Windows Media Player CD Burner....

[Richard King]

I have been doing a BUNCH of experimentation the past few days in trying to get the best CD burning capabilities (within reasonable budget). Of course the first I tried was the burner that came with the computer. I ended up with a series of very closely spaced audible clicks between each track. This is not acceptable. This evening I tried the burner that is provided with WinAmp Pro. It totally eliminated the noises. I was going crazy thinking that MS wouldn't release a product that would do that. I thought it was possibly a result of my audio files not ending at a zero cross over point, so I made up a bunch of test files where I made sure they ended at a zero crossover point (and began at a zero crossover point). I then knew that in doing the cd the songs would start and end at zero so there should be no noise when they get linked together. It made no difference with MS. So, if you want good cd's without noise inserted between tracks don't use MS Media Player.

By the way, my new sound card hasn't arrived yet so this was all done with the on board audio system.

[DonLandis]

Symptom of audible clicks is " Track at once" recording. Switch to "disk at once " and the clicks should go away! This maybe a default setting in your software. Use track at once when you wish to record a track at a time over a long period of time. Use disk at once when you wish to burn a CD in one session.

[Richard King]

That would seem to make sense to me. However, how does one go about switching to "track at once" burning? I can't seem to find it in any of the menus for WMP.

[Richard King]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/mediaadvice/0053.mspx
So much for changing my settings. Good old MS. :lol: I am glad I have other programs to fall back on.
Why are there gaps between the songs on CDs that I burn?

The technology used to create a CD that does not have gaps between tracks is called Disc-at-Once (DAO), which refers to how the laser writes information to the CD. Windows Media Player does not use this technology, so it inserts two-second gaps between the tracks it burns to a CD. To burn CDs that don't have gaps between tracks, you will need to use a plug-in for Windows Media Player, or use a different CD-creation program.