Re: [TCLUG:18154] writing audio CDs

[David Carter <dcarter@visi.com>]

On Thu, May 25, 2000 at 10:56:52AM -0500, Mark Phillips wrote:
> 
> I just used 'cdrecord' to write an audio CD from audio files that I
> recorded from a (analog) tape.  The process seemed to go fine, but the
> resulting CD plays at twice its normal speed when I put it in my CD
> player.  I presume the problem has to do with the format of the audio
> files that I wrote to the CD, but they play correctly when I play them
> from my hard drive.

It sounds like you have a mono 44.1KHz file.  Since CDs are all stereo, you
should use something like sox to convert it to a two-channel audio file.
(Sox will simply copy it so the same material is on both channels.)  After
you've done this, it should play fine.  It sounds like you have the correct
endianness already. :)  (If that had been incorrect, you would have heard
loud static when you played it.)

> Can someone suggest what the problem is?  Also, is there a program I
> can use to inspect the format of an audio file, to see things
> like sample rate, number of channels, time length, number of samples,
> etc?

I don't know of anything like that, but a program which allows you to
specify how it should be played (where you give it that information) will
allow you to discover that information by trial and error.

For the actual burning process, you should take a serious look at cdrdao
(and the included X frontend, Xcdrdao), as it's far more flexible than
cdrecord when writing audio CDs.  You can find it at
http://www.ping.de/sites/daneb/cdrdao.html.  I use it for all my burning
needs these days (it supports all data and audio modes, including CD-Text
writing if your burner supports it).  I consider it superior to most Windows
CD writing programs that I've seen (at least for vanilla audio discs), as
Xcdrdao makes it very easy to set track points, toggle track flags (copy
permitted, pre-emphasis, etc.), and set CD-Text information.

-- 
David Carter ** dcarter@visi.com
Network Engineer -- VISI.com
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