it was obvious for me to mark all the settings for the cd-text on EAC, and yes EAC detected that my drive supports cd-text, everything looks good, untill the burning is finished. I have no cd-text i've been trying to find out what is the problem for weeks now...i just don't get any right info about that... i read the EAC manual, i do as they say. and still no cd-text. What could it be? Ussually i open cue sheets of *.ape files. I just don't know where else to turn...

CD-TEXT writing with EAC through cdrdao, is only possible if your drive is listed in cdrdao's built-in driver-table with CD-TEXT enabled, or listed to use the generic-mmc-raw driver. The next version of EAC will include either an option or a command line switch, that will enable using cdrdao's generic-mmc-raw driver, which will make CD-TEXT writing possible on SCSI-3/mmc compatible drives supporting raw writing + 96 byte raw P-W sub-channel writing mode...

neither of my drives is listed on cdrdao table...so that is why i can not write cd-text with EAC right? i could write with nero probably, but when i convert any looseles format i get *.pcm files instead of *.wav and the burner does not support it... any ideas?

*.pcm ? Does this exist ? The files on audio CDs are *.cda ...
Anyway, converting or decompressing lossless formats outputs the original wav again.

Perhaps your text problem isn't related to software or options...what CDs do you use for burning ?
Use sensible speed, not the maximum. Speeds from the middle of the available range are often best.
I've come across a lot of strange things when writing audio CDs with EAC. They also exist when writing with Nero or other programs, but those just aren't that precise and one doesn't notice.

yes *.pcm does exist - as i understand it a raw media data or something like that. So that's the problem - whenever i convert looseless audio it comes out *.pcm, i even see on wavunpack that it says "converting *.wv to *.wav" but at the end all i get is *.pcm. i started not to like it at all...



i used tdk and now recently i use memorex, but doe not change anything...with Nero or other burner there was no problem getting cd-text on CD... as you say maybe i should try slower speeds...who knows... but i don't really believe thats the main reason, though i will try
Thanks anyway. Anyone else with helpful info?

If you are using cdrdao to burn with through EAC, then the problem is exactly what i explained in my previous post... You can try to untick using cdrdao in EAC to see if your drive works with EAC's internal writing routines where CD-TEXT writing is possible on supported drives...

I would recommend you to use either Burrrn or burnatonce. Burrrn is only for audio writing and burnatonce does both audio + data... These also use cdrdao for burning, but these frontends let's you force to use a driver with the CD-TEXT option-bits enabled, or to use the generic-mmc-raw driver...

Burrrn :
http://www.burrrn.net/?page_id=4

burnatonce :
http://www.burnatonce.com/

burnatonce supports Monkey's Audio only optionally, so you need to place MAC.exe into your "burnatonce\external" folder...

MAC.exe : http://www.rarewares.org/files/ogg/MAC.zip

What is CDRDAO ??

I notice I have it checked in EAC Write Options.

I just burned a CD and did not get CD-TEXT. I would hav bured with Nero, but Nero choked on this situation which was a single .cue file pointing to individual song .ape files instead of one big album.ape image. I could have dragged the individual .apes into Nero but then I would have lost the Song Title and other CD-Text information. I don't think the .ape files had tags, and Nero is funky about tags anyway.

Before I do anything with MAC.exe - WHAT IS IT? I know it comes from the RareWares site you mention but don't see a description of what it is.

Thanks.

Burrrn has an option for SPTI which I guess stands for SCSI Pass-Through Interface. Do I always want to leave that checked and why? (as opposed to ASPI or something??).

I assume if I don't check the Replay Gain check box at burn time it does not use the Dither with Medium Noise Shaping Settings on the Replain Gain tab.

What does Dither with Medium Noise Shaping do... level off individual tracks that might have varying volume levels because they came from different sources?

If so, I assume when you have a .cue file and individual .ape song files from the same download .rar or .zip you probably don't have to worry about this and want to leave Replay Gain unchecked at burn time.

If you use Win NT/2K/XP then Leave it checked. If you experience any problems, then disable it and place Nero's wnaspi32.dll into your Burrrn directory, or anywhere in PATH. If that still dosen't work, then install ForceASPI 1.7(Adaptec ASPI 4.60). If using an older OS, then SPTI should always be disabled, and then install ForceASPI 1.7.


Correct.


WaveGain applies the gain internally in floats, but it's ouput is then rounded to 16 bits integer(=lossy). Dithering then is a method where a little noise is added to make the errors in the audio spread as broadband noise. Noise-shaping is then an improvement to the dithering algorythm and works by additionally spreading the noise into areas where it's less noticeable.

You get files with .PCM as an extension? When you look at the burnt CD in Windows Explorer you see .PCM and not .CDA?

If you have the .ape plugin for Nero, Nero will burn .ape and convert to regular .CDA audio.

Burn AUDIO and point to .ape files

or

if you have .cue file burn IMAGE and point to .cue file. Edit .cue file first and make sure it points to Album.ape and not Album.wav.

The only problem I have had is when the .cue file points to individual .ape files and not to an album.ape file. If the .cue points to individual song.wav's then edit cue file and point to song.ape's but I have had problems with Nero in this scenario & am using Burrrn now for if Nero chokes.

I think EAC's reputation is based on accurate extraction, rather than on burning.

Is the CDRDAO table part of EAC?

Those cuesheet's are called "non-compliant" by EAC for a reason

The cdrdao executable has a built-in driver-table inside(+ an external driver-table file, but it isn't included in the EAC package). This lists all the known drives and their respective drivers + additionally drive features(CD-TEXT etc.). When you then burn with cdrdao(without forcing a driver), then it first checks if the drive used is listed in the driver-table, and if it is, then it uses the specified driver + driver options. If the drive isn't listed in the driver-table, then cdrdao checks if the drive is SCSI-3/MMC compatible, and if it is, then it defaults to using the generic-mmc driver, but without the CD-TEXT option-bits enabled, so CD-TEXT writing isn't supported(older versions than v1.1.9 refused to continue entirely). The problem is that many drives isn't listed in cdrdao's driver-table. Other cdrdao frontends like Burrrn and burnatonce, can force to use the generic-mmc driver with the CD-TEXT option-bits enabled, or to use the generic-mmc-raw driver, but EAC can't do that currently. The next release of EAC will add either an option or a command line switch for enabling the use of the generic-mmc-raw driver, which will make CD-TEXT writing possible on SCSI-3/MMC compatible drives that supports raw96r writing mode.

All MMC compliant drives (i.e. almost all new drives put on the market)
Driver table for cdrdao-1.1.9 (last change Apr/27/05)

burnatonce doesn't work with the newer (3.98+) APE header format unfortunately. The author is aware of the problem. See this thread.

Oh, sorry - i didn't knew about that...

Thank's for the correction Synthetic Soul