Audio CD or MP3 CD or both?

[hardwired]

Hi,

I'm a recording artist trying to create a CD album of my current works and have only this last hurdle to overcome:

Should I create an Audio CD, so it works in everybody's CD players?
Trouble with this is that i've tried to add the CD Text to it and even though i've tried it through itunes and nero 7 SE, i can't get it to add the track info. Its just the usual track1.cda etc. My burner drive is capable of CD Text so i don't see why it won't work - i've tried importing the songs off it to my itunes at work (different to where i burnt it)..
If i do an audio CD, anyone who copies it (its non-copyright and for this i just want my tracks and name known as much as possible), then no track info is copied and therefore all tracks lose their identities etc..

Should i burn it as an MP3 CD?
This negates the issue with losing track info if loads of people copy it etc but some might not be able to play the thing if their CD Players don't play MP3s but i guess today there aren't many CD Players that don't play MP3s - right?

Is there a way to burn both on one CD?
So everyone could play it and if the tracks / cd get copied / imported to itunes, they have the mp3s holding the info..

Obviously the best way i can see is to have an audio CD but with the track info attached so it works for everyone and on everything and all my music doesnt become a mystery untitled track circulating the earth..

What would be my best option do you reckon and if its an Audio CD, whats the best software to get this done?
I've seen loads of forums with people struggling to get this to work and loads of answers that might of helped others but i can't seem to achieve..

paul renegade
dragon drop records

[Ian]

You need to have a player capable of recognizing CD Text. If you're just viewing the tracks through Windows Explorer or whatever, you're just going to see track1.cda, etc.

One disadvantage of using of using MP3 is that the quality is not as good as an audio CD. If you do decide to go this route, use a high bit rate.

In theory, you could create a hybrid disc which has audio tracks and then a data track that holds your MP3's.

[redk9258]

If you are really serious about making this CD, then skip NERO, iTUNES, etc and use something that is meant for mastering CDs. Consider something like SONY CD Architect. Alternately, good old CUE / WAV and ImgBurn work well. You can even create the cue sheets with ImgBurn now.

[hardwired]

Thanks for the replies..

Trouble is i have no internet at home, I do have a demo of Sony CD Architect but can't install it cos of the no net situation grrr.
I'll have a look at the others you've suggested. I've never burnt an image before but i'm guessing its the same - can you still burn an image of an audio cd?

I'm testing all these on my work pc and more importantly itunes as i want people to be able to import the tunes of off the cd into itunes or similar but whatever i try, when i put the cd in and load it into itunes, there are no track names etc, just track 1, track 2 etc..

How would i go about doing a hybrid cd then? Would i have to do the data (MP3) side of things first, then the audio to finalise the cd?

In an ideal world, i would like just an audio cd, like the many professional ones out there that play on everything and then when you play it in itunes it shows the track info and especially when you import the cd in itunes, rather than a hybrid cd or just audio with unknown track data..

Also, another big question i'm testing out is; is it best to create the tracks in high quality (320k) mp3 or .wav before converting to audio cd? As far as my knowledge extends, .wavs can't hold the id3 info that mp3s do, so cd text may not be even available if i do wavs to audio, but i've tried mp3 to audio and still no avail. I'm just querying the overall quality of starting with wavs or mp3s before burning the audio cd..

[SithTracy]

FLAC over WAV if you need lossless and tagging. Not MP3