A year ago I produced a CD-ROM, which was supposed to be a resource CD for the simple system flute. The CD is a mixed media CD that contains both .mp3 and .wav audio files, .pdf word and photo files, and .jpg photo files. The CD producing software that came with my Dell computer (pentium III-XL) has limited capabilities, and I was only able to organize these 100 files in alphabetical order, which isn’t a very practical organization.
At the present time the .wav files will not play on a regular CD player unless you make a separate audio CD containing the .wav files. The same is true for the .mp3 files, in that you need to make a tune list before you can play them on the computer, unless you are willing to click on each separate audio file. My goal is to improve the organization of the CD so that the contents are in a logical order. I would also like the mixed media CD to be organized in such a way that the .wav files will play in sequence on a standard CD player or with the computer CD drive.
I realize that I most likely need better software to accomplish what I want to do. I am looking for something that is relatively inexpensive and not too complicated to learn to use. Any suggestions? Also, are there any freeware programs that would be helpful?
Could you create an html file (or several) that would link to all these files in a logical order - in effect making a web site for them.
Web browsers will work with local files just as well as they do with files on a remote web server. (When I work on my web sites, I use my browser to look at my local copy of the files before uploading them to the web site.)
Doug, perhaps you could give a more complete description of how you intend the CD to be used. If it is for straight playback on any CD player, you would do best to stick to a straight wav file format for all tracks, ensuring that the wav files are recorded as uncompressed PCM format (which is so close to the cda format on commercial CDs that most players will accept them). Mixing file formats on one CD is fine if you intend the CD only to be played on a users’ PC, but older stand-alone CD players will probably choke.
If you intend users to only use your CD on their PC, then what Peter is suggesting would be fine. What you say went over your head is that he is suggesting you create an Index document with links to each file. Instead of the user calling up each individual file directly from the CD, they would access your index document and click on a link in the document to access each sound file. This allows you to control the sequence of the sound files, regardless of the file name or file sequence on the CD. This format will definitely not work for a stand-alone CD player.
Thanks for the help everyone. Grey Larsen in his, “The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle” includes two CD’s with the book. The CD’s are mixed media CD’s, and the audio tracks will play in sequence on any cheapo CD player. However, if you put the CD into the CD drive of your computer (You may have to go to “my computer” and click on the CD-ROM), a webpage appears with Grey’s photo and instructions along with a table of contents of the CD. Something like this is what I have in mind for my CD, although it would not need to be as professional as Grey’s CD. It seems to me that all new audio CD’s should have this feature. In addition to the audio tracks, the CD could contain expanded liner notes with photos, etc. that would only be playable on a computer, if you chose to do so.
From the comments that I have received, I realize that I would need some html text-editing software to organize the contents of the CD, similar to a little webpage. Also, I would need more full-featured audio software to create a mixed media CD that was playable on a regular CD player. The minimal “Record Now”, that came with my Dell computer, will record mixed media CD’s, but they are seen as data CD’s and will not play on regular CD player. They will play on my computer, however.
Since I don’t plan to do much recording and CD making, I wonder if it is worth my effort to buy the software and go through the learning curve to accomplish this project. I have an offer from a professional webpage designer who is willing to barter for his time. Since a surplus of money has never been one of my strong suits, I think that I will give that a shot.
Doug, I checked when I got home and you’re correct. He is using a commercial multimedia format called CD-PLUS that plays as a straight music CD on a stand-alone CD player, or with an html index page when played from a PC. I guess it helps when you want to teach flute playing with examples from a concertina (?).
Along with actual flute music on my CD-ROM, I give tune examples with a midi piano voice, heaven forbid. As far as Grey Larsen is concerned, if you happen to be a concertina virtuoso, I excuse him for using the concertina for some of the beginning examples of scales. I don’t think that it makes any difference what musical voice you use for such instruction. Having listened to Larsen’s first tape again today, I have to say that I think that it is an excellent instructional CD. I wish that mine was even half that good.
Hi!
Almost all burner software can burn in mixed mode so just burn your wav files as CD audio so they can be played on a normal cd player and then follow with data, video clips, images etc.
One problem with this is that older cd players will attempt to read the data which will result in some horrible noice.
As djm pointed out there is a new option (used to be called CD plus) called CD Extra in any decent burner software (like Nero). In this mode you can burn your compilation in two sessions where the first containes the audio tracks and the next the data files. This way the cd audio player knows when to stop. The computer will be able to read both.
I think Hans and djm’s idea with a html structure for the data is the way to go. Easy to navigate and browse through the content.
try the Cdex freeware, very useful for CD audio files extraction, and conversion between .mp3 and .wav. Then , any burner software should be able to create audio cds with .wav or .mp3files.