I'm trying to burn some music files to CD but must be doing something wrong. The audio files are in .wav format (i read thats the best format to use for CD playback) and I'm recording to CD-RW. I can play the CD on my PC but its not recognised in a regular CD player.

What am I doing wrong? Is it the audio format, should I use a CD-R instead of CD-RW?

Any help much appreciated.

Don't burn it as a data CD that's probably your problem - or your CD playback device doesn't recognize CD-RW. Instead burn it as an audio CD just drag the wavs onto your CD burning program and select to burn as an audio CD. This is much easier done using the freeware Burrrn which only burns audio CDs from many different formats.

Edit:
Note: Your wav files have to be stereo, most CD burning apps can't make an audio CD from mono wav files.

I'm burning it as an audio CD (using AShampoo Burning studio 07). They are saved as stereo wav files and they are recording to CD no problem, as I said they playback on my PC, just won't play in a CD player.

Is there more chance of it working with a CD-R?

It's probably that your stereo can't play CD-RW discs so perhaps a CD-R would work. I know some older Sony models of CD and DVD players will refuse a CD-RW.

that kind of worries me. Audio CDs should not have any files in them. as a matter of fact, Audio CDs have no filesystem. Audio CDs only carry uncompressed data. but if you wanted just to put music files on a CD, then mp3, wma, or any of that crap should work as long as whatever you're trying to play it on can decode it.

also, wav is not the best format for lossless audio. FLAC and WavPack are both far superior to it.

CDs use .cda file format. I just checked a pre-recorded CD.

Well like I already stated to burn an audio CD just use Burrrn, it's super easy to use, and I've never had it fail on me.


With an alternate CDFS driver only usable on Windows 9x regular .wav files can be copied from a CD as they'll become unhidden, however that isn't secure extraction as found in EAC.

Edit:
Forgot to even think of this, but maybe the audio CD making portion of Ashampoo Burning Studio 2007 ist broken or at least on your system.

Alright I know I'm going to get some flack for this but oh well.
If you cant get anything else to work then try this.

JD you have WMP 10 or 11 right? Open it up and then right click around the top of the player and choose to show classic menus. Then go to tools>options>Format> and make sure you choose Windows Media Audio Lossless.

Then close that menu, put in your cd and click the rip tab. Then put in your cd and choose to rip it. After its done ripping go to the burn tab and well you know. (just drag your music into it then put in a blank cd and press burn. )

I know its not the most cool way to do it but its how I taught my computer illiterate cousin to burn cds that don't sound like they were converted back and forth 4 times between mp3 and wma. The sound quality is great and it works.

No flack here works every time especially in older CD players. I have used that or dBpoweramp along with Win. Media Audio 9 codecs to change the sample sizes for small MP3 players only because it has allot more options. But if your going to do a straight forward rip and burn you can't beat the simplicity.

You misunderstood. The music files that I'm trying to burn to CD are in wav format.

Gonna try using a CDR instead tomorrow, I'll let you know if it works.

WAV is a data file format for computer use that can't be understood by CD players directly. you need to change it to either MP3 or WMA or some other format.

Only if the player supports compressed lossy audio formats which it would have to be a newer only a few years old player to do such. To create an audio CD .wav can be used, but only if creating an audio CD, as you stated it won't work as just plain .wav files.

that's false. .cda files are files generated by windows which kind of tell programs where to play the CD from. and as i said, CDs do not have a file system which makes having files virtually impossible.

see here

edit:actually, try the french version of that. it has a LOT more info

i only use mp3 files now.
heres a free converter http://www.tucows.com/preview/371726
why do we still even have .wav files?

Because they're lossless so long as they weren't created from a lossy format like MP3. I'm all about quality which is why whenever possible I try to deal with a lossless audio format, and only use MP3's for universal compatibility since it's the format that's playable almost anywhere with the only exception being standard audio CD's which practically anything with a disc drive can play.

wav files are nice. maybe even a little better than AIFF files. sad thing about them is that they are not compressed. but then again, it's nice to use the for conversion uses and media editing software and that stuff.

Actually I don't care for wavs that much as they can't be tagged. Better off using WavPack (which I use), or FLAC.

I stand corrected.

As to JDPower's original problem, I found this in a referenced article from your link:
"A CD-RW does not have as great a difference in the reflectivity of lands and bumps as a pressed CD or a CD-R, and so many CD audio players cannot read CD-RW discs, although the majority of stand-alone DVD players can."

theoretically, it could be possible to tag them by creating custom RIFF chunks but then again, i doubt any application will support that

No offense but that app although simple looking doesn't look anywhere near the capabilities of EAC or CDex.

ya, i just searched for a quick converter just incase.
i only use shuffleplay for tagging, very simple, and free!

that sounds more like a ripper than a converter

as for tagging, foobar2000 works just fine. actually, i use foobar2000 for everything.

Nothing can beat its mass tagger and the ability to use .exe command line encoders. Now if only there was some foobar2000 apparel, I'd like to have a few foobar2000 t-shirts in different colours.