Writing CD Text...

[johnjm22]

I'm trying to burn sampler/demo CD's of my bands' music. When people put one of these burned CD-R's into their computer, I want the bands' name and song titles to be displayed.

I was under the impression that achieving this was fairly simple. I've always used iTunes to burn CD's. It allows you to fill out all the information about a song (title, album, artist, ect.), and it even has a check box under "burning options" that says: "Write CD Text." Despite this, whenever I burn a CD, and proceed to play it in another computer it always says "unknown album."

So what's the problem?

Do certain CD burners not support the writing of CD text? If so, can someone recommend me a burner?

Or is the problem iTunes? If so, what's a good software solution for me? (I'm using windows)

I'm trying to keep it cheap and simple. Thanks for any help!


PS.

Sorry if this is a dumb redundant question.

[StephenMarsh]

CD TEXT has nothing to do with computers I'm afraid.

For Mac support - info must be uploaded to the Gracenote database (Gracenote)
For Windows - a disc must be sent to the All Music Guide (allmusic)

No....it doesn't make much sense - that's how it works.

--Steph

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by StephenMarsh

CD TEXT has nothing to do with computers I'm afraid.

For Mac support - info must be uploaded to the Gracenote database (Gracenote)
For Windows - a disc must be sent to the All Music Guide (allmusic)

No....it doesn't make much sense - that's how it works.

--Steph

Stephen is right, but it's not Windows per se. If you use Itunes on a PC then Gracenote is still in charge.

We have the proprietary software program that Gracenote provides to content providers and allows more control over the data that's uploaded to the database.

BK

[orangehillaudio]

Hi Guys-

No doubt this is an area of the total absurd...and there are very few solutions that cover all the bases.

At least with Sequoia you can submit your data to the freedb.org database and also do all your CD Text settings in one app...enough of the sales pitch...

However, not all media player access the freedb database...hence the rub...

iTunes supposedly allows for the submission to CDDB, but I believe only finished CD's workd...not CD-R's...

Also, the iTunes Producer software allows for even more data to be submitted and access to the iTunes Store, once the iTunes Police allow your material to be submitted and it clears some kind of committe...maybe Simon from American Idol is behind all of this... : )

CDDB charges also for their database...whereas, freedb, as the name implies, is FREE...hopefully in time if more labels and artist become more aware of these services and the benefits and pitfalls, freedb may become a standard.

The only other alternative is to see another media player become the standard

For a list of media players and how to redirect your media player (if possible) take a look at this link.

freedb.org > Applications > How to Access

[bitman]

WaveLab does it

[bino_5150]

Adobe Audition does it. It asks you if you want it or not. You can edit the non-audio information on each track, such as copyright, year, artist, all that good stuff, in the Edit View.

*BUT* not all burners will do it, and not all CD devices are capable of reading it.

However, if you send your CD off to pressing, it will most likely come back without the embedded data.

[neon]

wait! exist a software were you can add CD Text that can be read by Itunes and Windows Media Player????

Itunes CD Text and Toast C Text is not recognized by WMP,,,,and viceversa

[MASSIVE Master]

Originally Posted by bino_5150

However, if you send your CD off to pressing, it will most likely come back without the embedded data.

Then there'd better be a damn good reason why...

[finetuner]

Originally Posted by neon

wait! exist a software were you can add CD Text that can be read by Itunes and Windows Media Player????

Itunes CD Text and Toast C Text is not recognized by WMP,,,,and viceversa

Please refer to the first response:

Originally Posted by StephenMarsh

CD TEXT has nothing to do with computers I'm afraid.

For Mac support - info must be uploaded to the Gracenote database (Gracenote)
For Windows - a disc must be sent to the All Music Guide (allmusic)

No....it doesn't make much sense - that's how it works.

--Steph

Indeed, it is confusing but CD Text is not read by media players like WMP or i-Tunes.
It CAN be read on a computer with some burning programs, but that's for us geeks to verify and not for the end-users' convenience.

The titles that do appear in mediaplayers, rely on online databases mentioned earlier.

Try this:
Disconnect your computer from the internet and then insert a well known cd that hasn't been in your pc before (this is to eliminate the chance of recognizing the disc from a cache):
No titles. Then reconnect to internet and as soon as connection is established, voila.

Titles entered in i-Tunes may be embedded in MP3 files as so-called ID3 tags, but unfortunately, it's not the same as cd-text.

Peter van't Riet
FineTune Mastering

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by orangehillaudio

iTunes supposedly allows for the submission to CDDB, but I believe only finished CD's workd...not CD-R's...

CDRs work as well as pressings but I do not recommend it. Because the database identifies the source disc by comparing exact timings of each track and all the pauses including the initial pause (index 0) and the end mark on the disc. And since the various laser beam recorder software at the plants may add an (inconsequential but measurable) gap in front of the first track or slightly change the location of the end flag, then the CDR that you uploaded to the database would not be recognized as the same as the eventual pressing!!!!!! #$%#%^%$#^%$#^#

BK

[orangehillaudio]

Have you guys seen this?

http://www.idmt.fraunhofer.de/eng/pr...id-eng_web.pdf

[salvomix]

Very few CD players read CD-Text. Lots of program will encode it, but like I said very few players will read it back.

More important is encoding the ISRC code.

www.salvomix.com

[DontLetMeDrown]

Lots of the newer car stereos read CD text. Nero lets you write CD-text info, but it still does not show up in windows media player. Would be nice if they added that.

[Andy Krehm]

There seems to be some misunderstanding in terminology here.

CD-TEXT is embedded in the master disc and is for the following:

* CD players that display it (a few home CD players and the ones in newer car stereos)

* DVD players that read CDs

* On the PC Win Amp and Real Player use CD-TEXT

CD-TEXT has nothing to do with names have that pop up in various programs when a CD is placed in a drive of an internet connected computer.

As has been explained in some previous posts, you have to enter the artist/album name/titles in various data bases in order for this to happen.

You can check CD-TEXT in your sequencing program and your CD will still only display "audio disc" with "track 1, track 2" etc., unless you enter into the various data bases. Conversely, you can enter the info in the data bases but unless you have enabled CD-TEXT in your sequencing program, the names will not display in CD players etc.

The Grace Data Base is for iTunes (Mac & PC) and the data base for Windows Media Player is through the Microsoft site...until about 2 months ago when they closed it off.

Does anyone know why or if there is a new site where information can be entered?

As far as I know, WMP and iTunes are the main data bases but there was another mentioned in a previous post. Any others of significance?

And lastly, CD-TEXT and the data bases work equally well with manufactured CDs and CD-Rs EXCEPT for what Bob Katz said in a previous post. If the manufacturer does add any time whatsoever to the CD than it may not be read by the data bases if the data was entered via the CD-R master. Personally, I didn't know that this could happen and have entered data via CD-R copies and the manufactured CDs also read properly. However, maybe we've just been lucky!

[lobsterinn]

I have a similar dilemma to what is being discussed.

I just mastered a compilation disk which is a corporate in-house promotion and not for re-sale. The exact song lengths, etc. are slightly different so I don't think we are supposed to re-use the ISRC codes for the original releases of the songs. can we still submit it to Gracenote and allmusic to get recognized on people's media players?

[lobsterinn]

Actually I found some info on submitting to gracenote here:

Gracenote: Frequently Asked Questions

allmusic still baffles me a bit, any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Coyoteous]

Some plants make you request CD-Text and/or sign a waiver if it is out of spec - which much of it is. According to Eclipse Data, writers are mostly at fault. I have some service bulletins around here that I'll try to post.

Some apps default to writing CD-Text (can't remember which ones - Roxio/EZCD, maybe?), and also default to using the file names as track titles - making much CD-Text unintended and often erroneous.

- "bad ass rough mix 21.wav" by "Artist" from "Title." Not including it, unless intended, is probably a good thing.

[Alpha Bob]

Although I insert CD-Text as standard I know that my clients actually only care about the CD info showing up in iTunes/WMA etc (that is until one client contacted me & said his car stereo was showing the info thumbsup ).

Bob

[Andy Krehm]

Anyone know how to enter CD-TEXT into the data base for Windows Media Player?

We used to do it up until 2 months ago when it appears that they closed off the data base to the general public.

My tech guy has been doing searches on Google to find an alternate way but no luck!

Anyone????

[jdg]

they use allmusic. its a manual proccess
have the band send a promo copy and onesheet
allmusic

[Andy Krehm]

Originally Posted by jdg

they use allmusic. its a manual proccess
have the band send a promo copy and onesheet
allmusic

But up until 2 months ago, you could do it through the Microsoft site.

Although the link within the site moved around from time to time, once you figured out how to find it, it was similar to how one enters into the Grace Database.

So I'm wondering if anyone who currently enters the WMP datbase through the Microsoft website could tell us where the link is.