Make a music mix for burning on audio disc - software?

[tomos]

I think something along these line was discussed not so long ago but I couldnt find it.

I want to make a few mixes from mp3 files, and burn to CD (audio disc) - all on Windows 7.
On XP I used use Media Jukebox from JRiver (http://www.jriver.com/mj/) but i heard some dodgy reports here lately about it messing up tags (and even though it had a very easy GUI, I found it usable but buggy - that was about a year ago, I cant remember the version number but older than current).
Also on XP I briefly tried Media Monkey - I couldnt (figure out how to) do anything on it, but if you really recommend it I'll try again
Skwire's Trout is my player - but I even use that very little.

So what I need is a player where:

• I can select the files
• sort them manually
• create my mix
• then (if possible) I could burn from within the player - if not:
• I could use nero express to burn (or you're welcome to recommend something there too!)

[MilesAhead]

Tutorial shows how to create playlist with WinAmp. I thought WinAmp also had audio CD burning but I couldn't find details on it:

http://blog.winamp.com/2008/09/19/winamp-tutorial-how-to-make-a-playlist/

So I guess you can use anything that lets you order the playlist manually.

CDBurnerXP will preserve playlist order for Audio CD but not for a Data CD with .mp3 files.
However if you select Audio Disc from the start dialog it will automatically convert .mp3 or .flac to audio and then burn an Audio CD.

http://cdburnerxp.se/help/Audio/compileaudio

[techidave]

can't you do all that with Windows Media Player?

[lanux128]

haven't done this for quite some time.. but i used Burrrn back then when i needed to burn to an audio CD. you can also check out this tutorial.

[tomos]

CDBurnerXP will preserve playlist order for Audio CD but not for a Data CD with .mp3 files.
However if you select Audio Disc from the start dialog it will automatically convert .mp3 or .flac to audio and then burn an Audio CD.

http://cdburnerxp.se/help/Audio/compileaudio

wow, it looks to me like I can do it all from within cdburnerxp -
it has a (very basic i.e. play/pause) audio player (only seems to work from the context menu, which is fine once you figure that out), I can drag files to a list and sort manually. Will let you know if successful

On second thoughts, if I'm going to do this more than once, I'm really going to need a decent player to move around/listen to the tracks properly ;-)


Re Winamp -
free version will burn @ 2X - I like burning slow for better quality, but that's too much
[edit]  but as you suggest in combination with winamp could be good [/edit]

[MilesAhead]

I like Burrrn also. The last Burrrn portable version worked fine for me on Vista64(the only "bug" was in the scrolling log sometimes the entries would be duplicated, but the job completed perfectly.) It seemed to flake out sometimes on Windows Seven. Either it would burn perfectly or quit with an error. One of those deals where if you just hit it again it may work.

I do Imgburn for all my DVD burning but for CD I've had very good luck with CDBurnerXP. It even has some cover and insert print functions for free.

[tomos]

I hadnt noticed that Burrrn also has a player,
and replay gain
Will try.

[NigelH]

Ashampoo Burning Studio is a fairly capable burning suite.
It can sort (well, shift around the order) as well as play files in the list you're about to burn (I see this in version 10)
They've given away numerous copies over the years in various promotions, but I do not know if any of those versions have this capability.

Having said that, here are a few links.
Note that version numbers do not always match directly with the version numbers that Ashampoo sell.
Burning Studio Element at Chip.de
Burning Studio 2010 advanced
Burning Studio 2010 - has direct DL link from Ashampoo

Lastly, current Christmas give away from Ashampoo (coupon is in the link - you should see it in the coupon code box)
Ashampoo Christmas giveaway

[tomos]

haven't done this for quite some time.. but i used Burrrn back then when i needed to burn to an audio CD. you can also check out this tutorial.

Burrrn looks nice, also works with flac (which I dont use).
But it uses Windows Media Player to play the tracks. Or tries to - WMP couldnt find them
Which leads me to belatedly reply to techidave...

can't you do all that with Windows Media Player?

because of it's bad reputation in the past, I've never even tried Windows Media Player till recently. I moved to Windows 7 this summer so I thought I'd give it a go - I dont know what it does but it starts going mad doing "things" as soon as I start it. Trying to index all my music I think (but IIRC also trying to download stuff related to the music) but it didnt ask me what I wanted so I just closed it down & didnt bother again.
Lately I tried to use it again, was unhappy (cant remember why now) and closed it down. It was not showing in the tray but after a while I noticed that something was hogging cpu - it turns out it was still running - it showed in task manager, so I killed it.
Burrrn, as I say tried to use it, but it couldnt find the file - Trout (Skwire) had no problem finding the same file from the same playlist, CDBurnerXP had no problem either, so I reckon I'll continue avoiding WMP...

[MilesAhead]

In the past I did everything I could to stop WMP from running.  But it turns out WMP 12 has support for both PGS subtitles and XSub subs embedded in avi/divx. So I do use it on occasion esp. when a video has one of those subtitle types(VLC also has this support but it crashes as soon as I touch it when a video is playing.)

I try to blunt the WMP negatives by turning off network media sharing, all the stuff I can regarding its library functions etc..  You are right.  The indexing will totally hog your system if you let it. Also I set everything regarding doing anything on the internet to disabled.

I think I have it peacefully coexisting.  At least for the time being.

[elvisbrown]

try here:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Seedling/MixTape/index.html

[J-Mac]

I have been using WMP12 as a player, but it does exactly what Techidave said - indexes so hard it locks the damn machine. When it does that I kill it in Task Manager. The service restarts it but by then the app itself is closed. If it didn't do that it would be great.

For ripping and burning I use Easy CD-DA Extractor. Can't beat it IMO.

Jim

[tomos]

try here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Seedling/MixTape/index.html

~
next on my list, thanks ;-)

I have been using WMP12 as a player, but it does exactly what Techidave said - indexes so hard it locks the damn machine. When it does that I kill it in Task Manager. The service restarts it but by then the app itself is closed. If it didn't do that it would be great.

~
that was me complaining about the indexing and the hidden instance running after closing - will try it again at some stage & see if that can be turned off...

If I ever get around to ripping my CDs, I'll look at Easy CD-DA Extractor. At the moment, for a couple of mixes I'm not willing to spend much - donate is okay, naturally :-)

[distance]

If I ever get around to ripping my CDs, I'll look at Easy CD-DA Extractor

If you ever get around to making quality rips of your CDs, you should use Exact Audio Copy (freeware, although not open source) plus an encoder of your choice.

As for the player that could also burn your mixes directly, look no further than foobar2000 -- you get both an extreme power and a flexible interface. It could rip and encode your CDs, too, but if quality is paramount, you're better off using EAC.

Hope this helps.

[tomos]

Hope this helps.

yes it does!
I've heard a lot about foobar over the years but never tried it - now seems like a good time