How to burn a perfect mp3 disc??? Mine keep skipping/notplay

[yoda313]

Hello,
I have a audiophase portable mp3 cd player (EDIT- Model# cdt432M). Many of my mp3 discs skip or won't play certain tracks. They'll play some songs but others will skip a lot or won't even PLAY.

If you guys (and gals) know how to prevent this (besides buying a new mp3 player) I would be interested.

Also, do you know of an mp3 forum I might check out for this problem???

Kevin.

P.S. I just use Roxio disc creator, drag the mp3s and burn an mp3 disc (as far as I know all of the original mp3s play perfectly on my pc). Thanks!

[Treebeard]

is the bitrate of these mp3 constant or variable? not sure why else it would have troubles, have you checked the manual for what mp3 settings it likes..128kbs & 44khz would probably be most compatible.

[yoda313]

Hello,
Thanks Treebeard for the quick response. I'll have to check my files. MOST of the time I rip in 128kb cd quality with Musicmatch. The weird thing is the same disc will play some files but freeze on others (even on brand new burns).
Kevin

[Roundabout]

I second what Treebeard said (shouldn't this be in the Audio Forum?).

One other thing you could check. I have a MP3 Aiwa Boombox, and I've noticed that it seems to skip on certain tracks where the modulation is over 100% (over 0 Db). You might want to normalize all tracks for consistency, as getting them from various sources they can be all over the map when it comes to Quality/Modulation/Bitrate, etc.

Once I normalized the tracks, the apparent skipping stopped. It wasn't actually skipping, though it sounded like it was. It was actually cutting off the audio when it went over 0 Db.

[yoda313]

Hello,
Thanks roundabout. I didn't put this in audio because I wanted to save that for audio related to video stuff - ie not clog up the board.

I'll have to try the normalize (I've done some with normalize volume, though not all). It'll be a pain to do it for several hundred, but if it works that might just do the trick.

Kevin

[Roundabout]

I think several programs have a "batch" function for normalizing. Might want to check and see if the program you're using has this capability.

[zilog_jones]

I have a Sony MP3 CD Walkman (D-NE511), and I found that simply just burning the CDs at slower seems makes them skip a lot less, and media quality seems to make a noticeable difference too.

I burnt a CD once (a good Sony one) at 48x and big batches of songs in some parts of the CD would keep skipping or just not play at all. I burnt the same MP3s onto another CD (from the same pack of Sonys) at 16x, and all the songs played perfectly. Well, unless I'm running and have the jog protection on low, of course

I've also found CD-RWs very problematic - lots of songs skip, won't even start, or I'll get these "phantom songs" where it'll play them but won't display the track title or filename or anything. I've tried different media and similar things happen - maybe I should try burning them at really low speeds like 4 or 8 speed...

[yoda313]

Hello,

Thanks zilog_jones. I'll try burning them at 20x and see if that works, if not I'll go lower (I've been burning at 40x, that might be the problem). I've been using noname discs and I don't think I'll switch unless the slow burn and the normalization mentioned earlier don't work. Thanks again.

Kevin

[Suntan]

I would give a vote for burning at lower speed/trying different media. I know that my normal Audio CDs that I burn will tend to skip a lot more than the original in my car player. Other types of media have helped.

-Suntan

[CBC]

You didn't mention which app you are using to burn. Most CD/mp3 players require strict Joliet filesystem adherence. I discoverd this the hard way, using "relaxed" Joilet setting in Nero, then wondering why my Sony CD/mp3 player would only play about 1/2 of the songs on my mp3 discs. Changed setting in Nero to standard Joliet, prob solved. VBR/bitrates should not be an isisue with most modern players.

[yoda313]

Hello,
I mentioned which one I used:

P.S. I just use Roxio disc creator, drag the mp3s and burn an mp3 disc (as far as I know all of the original mp3s play perfectly on my pc). Thanks

I just use the basic mp3 disc setting in Roxio. Is the joliet option in the settings screen for Roxio?? Anybody know??

Thanks to everyone for replying
Kevin

[CBC]

oops, sorry, meant which rev of your program? Not familiar with Roxio, but you should be able to find an Options tab somewhere to look around in to find
burning options. If not, you should try another burning program. There's plenty (both freeware & shareware) to choose from. I've always avoided both
Roxio & MusicMatchJukeBox due to reported compatibility issues and overall bloat. Nero isn't exactly tiny, but offers a pretty solid "all-in-one" solution.
BurnAtOnce, Burn4Free, CDBurnerXPPro come to mind as freeware alternatives for mp3 burns.

[yoda313]

Hello,
Thanks for writing. I'll give all these options a try later. I appreciate the help .
Kevin

[yoda313]

Hello,
It WORKS!

It looks like burning at 16x instead of 40x did the trick. I'm still using my noname discs. I've been listening to the disc for about 45 minutes now and almost no problems!

There was one skip in a song but I can live with that. Also, I've been playing on the random setting and it plays the next random track no glitches. I think it has passed over a song and gone to another, those may have been mp3pro but I'm not sure. Anyway, thanks a lot guys, I think this may have done the trick .

Kevin

P.S. If I run it to trouble with 16x I'll try different brands and/or doing the normalize stuff.