Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio History In a Nutshell?

[Scott Phillips <scottp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howard,

When you make an CD full of Mp3 files, you are actually making a
computer data disk, not a standard audio disk. Because you are making a
computer data disk, it has a filing system like any other CD-rom
software disk. Since MP3 files are compressed versions of the original,
they take up less space. NO audio is made from the .cda files
themselves. When you use software like Nero to rip an audio disk, Nero
understands what you want when you select a .cda file. It understands
you want to grab the audio that particular .cda points to, it just
doesn't bother you with the details. The process goes on unseen for the
most part. Most computers see .mp3 files and either assume, since they
are not CD-A data, that the .mp3 in the file name means they are
compressed files representing encoded audio. (The same information is
available to the computer from inside the file header info..) 

Many later audio CD players were redesigned to figure out that you put a
computer data disk full of Mp3 files in them, and had hardware decoding
added to play them. That doesn't mean that a disk full of Mp3 files is a
CD-A disk. It just means that the drives were made smart enough to
figure out the difference and deal with it.

If you take a set of mp3 files and want a program, say Nero, to make a
normal CD-A disk from them, it will resample, bend, fold, and mutilate
the mp3 files into a normal CD-A format. If you do that, the limitations
on playing time and track count are pretty much the same as a
commercially made CD.

(Yes, I am over-generalizing on some points, hopefully for clarity...)

Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Howard Friedman
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 11:12 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio History In a Nutshell?

Steven,

Well, now we seem to be going in reverse, i.e., MP3 from the hard drive
to CDA on a CD.  Now don't hold me to that thought, it's just an
expression.  But I do know that the Nero program has a feature called
JukeDisc, in which one can store as much as 700 MB.  I have put the
complete Beethoven 32 piano sonatas onto one CD, for a total of537 min
41 sec, with a total MP3 size of just over 500MB.  I have also been able
to put 213 Caruso recordings onto a single CD for over 700 minutes. How
does Nero do that, if not by some sort of compression?
My file program says that the first CD contains 505 MB in 32 files, the
second one 709MB in 219 files.  It also identifies the file type on such
discs as MP3!

Howard