Fuzzy Audio CD's

[Wings_of_Azrael]

Ok, here's my problem. Nearly everytime I burn an audio CD, around the 6th track or so, every song starts to have a fuzzy noise to it. I've tried the latest version of Nero and Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum to burn audio CD's. For converting MP3 to WAV, I've used the latest version of CDex as well as Power MP3 WMA Converter to convert to WAV. Also, I've tried many different brands of CD-R's. All variations brought the same result.

Also, I don't have this problem when converting and burning OGG files. Nor do I have any problems with burning video files, ISO's, or any files other than MP3. The fuzzy noise occurs when burning all kinds of music too. From Red House Painters to Camel to Monstrosity to Antiseen. The fuzziness always starts after the first 5 songs or so. Oh yeah, I've tried listening to the burned CD's in a Discman as well as a boom box thing, and both have fuzzy after 5 or so songs. However, the CD's play fine in my computer with Winamp.

Another thing. These CD's I've downloaded are mostly in HQ VBR, although the Antiseen was in 192.

What I want to know is why is this happening and what is causing it? Are these files purposely made bad? Is there some malevolent software screwing my burns up? Is it my burner? Has anyone else experienced the mysterious fuzzy audio CD?

Thanks for any helpful feedback.

[Krell]

Will you try an experiment?

First, DOUBLE check your original files for flaws.

Take your Mp3s, and using the "Nero Wave Editor" convert them to aiff format. It takes a minute per song to do so.

Then, I want you to examine each .aiff song for quality and defect. If you are satisified that there are no problems with them, reboot, and use Nero to burn them. Use the LOWEST burn speed. Ensure that no other programs are running that will interfere with burn priority.

Once burned, reboot, and listen to them on your PC, examine them again. After your observations, play them in a portable and check again.

I want you to block diagram this, and find out at what point the problem presents itself.


Please take the 2 hours to go thru this, and report your observations of each point.

[Wings_of_Azrael]

1. Double and Triple Checking of Original Files

I only have the albums from Monstrosity and Antiseen still on my hard drive. Monstrosity has relatively good production, and the noise doesn't appear on the original file of the track I tested that does have noise on the CD-R. Nor did the AIFF file have any noise. Still, the last half of the CD has a fuzzy sound playing in anything other than my computer. It's in a similar fashion to how the Camel and Red House Painters CD's were. Good production, "HQ" rips, but second half of the CD sounds fuzzy in anything but a computer.

Antiseen, upon listening to it without DSP effects, I realised that the original file did have noise. Also, the AIFF file had the same noise. Although the production of the album is raw, the first 6 songs have no noise, but the remainder of the songs do. However, this CD is questionable because the production is crummy.

2. Burning AIFF Files to CD-R

I don't think this is necessary since MP3 and AIFF files produced the same result.

[Rickio]

I suspect hardware problems. Have you cleaned your cd burner and your cd players?

It is strange how your first few tracks are fine.

I doubt it is software or the actually mp3 files , especially if you have both vbr and cbr have the same result.

But you could convert your mp3's to wav file first then burn them. Sometimes vbr can be problematic with older versions of nero or any other cd buring app.


weird problem there

after reading your post again I tend to think it is the vbr that may be throwing you off. convert to wav and then burn and see if that helps.


peace

[Wings_of_Azrael]

I have converted them to WAV as I don't have any MP3 compatible CD players here. My first idea was that there might be someone purposely ripping albums that sound like crap when burned and played in anything other than a computer. However, I don't know how that would be possible after converting them to WAV. I'm totally clueless on this.

[Rickio]

My favorite mp3 to audio cd burning app is fireburner.
I prefer it to nero. nero is actually not that great for burning cd audio.

give it a try, it is very small and efficient.

it has one tiny bug, it place the first file last and the last first. at least for me. but I just re-arrange it before I burn.


if it works let me know.

[Krell]

upon listening to it without DSP effects, I realised that the original file did have noise. Also, the AIFF file had the same noise. Although the production of the album is raw, the first 6 songs have no noise, but the remainder of the songs do. However, this CD is questionable because the production is crummy.

The point is that when you want to diagnose a problem, the goal is to bypass as much of the potential problem causing ingredients as possible.

If you are using DSP, such as Winamp, then you still do not have a decent baseline for test and comparison.

Keep stripping it down to the least common denominator.

Also, Have a friend burn those Mp3s or aiff on a seperate burner, and see if the problem persists.

Take the tracks that have noise, and burn only those ORIGINAL converted files, not the good ones, so the CD is 1/2 full, and see if the problem persists.

[Wings_of_Azrael]

Ok, this is strange, but good. I just tried burning Monstrosity with Fireburner at 4x, as opposed to with Nero at 8x... and that fixed it. Also, I let Fireburner decode the MP3's. I also took a break from browsing the web while burning to watch the news. I don't know what did it exactly, but regardless... I've officially converted to Fireburner for burning audio. Thanks for the all the help, Rickio and Krell. The solution was probably a combination of both changing burning software and burning at slower speeds and not using my computer while burning.

[Rickio]

glad it helped.
fireburner doesn't get much attention, but I consider it the best for burning audio cd's as well as iso's and bin/cue files.


peace

[Krell]

:gj :gj :gj :gj