I want to use 1 CD-R instead of 3 CD-R's

[B002]

Hi..I'm trying to fit 12 tracks from 3 original CDs into one CD-R..Original tracks have been converted to WMA,,and now i'm trying to convert them to MP3.I tried lowering the bitrate to 96kbs,then down to 56kbs but when i go to burna cd,the track file size still shows up huge which means i'll have to use 3 CD-R's still..Anyway of getting these 12 tracks to fit on one 700MB CD-R?,,Thanks!

[xoas]

Re: I want to use 1 CD-R instead of 3 CD-R's

If you are meaning to make a CD-R disc that holds your 3 cd's in either WMA or MP3 format, should be easy and there should be no way that you have to lower bitrate to the extent you are proposing. You should be able to store maybe 8-10 very long cd's at 128 kbs in mp3 format or maybe 6-8 worth at 192 kbs. To play this type of disk you will need a player that reads the type of audio files (such as wma or mp3) that are on your disc. If you want a disc that you can play on a standard cd player (unable to play mp3 or wma files) then you will have to rip these in CD format. A 700MB CD-R should probably be able to hold maybe as much as 80 minutes of music in CD format (as opposed to 6-10 hours of mp3 or WMA files depending on the bitrate you use). So if you are trying to burn these tracks as a cd yoou might be able to fit all 12 tracks onto a single CD-R if they total under 75 or so minutes of playing time. Since CD audio plays at a single fixed bitrate, it won't matter if you compress the files in mp3 to smaller bitrates because they will only revert to the standard CD bitrate when you do transfer them back to CD format.


If you are trying to make an mp3 (or wma) disc I would ask what program are you using to burn your CD-R? Many CD burner programs confuse the new user by asking if you want to make an audio disk (by which they mean as CD's) or as a data disk (which would include a wma or mp3 disk). And the new user will naturally opt for the audio cd because they are making a disk of audio files. If that is the case what happened was that your burner program, thinking you told it you wanted CD's converted your WMA files to CD format (which of course will be way too large for a single cd). If you still your your original CD's I would advise you to toss oout your wma and mp3 files and re-rip your cd's at a larger bitrate. If your end product will be in mp3 format then rip straight to mp3. You can do what you are doing but you need to realise you lost some audio data when you ripped to WMA and you will lose more each time you convert the files to a different bitrate or to mp3 because both wma and mp3 are "lossy" formats.

I hope this helps get you headed in the right direction. If not please feel free to post back.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[xoas]

Re: I want to use 1 CD-R instead of 3 CD-R's

Let me try to be more on target (I don't feel I was in my previous post, my fault):

If your 12 tracks total under about 75 minutes (more or less) you should be able to burn them together on a single CD-R in CD format. To accomplish this you can convert your WMA files directly to wav format which you cd burner program should be able to convert to CD without trouble. Best practice would be to re-rip your the 12 tracks from your original CD's to wav format and then burn your CD-R from the wav files (although if you are satisfied with the quality of your wma files this might not make too much of a difference).
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Clete]

Re: I want to use 1 CD-R instead of 3 CD-R's

When you burn a cd-r, the files get converted into cda format, so they can be played on a cd player. As xoas said, if you just want to store them to play on a pc or a player that can play wma or mp3 you have to burn them as a data disk.