Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

[VictoriaGuy]

I bought the 'Reference' product for two main purposes, and one of those was to burn Audio CD's from .flac downloaded files in my collection.


Apparently this product can't do this????

Converting a .flac track that is 4 minutes long, it indicates that 13 minutes of the CD have been used. After a couple more tracks, an error message appears indicating that the max. length of the CD has been exceeded.....


What's the problem?

Thanks for any help....
John

[garym]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

I bought the 'Reference' product for two main purposes, and one of those was to burn Audio CD's from .flac downloaded files in my collection.


Apparently this product can't do this????

Converting a .flac track that is 4 minutes long, it indicates that 13 minutes of the CD have been used. After a couple more tracks, an error message appears indicating that the max. length of the CD has been exceeded.....


What's the problem?

Thanks for any help....
John

odd. I assume you are trying to create AUDIO CDs (not data CDs containing FLAC or mp3 files). And you are using the dbpa CD writer program? It should be able to create audio CDs very easily. I'm not a CD writer user but I'm sure someone else can chime in with assistance.

[VictoriaGuy]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

odd. I assume you are trying to create AUDIO CDs (not data CDs containing FLAC or mp3 files). And you are using the dbpa CD writer program?

Thanks for the reply.
Yes- audio CD (to play in regular CD player) using dB CD writer/audio converter.

It should be able to create audio CDs very easily.

That's what the advertising says....
:thumbdown

[garym]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

That's what the advertising says....
:thumbdown

it does in fact work as advertised, i did it many moons ago, but haven't used the writer in a long while. So I don't have any suggestions, but perhaps some other user or Spoon has some ideas about what may be causing your particular issue. I know folks are using it to create audio cds without the problem you noted. So its just a matter of chasing down what's different on your end.

[VictoriaGuy]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

The only workaround I've found is to:
1- use the dBconverter to convert the flac tracks to .wav files
2- delete the duplicates that dBc produces so I have 'one of each track'

3-Go to Nero essentials (the free one) and use it to burn the audio CD from the .wav files. Of course, before I start the burn I have to open another window so I can access the original track order, and shuffle the tracks around to the correct order (since audio CDs play tracks in the order they are burned??).

This is like taking a time voyage back to 1980s software, and I have no fond memories of that.

John

[garym]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

The only workaround I've found is to:
1- use the dBconverter to convert the flac tracks to .wav files
2- delete the duplicates that dBc produces so I have 'one of each track'

3-Go to Nero essentials (the free one) and use it to burn the audio CD from the .wav files. Of course, before I start the burn I have to open another window so I can access the original track order, and shuffle the tracks around to the correct order (since audio CDs play tracks in the order they are burned??).

This is like taking a time voyage back to 1980s software, and I have no fond memories of that.

John

agree, you shouldn't have to do this. something is off, but don't have any suggestions. hopefully someone will chime in today with some info.

[xoas]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

John-

What is the sample rate, the bit setting and number of channels of your original .flac files?

If these are other than 16 bit, 2-channel, 44.1 kHz files, you may need to use the DSP effects to help adjust the bit setting, sample rate and changing the number of channels. The difference in the track time for the converted .flac files suggests that that the source of your problem is there. dB CD Writer can convert these files to standard CD format but you will probably need to use the applicable DSP effects to help the conversions work out

Another possibility might be that your .flac files are corrupted which can be checked using the .flac front-end decoder.

Please let me know whether either of these answers resolves your problem.

Best wishes,
Bill

[VictoriaGuy]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

John-

What is the sample rate, the bit setting and number of channels of your original .flac files?

If these are other than 16 bit, 2-channel, 44.1 kHz files, you may need to use the DSP effects to help adjust the bit setting, sample rate and changing the number of channels. The difference in the track time for the converted .flac files suggests that that the source of your problem is there. dB CD Writer can convert these files to standard CD format but you will probably need to use the applicable DSP effects to help the conversions work out

Another possibility might be that your .flac files are corrupted which can be checked using the .flac front-end decoder.

Please let me know whether either of these answers resolves your problem.

Best wishes,
Bill

Thanks for the tips, Bill.
I doubt that the .flac files are corrupted - this problem happens with every file I've tried and they all play fine via my Squeezebox Touch machine... but I dunno.

Here's a link to the screenshot with CD Writer.......

http://www3.telus.net/public/a6a47835/dB Writer problem/screen1.jpg

The .flac files in this example are 24 bit/ 96 kHz so you are probably on the right track with your analysis.

I'll do some more testing and report back.....

(Again, I can't believe that I'm trying to do anything very unusual.....)

John

[VictoriaGuy]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

OK-
So, I 'fed' the dBCD writer a 16/44 flac album (after rewriting the track numbers with the separate mp3tag track editor, natch.....) and it seemed to burn it alright - it does play in the CD player.

Now for something a bit more complicated- try the Jen Chapin album again but tell the writer to resample to 44.1 and change to 16 bit, using the DSP settings.
Like this??

http://www3.telus.net/public/a6a47835/dB Writer problem/resampl.jpg

The writer seemed to be working OK, but when it got down to actually burning the disk, I quickly got this (error):

http://www3.telus.net/public/a6a47835/dB Writer problem/nowrite.jpg

This is the same burner that has been burning just fine with Nero the past couple of days. Also, the 'tip' that dB suggested (slower speed) apparently isn't available as 16X was the slowest speed available from the choices presented.

??

John

[xoas]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

John-

I'm not sure where the problem might lie.
You might try restarting your computer and trying again.
Did you enable buffer underwrite protection when you were trying to burn the CD?
(This is enabled in the Window labelled dBpoweramp CD Writer: Burn CD that appears when you click on the Burn CD icon in the dBpoweramp CD Writer screen).

Did you use the option to show the CD Writer screen or not?
If you try again, please post a screen shot of that window so that we can confirm that there are no problems there.

If your original files were also other than 2 channel, then you might need to use the DSP effect to reduce your channels to 2 (standard Audio CDs cannot handle more than 2 tracks).

The final thing I can think of now is to try burning these tracks to Gapless Audio CD rather than Standard Audio CD format.

Let me know how it turns out.

Best wishes,

Bill

[VictoriaGuy]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

Thanks for the tips, Bill; I appreciate them.

John-

I'm not sure where the problem might lie.
You might try restarting your computer and trying again.

I know that rebooting is always a possibility, but after the problems with dB, I took the files to Nero Essentials and burned the CD, without rebooting. So I think the rest of my system is working OK.
Last evening, I did discover a thread here on the forum with many users complaining of the same sort of errors with the dB CDWriter

Did you enable buffer underwrite protection when you were trying to burn the CD?
(This is enabled in the Window labelled dBpoweramp CD Writer: Burn CD that appears when you click on the Burn CD icon in the dBpoweramp CD Writer screen).

Yes, buffer underwrite was enabled.

Did you use the option to show the CD Writer screen or not?
If you try again, please post a screen shot of that window so that we can confirm that there are no problems there.

It's not clear to me which screen you mean, or where there are options to control which screens appear- I find the entire structure of the various dB products very confusing, and still feel that I have no control over which window will appear, and when. (For example, double-clicking the dB Music Converter icon brings up a 'File select' window instead of the program window....etc etc...) Looking for any of the 'Windows standard' features like 'File' or 'Tools-Options' in a dB product?? Forget about it!

If your original files were also other than 2 channel, then you might need to use the DSP effect to reduce your channels to 2 (standard Audio CDs cannot handle more than 2 tracks).

The original files were 2-channel.

The final thing I can think of now is to try burning these tracks to Gapless Audio CD rather than Standard Audio CD format.

Let me know how it turns out.

Thanks, Bill- I might try the Gapless option (once I figure out what that is....) but will probably continue with the workaround of flac-->mp3tag editor to get track numbering worked out-->dB to convert to wav-->Nero for burning.

Not at all what I had in mind when I read the advertisement for the dB products.......:thumbdown
I'm not-at-all looking forward to 'adventures in CD ripping with dB'...
Cheers
John

[RonM]

Re: Can't produce Audio CD from .flac file?????

I've been burning flac files to audio CDs successfully for the past week, just three so far. Don't have much call for CDs any more.

The main issue with the burner is that it won't work in its base form with Win 7, and needs to be set for XP OS when being run on a Win 7 machine. I don't know if that is potentially a source of the problem. Once I did that I had no problems.

R.