Best software for burning .cue audio CDs Options

[baphomet]

Recently, I've become interested i burning one of my cue files to CD, to play on my stereo. I have tried nero, which worked horrendously, getting track endings completely wrong and skipping certain parts (even though it error-checked and verified the data). In foobar the cue file (a big flac file in this case) plays flawlessly, so I figure there must be some piece of software that will do a better job of getting it right. Any tips on what program that may be? I have googled and found burrrn, but that seems to be really old, so it might be worth asking here.

[marc2003]

foobar?

http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_burninate

admittedly i haven't tried it myself.

[A_Man_Eating_Duc...]

burrrn may be old but it still works fine.

[greynol]

Of course there's Exact Audio Copy.

[Maggi]

CDBurnerXP is capable of burning audio CDs from cue sheets

http://cdburnerxp.se/

additionally, it can make use of ReplayGain information

and to top it off, it's freeware ...

excerpt from http://cdburnerxp.se/en/features

[...]

Create Audio-CDs

* Create Audio-CDs from the following formats: MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, WMA, APE, MPC, WV (WavPack)
* add single or multiple tracks from existing audio-CDs directly to your new compilation without ripping tracks before (add cda-files)
* play audio-files with integrated audio player
* gapless audio-CDs supported (disc-at-once-mode)
* Import M3U or WPL playlists or Nero audio compilations (NRA)
* support for ReplayGain
* import CUE sheets
* Export audio compilations as M3U playlist and Cue sheet
* create mixed-mode discs

[...]

[gottogo99]

I use ImgBurn. It works perfectly for FLAC from cue sheets and works without converting to wav first. You will need the appropriate DirectShow filter for whatever audio file format you burn, as ImgBurn is very lightweight and doesn't include DirectShow filters. For FLAC, use madFLAC; latest version is 1.10. ImgBurn lists their recommendations for all audio formats on their web site; see http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=5555 post #2.

Foobar2000 will work also once you install the Audio CD Writer component but it can't write CD text which you might want. EAC won't work; it can't burn FLAC to audio CDs. You would have to manually convert to wav first.

This post has been edited by gottogo99: Jan 24 2011, 13:29

[greynol]

Besides Burrrn and EAC, will these other programs support noncompliant CUE sheets?

[Kees de Visser]

Are there any idiot-proof solutions for Mac ?
I still send CDR copies to clients (mostly musicians) because too many things can (and do) go wrong in the download and burn2cdr traject.

[Maggi]

Besides Burrrn and EAC, will these other programs support noncompliant CUE sheets?

dunno, what qualifies as "non compliant" cue sheet and could you share one for testing ?

or you could try for yourself, since CDBurnerXP is a fairly small download and is also available as portable version without installer

http://cdburnerxp.se/download?more-options

[greynol]

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?ti..._and_Cue_Sheets

[Maggi]

all of those ?

[edit]
sorry, I overlooked #4's title at the bottom

I have Rush's Signals at home, so I could test it

This post has been edited by Maggi: Jan 25 2011, 11:29

[Maggi]

greynol, just to make sure, I'll do this right using EAC ...

1) detect gaps
2) test gaps on silence (maybe not neccessary ?)
3) verify setting to be "append gaps to previous track (default)"
4) extract as WAVs
5) generate cue sheet > "Multiple WAV Files With Gaps (Noncompliant)"

is that about it ?

[Maggi]

I just did a test using a CD I had lying around using this procedure:

1) detect gaps
2) test gaps on silence (maybe not neccessary ?)
3) verify setting to be "append gaps to previous track (default)"
4) extract as WAVs
5) generate cue sheet > "Multiple WAV Files With Gaps (Noncompliant)"

the cue sheet:

CODE

REM GENRE Soul
REM DATE 2009
REM DISCID AF0B850D
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b1"
PERFORMER "Various Artists"
TITLE "Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)"
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\01. Kool & The Gang - Rated X.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Rated X"
PERFORMER "Kool & The Gang"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Hicky Burr"
PERFORMER "Quincy Jones fest. Bill Cosby"
INDEX 00 04:02:32
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\02. Quincy Jones fest. Bill Cosby - Hicky Burr.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "I Don't Know"
PERFORMER "Ruth Brown"
INDEX 00 04:05:27
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\03. Ruth Brown - I Don't Know.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Brown Bag"
PERFORMER "Ivan ''Boogaloo Joe'' Jones"
INDEX 00 02:51:67
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\04. Ivan ''Boogaloo Joe'' Jones - Brown Bag.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "We Got More Soul"
PERFORMER "Dyke & The Blazers"
INDEX 00 05:03:71
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\05. Dyke & The Blazers - We Got More Soul.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Get The Money"
PERFORMER "Mongo Santamaria"
INDEX 00 02:43:06
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\06. Mongo Santamaria - Get The Money.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Don't Do It"
PERFORMER "Syl Johnson"
INDEX 00 03:25:61
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\07. Syl Johnson - Don't Do It.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "Get Down"
PERFORMER "Curtis Mayfield"
INDEX 00 02:45:11
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\08. Curtis Mayfield - Get Down.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "To Sxoleio"
PERFORMER "Olympians"
INDEX 00 05:45:26
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\09. Olympians - To Sxoleio.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "I Want To Be Your Man"
PERFORMER "Zapp and Roger"
INDEX 00 02:33:23
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\10. Zapp and Roger - I Want To Be Your Man.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "The Creator Has A Master Plan"
PERFORMER "Louis Armstrong"
INDEX 00 04:08:46
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\11. Louis Armstrong - The Creator Has A Master Plan.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 12 AUDIO
TITLE "It's Your Thing"
PERFORMER "Isley Brothers"
INDEX 00 04:08:47
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\12. Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 13 AUDIO
TITLE "Disko"
PERFORMER "Jan Delay"
INDEX 00 02:46:62
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)\13. Jan Delay - Disko.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00

then I used CDBurnerXP to make an audio CD, drag'n'dropped the cue sheet from EAC into it and noticed the last track (#13) is missing

despite the last track missing, I burned it anyways, put it into EAC and that's were the confusion really started:

- the track starts and lenghts are identical
- the track's CRCs are identical (obviously only for tracks 1-12)

BUT:
- the gaps are different !




I made screenshots to compare both results:

original


burned cue sheet



just for the sake of completeness, here's the corresponding cue sheet, in which you'll also see that the disc's ID has changed

CODE

REM DISCID 9A0A720C
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b1"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
TITLE "Unknown Title"
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\01. Track01.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Track01"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\02. Track02.wav" WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Track02"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\03. Track03.wav" WAVE
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Track03"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Track04"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 00 02:53:25
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\04. Track04.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "Track05"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 00 05:04:29
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\05. Track05.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Track06"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 00 02:44:14
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\06. Track06.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\07. Track07.wav" WAVE
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Track07"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "Track08"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 00 02:46:32
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\08. Track08.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "Track09"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 00 05:46:40
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\09. Track09.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\10. Track10.wav" WAVE
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "Track10"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\11. Track11.wav" WAVE
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "Track11"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 12 AUDIO
TITLE "Track12"
PERFORMER "Unknown Artist"
INDEX 00 04:09:64
FILE "Unknown Artist\ - Unknown Title\12. Track12.wav" WAVE
INDEX 01 00:00:00

...

So obviously CDBurnerXP does not properly support non compliant cue sheets from EAC.

Cheers,
Maggi

[greynol]

Your procedure was fine, though you could have just inserted the CD, extracted the tracks and then generated a noncompliant CUE sheet. If you do it in that order then you don't need to worry about detecting gaps and verifying that EAC will place them at the end. You're also right in that testing gaps for silence is not necessary.

I'm quite surprised at the results. I was thinking that the program would either have said there was an error with the sheet and not burned at all, or that it would have burned the CD without any issues. Did you try burning with EAC?

[baphomet]

Ok, I have tried burrrn, but apparently it didn't burn to the disc when it started to burn (wonder what it was doing those 10 minutes then), as the disc is completely empty. When I try to load the cue sheet into Imgburn I receive an error message. I now wonder how you load a cue sheet into CDBurnerXP, as I cannot find that function. The cue sheet was not visible in the folder when I selected the file I would burn (obviously the flac file was). I don't know why this business should be so tedious.

[Maggi]

Your procedure was fine, though you could have just inserted the CD, extracted the tracks and then generated a noncompliant CUE sheet. If you do it in that order then you don't need to worry about detecting gaps and verifying that EAC will place them at the end. You're also right in that testing gaps for silence is not necessary.

thanx for confirmation and advice, greynol ... I'll keep that in mind

I'm quite surprised at the results. I was thinking that the program would either have said there was an error with the sheet and not burned at all, or that it would have burned the CD without any issues. Did you try burning with EAC?

nope, I didn't try EAC for burning

I'm considering to contact the author of CDBurnerXP, if he can come up with a solution

[...]
I now wonder how you load a cue sheet into CDBurnerXP, as I cannot find that function. The cue sheet was not visible in the folder when I selected the file I would burn (obviously the flac file was). I don't know why this business should be so tedious.

actually it's pretty simple, either you drag the cue sheet just on the lower part of the window, where you also would drop single audio files or goto menu file > import > cue sheet



Cheers,
Maggi

[baphomet]

Well, I get an error message when I try to drag the cue file into CDBurnerXP ("Index was outside the bounds of the array"). When I look at track lengths for each track (when I've clicked away that error message in CDBurnerXP), I see that the first track is 0:00 in duration (which of course is false), or more specifically that track lengths somehow have been displaced (ie, that the duration of the second track is actually the duration of the first track, and so forth. The duration of the entire CD would then be shortened by the duration fo the last track.).

This post has been edited by baphomet: Jan 26 2011, 16:57

[Maggi]

hmmm ... that's odd

I just checked for myself, using a cue sheet (made quite a while ago using EAC 0.95b3) from the CD I posted about above and back then, I ripped the entire CD to one WAV file and converted it to FLAC afterwards

here's the corresponding cue sheet:

CODE

REM GENRE Soul
REM DATE 2009
REM DISCID AF0B850D
REM COMMENT ExactAudioCopy v0.95b3
PERFORMER "Various Artists"
TITLE "Soul Kitchen OST (CD1)"
REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN -6.43 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK 0.988556
FILE "2009 - Soul Kitchen OST (CD1).flac" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Rated X"
PERFORMER "Kool & The Gang"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -6.86 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Hicky Burr"
PERFORMER "Quincy Jones fest. Bill Cosby"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -6.51 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 04:03:13
INDEX 01 04:03:30
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "I Don't Know"
PERFORMER "Ruth Brown"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -6.94 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 08:08:72
INDEX 01 08:09:08
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Brown Bag"
PERFORMER "Ivan ''Boogaloo Joe'' Jones"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -5.66 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 11:01:18
INDEX 01 11:02:63
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "We Got More Soul"
PERFORMER "Dyke & The Blazers"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -6.74 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 16:07:18
INDEX 01 16:07:44
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Get The Money"
PERFORMER "Mongo Santamaria"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -5.89 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 18:51:02
INDEX 01 18:51:74
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Don't Do It"
PERFORMER "Syl Johnson"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -5.84 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 01 22:18:03
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "Get Down"
PERFORMER "Curtis Mayfield"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -6.02 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 25:03:68
INDEX 01 25:04:45
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "To Sxoleio"
PERFORMER "Olympians"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -7.48 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 30:50:37
INDEX 01 30:51:31
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "I Want To Be Your Man"
PERFORMER "Zapp and Roger"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -5.90 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988525
INDEX 00 33:25:03
INDEX 01 33:26:14
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "The Creator Has A Master Plan"
PERFORMER "Louis Armstrong"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -5.80 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 37:35:14
INDEX 01 37:36:30
TRACK 12 AUDIO
TITLE "It's Your Thing"
PERFORMER "Isley Brothers"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -7.53 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 41:45:19
INDEX 01 41:46:26
TRACK 13 AUDIO
TITLE "Disko"
PERFORMER "Jan Delay"
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -6.07 dB
REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.988556
INDEX 00 44:33:51
INDEX 01 44:34:11

it imported and burned just fine (all 13 tracks this time)

cross checking with EAC revealed:

- the disc ID got lost, but I could apply the database entry
- the gaps are identical to the single file cue sheet version from above, but differ from the original CD

- CRCs are identical to both above versions





therefore, I suspect that either there must be something wrong with your cue sheet or you need the Microsoft Windows Media Format 9.0 Update that they recommend on their download site at the very bottom

HTH,
Maggi

[greynol]

Again, did you try burning with EAC?

[baphomet]

I don't see how there could be something wrong with my cue sheet, as it plays PERFECTLY in foobar. Perhaps I should try that foobar plugin then? And WMP didn't help either (your download link is broken BTW).

[baphomet]

I tried EAC, but it simply crashes (Windows says "EAC.exe has stopped working...") when I try to open the file browser under "load cue sheet". And I've ried that 3 times now, so it is not out of accident.

This post has been edited by baphomet: Jan 26 2011, 21:26

[greynol]

64-bit Windows OS per chance?

Just drag and drop the cue sheet into EAC's CD Layout Editor window. I'm not trying to excuse the problem, rather help you get around it. I also suspect you should configure EAC to use its native burning engine rather than CDRDAO based on the trouble you had with Burrrn.

EAC Options -> Write tab -> Use CDRDAO for writing in the EAC layout editor -> uncheck.

...and yes you will need to decompress your flacs to wave files first.

This post has been edited by greynol: Jan 26 2011, 22:03

[Maggi]

I don't see how there could be something wrong with my cue sheet, as it plays PERFECTLY in foobar. Perhaps I should try that foobar plugin then? And WMP didn't help either (your download link is broken BTW).

well, there could be a problem in your cue sheet, simply because it doesn't work in cdburnerxp while mine did

would you mind posting your cue sheet ?

sorry about the broken link, I just copy'n'pasted it from their download site

[baphomet]

CODE

REM GENRE Classical
REM DATE 1977
REM DISCID 540EF308
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4"
PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
TITLE "Symphonies Nos. 2, 7 (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra feat. conductor Herbert v..."
FILE "Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 2, 7 (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra feat. conductor Herbert von Karajan).flac" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 2 in D major, op.36 1 Adagio - Allegro con brio"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 00:00:00
    INDEX 01 00:00:32
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 2 in D major, op.36 2 Larghetto"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 10:17:44
    INDEX 01 10:21:50
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 2 in D major, op.36 3 Sherzo Allegro - Trio"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 20:19:28
    INDEX 01 20:23:45
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 2 in D major, op.36 4 Allegro molto"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 24:04:55
    INDEX 01 24:06:50
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 7 in A major, op.92 1 Poco sostenuto - Vivace"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 30:17:59
    INDEX 01 30:29:45
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 7 in A major, op.92 2 Allegretto"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 41:54:52
    INDEX 01 41:59:50
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 7 in A major, op.92 3 Presto"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 49:57:65
    INDEX 01 50:01:45
  TRACK 08 AUDIO
    TITLE "No. 7 in A major, op.92 4 Allegro con brio"
    PERFORMER "Ludwig van Beethoven"
    INDEX 00 57:19:44
    INDEX 01 57:22:45

It seems like the cue sheet was made using an older version of EAC.

[Maggi]

hmm, that cue sheet doesn't look faulty to me, except for the fairly long file name hitting my eye

just to exclude the limitation of 255 characters in filenames, could you try and rename the file to a short name and edit that into the cue sheet ?

also, it would be helpful if you said which OS you are running and maybe it helps, if you run cdburnerxp as administrator ?

This post has been edited by Maggi: Jan 28 2011, 14:46