Forums
http://glorylogic.com/forums/

Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 released for free - Donation Coder (Rel 7 is $40)
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=12997.0
Apparently no forums

Burn4free was said to be adware

I also ended up with MagicISO (MagicDisk) for the freeware virtual ISO disk I wanted.
http://www.magiciso....gicdisc-overview.htm

Recommended above
J River Media Center - ($40)
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/
Forums
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/

Shalom,
Steven

Babis · « **Reply #10 on:** May 07, 2008, 03:30 AM »

Hello, I have changed tens of software in my computer life, in order to conclude to the one that fits my needs.

In case of burning/converting audio CDs nothing compares to Easy CD-DA Extractor, its like the imgburn of audio CDs

Ampa · « **Reply #11 on:** May 07, 2008, 05:55 AM »

nothing compares to Easy CD-DA Extractor, its like the imgburn of audio CDs
-Babis (May 07, 2008, 03:30 AM)

Remember that imgBurn now does audio CDs!

PhilB66 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 07, 2008, 06:30 AM »

cdrtfe (cdrtools Frontend)

Features:

Data CDs
Audio CDs (including CD-Plus)
XCDs (with optional error protection)
Video CDs
Audio track extraction (wav, mp3, ogg, flac, userdefined)
Project files
Can be used with commandline options
Windows Explorer integration
Multi language support
DVD support: Data and Video DVDs
Remote drive support via RSCSI

Curt · « **Reply #13 on:** May 07, 2008, 08:47 AM »

... nothing compares to Easy CD-DA Extractor, ...
-Babis (May 07, 2008, 03:30 AM)

http://www.poikosoft.com/index.html

It sounds really good, this finnish Audio CD Ripper, Audio Converter, and CD/DVD Creator
- but somehow I get the feeling it is a bit ... I don't know ... "nerdish"??
How easy is it to use?

Forgive me for using the same words about the German cdr front-end.
It doesn't say anything about saving meta data and cover art??

--

So I looked for freeware and ended up with :
-Steven Avery (May 07, 2008, 01:40 AM)

I am impressed, Steven! I think we all agree that your list is showing The Way to post!

I will take my time to check the options.

Steven Avery · « **Reply #14 on:** May 07, 2008, 10:34 AM »

Thanks, Curt. That is simply one type of posting. I figger if I managed to wade through a few sites and claims I can put a good set of links together (and folks here know what is really important, like forums and comparisons and what is really freeware vs. what is pseudo-freeware).

Yet a lot of times I learn much more from one good review, or the folks here who get the pics on board (is that generic or do we have special skills ?) and the discussions.

That is why I like DonationCoder, the folks here are solid techies, thinking out of the envelope, and they share what they know. When I have sloshed through a bunch of software I will try to get the basics online, it makes it easier for me as well, rather than when they are cramped up in my Powermarks bookmarks. By putting them online here I felt more responsible, so I check the sites, find the forums, and clean up some loose ends. However it was not much extra effort.

Shalom,
Steven

Nod5 · « **Reply #15 on:** May 07, 2008, 11:22 AM »

Hi Curt, I would also suggest InfraRecorder http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ . It's the only burning tool that I've used on windows for some time now. It's small, quick, clean and up to date. There is also a portable version:
http://portableapps....frarecorder_portable

If you really want to go back to Nero you can download Nero Lite http://updatepack.nl/ and use your licence key on that. It is significantly smaller. It seems to exist in a legal grey zone but has been around for quite some time so I guess Nero doesn't mind that much.

Edvard · « **Reply #16 on:** May 07, 2008, 11:43 AM »

Because I'm in the mood, I'll round things out a bit for the Linux crowd who might be interested...

I can definitely recommend Linux users look no further than K3b for CD burning.

http://k3b.plainblack.com/

It will rip and burn ISO's, make Audio CD's from your MP3 collection, add files to multisession disks, Rip Audio from CD's, all kinds of stuff.
Yeah, the Gnome folks complain it uses Qt and blah blah blah, but no other tool comes close, and I've tried many.

-CdrBQ was very powerful, but had a funky interface with too many options that, if you didn't know what the functions did, made coasters.
-XfBurn was nice, integrated with Xfce, but vastly underpowered.
-Serpentine looked nice, but was only for burning Audio CD's (which it did well...)
-Brasero was very nice, but it made two coasters when I was trying to burn onto multi-session disks.

That's all I have, and for the record, on Windows I always used Nero Express. Did what I wanted without getting in the way.

PhilB66 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 07, 2008, 11:46 AM »

Hi Curt, I would also suggest InfraRecorder http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ . It's the only burning tool that I've used on windows for some time now. It's small, quick, clean and up to date. There is also a portable version:
http://portableapps....frarecorder_portable
-Nod5 (May 07, 2008, 11:22 AM)

You could download a portable ZIP package from the developer.

Curt · « **Reply #18 on:** May 07, 2008, 01:48 PM »

..., if you didn't know what the functions did, made coasters.
....made two coasters when I was trying to burn onto multi-session disks.
-Edvard (May 07, 2008, 11:43 AM)

Forgive my ignorance, but what are coasters? -and why exactly "coasters"?

edbro · « **Reply #19 on:** May 07, 2008, 02:02 PM »

Forgive my ignorance, but what are coasters? -and why exactly "coasters"?
-Curt (May 07, 2008, 01:48 PM)

Coaster=CD that did not burn properly and is therefore unreadable.
Coaster because it is shaped like a drink coaster and that's all its good for.

Curt · « **Reply #20 on:** May 07, 2008, 02:19 PM »

Thanks for explaning.

---

InfraRecorder is a no go for me,
- cygwin has been causing me problems too often.

Gothi[c] · « **Reply #21 on:** May 07, 2008, 10:42 PM »

I raised an eyebrow when I saw the title to this post...

I didn't know there were applications just for audio cd burning.
Usually I think of cd recording software as an all-in-one type of thing.

On windows I stick with older (pre-bloatware) versions of Nero.
On Gnu/Linux k3b is pretty good when you want a GUI.

I'm not sure why anyone would want an application that only burns audio cd's and nothing else..
Anyone care to bring me up-to-date on that one?

Curt · « **Reply #22 on:** May 08, 2008, 02:21 AM »

The headline was meant to stress that the burner should handle music files' meta data properly, because my first attempt was missing all the info. If it can burn what else you have got would only be another plus. With this said, I don't agree with you. They don't all handle every job equally good - some are experts on 'this' but not so fantastic on 'that'.

J-Mac · « **Reply #23 on:** May 08, 2008, 03:06 AM »

I used Nero Ultra 6 and 7, along with Roxio Easy Media Creator - both large, bloated try-to-do-it-all packages, and I hope I never make that mistake again!! Another issue with both of them is that if you install almost ANY other kind of A/V application on your PC there will definitely be conflicts caused by the vastness of Nero and/or Roxio.

Now I stick with smaller very specific tools.

For CD's I use one that was mentioned above by Stephen: cdburnerxp. The interface looks almost exactly like Nero Burning ROM used to before it got so darned big, and it does it all pretty much. Nicely. And it is very small and unobtrusive.

For video, DVD copies, etc. I use different tools altogether. (cloneDVD2, AnyDVD, and most of the Applian programs).

I can pretty much rip, burn, copy, play, edit, etc. any audio or video I want.

Jim

Gothi[c] · « **Reply #24 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:02 AM »

With this said, I don't agree with you. They don't all handle every job equally good - some are experts on 'this' but not so fantastic on 'that'.

I never implied they all handle every job equally good. I was merely trying to understand. I don't really burn enough cd's to be too so critical/picky about my cd burning software. The metadata was a good example.