How do I reduce mp3s to fit on an audio CD

[bulb763]

I've downloaded a 3CD album from napster. All 54 tracks are mp3 and ~15Mb each. When I try burning one of the discs (18 tracks) as an audio CD it says they won't all fit onto a single CD. 15Mb * 18 tracks should fit onto a 700Mb CD so I guess there is some sort of "un-encoding" going on. I've no idea how it works.

I've spent hours in itunes, WMP and nero trying to reduce the size of these files but got nowhere. Nero has got me the closest but the free trial I'm using will only do a certain number of tracks before it expires which isn't enough, and I've already wasted a few with all the messing about.

How do I reduce the size of these tracks so I can make 3 CDs? Ideally for free...

Thanks

[ShadownINja]

Set the CD as a data CD, then copy and paste using Windows Explorer. I think.

[bulb763]

I'm trying to make an audio CD. Not Data. Or mp3. Audio CD solutions please

[Mr_Yogi]

Audio CD's contain PCM .WAV files not MP3's, it's part of what defines an 'Audio CD'. I don;t know what software you are using to burn your CD but I assume it's converting the MP3's (Compressed) to WAV files (uncompressed), thus they won;t fit on the CD.

Are you using 650MB or 700MB CD's?

[freecar]

An audio CD can only contain so many minutes of audio full stop, regardless of the number of tracks. 74 or 80 minutes I believe.

The only way a CD will contain more than this number of minutes is if the music is encoded which is what an mp3 is.

[Digby]

Are the 18 tracks exactly as you would find them in a shop? What I mean is, is this just someone elses collection and given a CD 1 title, or are they ripped from an original? If they are as you would find on an original, it's possible that the 18 tracks are longer than the 80 minutes of audio play time a regular CD will store (and likewise, they may also exceed the 700 meg when uncompressed back to much larger audio files).If that is the case, they may be on a slightly larger CD when purchased from a store and you would need a bigger blank disc.

Also, you can save some audio time in nero by removing gaps between audo tracks I believe.Or you could just miss out your least favorite song You can also edit the songs in Nero and fade/cut them, which can save space.

Edited by Digby on Tuesday 20th April 21:34

[bulb763]

Mr_Yogi said:

Audio CD's contain PCM .WAV files not MP3's, it's part of what defines an 'Audio CD'. I don;t know what software you are using to burn your CD but I assume it's converting the MP3's (Compressed) to WAV files (uncompressed), thus they won;t fit on the CD.

Are you using 650MB or 700MB CD's?

that's what I think it's doing too, hence if I can reduce the size of the mp3s, when they are uncompressed they might be smaller too and fit on a CD.

I'm using 700Mb discs. I've downloaded an album instead of buying the physical CD so burning the downloaded tracks to a CD must be possible. I just need a way of making them small enough to fit

[dtmpower]

bulb763 said:

Mr_Yogi said:

Audio CD's contain PCM .WAV files not MP3's, it's part of what defines an 'Audio CD'. I don;t know what software you are using to burn your CD but I assume it's converting the MP3's (Compressed) to WAV files (uncompressed), thus they won;t fit on the CD.

Are you using 650MB or 700MB CD's?

that's what I think it's doing too, hence if I can reduce the size of the mp3s, when they are uncompressed they might be smaller too and fit on a CD.

I'm using 700Mb discs. I've downloaded an album instead of buying the physical CD so burning the downloaded tracks to a CD must be possible. I just need a way of making them small enough to fit

You can't edit the space taken for Audio on an Audio CD - it's a fix rate - hence why the audio CD is normally listed in minutes rather than MB.

Even if you have the crappiest low bit rate mp3 - it will still be 'uncompressed' to take up the minutes in audio format.

[bulb763]

dtmpower said:

bulb763 said:

Mr_Yogi said:

Audio CD's contain PCM .WAV files not MP3's, it's part of what defines an 'Audio CD'. I don;t know what software you are using to burn your CD but I assume it's converting the MP3's (Compressed) to WAV files (uncompressed), thus they won;t fit on the CD.

Are you using 650MB or 700MB CD's?

that's what I think it's doing too, hence if I can reduce the size of the mp3s, when they are uncompressed they might be smaller too and fit on a CD.

I'm using 700Mb discs. I've downloaded an album instead of buying the physical CD so burning the downloaded tracks to a CD must be possible. I just need a way of making them small enough to fit

You can't edit the space taken for Audio on an Audio CD - it's a fix rate - hence why the audio CD is normally listed in minutes rather than MB.

Even if you have the crappiest low bit rate mp3 - it will still be 'uncompressed' to take up the minutes in audio format.

Bugger. I've not checked exactly but I have noticed some quite long tracks. Probably means it's over the time limit then How do they fit all these minutes onto the album you buy in the shop then?

Edited by bulb763 on Tuesday 20th April 21:53

[aclivity]

I use burnaware: linky to burn audio and MP3 data cd's, it's free and a fairly simple interface.

If you have downloaded an album that adds up to more than 70 minutes worth of tracks, then it is probably a double or even possibly a triple CD when sold in a physical format.

ETA: you've already said it was a 3CD album, sorry for being silly.

Look on Amazon or somesuch to find out which tracks are on which CD. You should be able to replicate the same on the CD you burn.

Edited by aclivity on Tuesday 20th April 21:58

[twister]

If each of the mp3's really is 15MB, then even at 320kbit/sec (the highest standard bitrate for mp3 files) you'd be looking at each track being 6m24s, so 18 such tracks would then be nearly 2 hours of audio... are you sure it's only supposed to be a 3 disc set?

[bulb763]

twister said:

If each of the mp3's really is 15MB, then even at 320kbit/sec (the highest standard bitrate for mp3 files) you'd be looking at each track being 6m24s, so 18 such tracks would then be nearly 2 hours of audio... are you sure it's only supposed to be a 3 disc set?

100% it's a 3CD album. I've got the tracklist so I know which track goes on which CD and in what order.

[grumbledoak]

You won't fit three Audio CDs on one Audio CD; you'll need to burn three Audio CDs. If you really want them all on one disk as MP3 you can do it (I get six for the car), but that is considered a data CD. Is that clearer?

Edited by grumbledoak on Tuesday 20th April 22:10

[Digby]

twister said:

If each of the mp3's really is 15MB, then even at 320kbit/sec (the highest standard bitrate for mp3 files) you'd be looking at each track being 6m24s, so 18 such tracks would then be nearly 2 hours of audio... are you sure it's only supposed to be a 3 disc set?

I'm not sure what you are on about here matey.You can rip any length song you want to a 320kbit MP3.The length of the song has no relation to the quality.For 18 MP3 tracks to fit on an audio cd, they would need to be around 4.5 minutes long each, which would give more or less 80 minutes of audio (or less for 74 minutes of audio) 15 to 18 songs is about average for an MP3 to audio conversion on a single CD and three cd's would be 3 x 18 = 54 as the OP has suggested.

grumbledoak said:

You won't fit three Audio CDs on one Audio CD; you'll need to burn three Audio CDs. If you really want them all on one disk as MP3 you can do it (I get six for the car), but that is considered a data CD. Is that clearer?

Edited by grumbledoak on Tuesday 20th April 22:10

He's not trying to do this, he is just trying to burn one of the CD's which contains 18 tracks and will then do the other two cd's.

I go back to what I mentioned earlier, in that it is possible they are original discs on larger CD's.You can buy 800 meg blank CDR's which allow longer audio.They are not common though and often involve 'overburning'.Either that, or as I said before, try removing audio gaps.

Edited by Digby on Tuesday 20th April 22:19

[twister]

Digby said:

I'm not sure what you are on about here matey.You can rip any length song you want to a 320kbit MP3.

You can. But not if you want the filesize of the resultant MP3 to be approximately 15MB... you may want to re-read the opening post in this thread for a clue as to where I obtained that magic figure

[voyds9]

Silly question, have you listened to the MP3's to make sure it is what you downloaded.

[bigdods]

Its also possible that whoever put this together didnt rip it direct from the original CD's. They may have added an extended remix or 2 , replacing the original shorter tracks.

[bulb763]

bigdods said:

Its also possible that whoever put this together didnt rip it direct from the original CD's. They may have added an extended remix or 2 , replacing the original shorter tracks.

I'm trying to burn genuine official tracks. downloaded from napster. Not dodgy copies ripped in someones bedroom.

[Arese]

When you add all 18 tracks to the Audio CD in Nero, it should tell you at the bottom how long (mm:ss) the tracks will run for. What does it say?

[KaraK]

Assuming that the playtime of the 18 tracks is below the 80minutes mark (the max you can fit on a std 700Mb CD) then it could be down to the fact that alot of cd burning software automatically adds a 2sec gap between all the tracks unless you remove it (Nero does this for example) the CDs don't have to have this however (and alot of dance CDs in particular don't as they want seamless transitions between the tracks) and its possible that this additional time is pushing you over (with 18 tracks that would be 36 seconds)