This is probably a really dumb noob question, but…
Using WL 7.2.1 on Mac OSX LION, I have a very simple montage consisting of 2 audio clips with start and end markers. The track names are the same as the marker names - I’ve just entered the song titles. Before burning a CD, I always test CD conformity, and WL reports no errors. From this montage, WaveLab burns a CD that is perfectly good.The timings are correct, the CDs are playable, and in general there is no noticeable problem. EXCEPT: when the CD is inserted into a computer’s CD drive, I see:
The tracks are titled “Track 01,” “Track 02”.
The CD is titled “Audio CD.”
AFAICS from the WL manual, the CD tracks should be titled as the track names from the montage. I can’t find any reference to how the CD title itself set, but I thought it would title the CD by the montage title.
The computer will only read the CD-text if the software you’re using supports CD-Text.
iTunes does not read CD-text so the names will appear generic until you enter them manually and submit to the Gracenote database which you can do right within iTunes software. I’ve heard that Windows Media Player will read CD-Text but I can’t confirm since I’m never on Windows.
Many new car stereos as well as afteramarket car stereos will display CD-Text so that may be a good place to check it.
Plextools Pro XL is software that will display the CD-Text and other data on your CD if you’re on Windows, but you may need to be using a Plextor CD drive to use PlexTools. I’m sure there are a few other similar programs for analyzing CD’s.
If I had to guess, the artist and song titles are on the disc you’ve burned, but whatever software you’re using isn’t capable of displaying it.
The reason iTunes recognizes most other CD’s is because the info has already been submitted to the Gracenote datbase. If you instered a CD to iTunes with no internet connection, it would probably just show you generic titles.
With CD’s as short as two songs, once the data is submitted, you might get mutilple possible results because iTunes matches the CD to the databse by using the number of tracks and their respectful lengths so the fewer the tracks, the more likely there is to be a match.
I’m wating for a Wavelab update that is able to embed meta-date to rendered WAV or mp3 files from the montage based on the CD-Text info, that would be a step in the right direction.
Windows Media Player doesn’t recognize CD-text by itself either, but also reads from an online database. It is possible to add a plugin for CD-text reading though. The easiest way to check CD-text is simply to import the CD in Wavelab and read it from this audio import dialog.
BTW, to enter CD-text data, open the CD-text dialog (an icon with a T on it) from the CD-tab. Not only can you enter the title for the CD, but also composer and other entries.
Thanks… like I said a noob question. I never even noticed before that when I put an ordinary commercial CD into the Mac SuperDrive, the Finder shows “Audio Disc” and generic track numbers. I think the CD in my living room can display CD-text track titles!
Yeah, it’s definitely a common question on forums like this. I get clients calling or e-mailing all the time about how their reference master CD didn’t get recognized by iTunes. Sometimes I’ll enter the info for them and submit to the database but it’s best to wait until the master is finalized incase any track times or names change to avoid any confusion.