Author Topic: 'Burning' a CD from WAV files with Ashampoo  (Read 1553 times)

Hugh Wallington

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'Burning' a CD from WAV files with Ashampoo
« on: July 25, 2019, 08:59:43 PM »
I usually make my CDs on my desktop computer using Nero.  Had a bit of a problem with two of them.  It said it didn't recognise the 'format' of two of the tracks so cut them out completely!  Never had that problem before.  These are WAV files, and they played perfectly OK through Windows Media Player.

So I thought I would try 'burning' a CD on my laptop , which I had never tried doing before.  So set it all up ready to Burn using Windows Media Player.  Horror of horrors, this time there were four tracks on the CD highlighted red, which it said it could not do.   

What to do now?  Had a word with Den (the other Administrator of TDP) as I knew he made CDs of his music.  He said he used a 'FREE' program for burning CDs called Ashampoo.  So I went looking for it on Google.

Ashampoo Burning Studio FREE 

Found this:



Clicked on the LINK:

https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/7110/burning-software/burning-studio-free

.. which took me to this:



I had to Register and provide an email address; look in my INBOX and confirm my Registration with a click.

Have downloaded SETUP (an EXE file) and double-clicked on it to install the actual Ashampoo program.  It has left an 'icon' on my desktop, and I have done a right-click to Pin to taskbar so I have it permanently showing at the very bottom.

Next, I ran the program to make a CD.  First I had to close an 'advert' trying to get me to buy the top version (I think I'll stick with the FREE version).  In the first screen you get you have to choose what you want to do.



I clicked on Audio + Music, then Create Audio CD.  You get a blank box .. and have to click on the + sign on the right to go find the WAV files you want to have on the CD.

*Note:*  When you do this it always puts the last one you choose as No: 1 on the list.  Nero did this as well.  So I highlight the second track, hold down the Shift key and click on the last track at the bottom, which highlights 2 to 17 (see below):



I then hold down the Ctrl key and click the No:1, which then highlights all of them .. and the No: 1 was the last one I added in so it will appear first.  Click on Add at the bottom.  Close the 'Search' box and you will have all the tracks in the correct order ready to burn.  Click Burn and insert a blank CD-R when asked.

Success!  When it had finished I got this:



I have listened to the CD and it sounds fine.

I am very impressed with this program for making CDs .. and it's FREE!

Thanks Den for pointing it out to me!

Hugh
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Hugh Wallington

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Re: 'Burning' a CD from WAV files with Ashampoo
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2019, 11:53:39 AM »
A few comments about the Ashampoo program. 

1.  I found that if I loaded a blank CD into the slot before I ran Ashampoo (or at any rate, before I chose the tracks I wanted to record) it went straight to the green 'tick' ready for me to record.

2.  The program automatically 'Normalizes' each track as it goes along.  Not sure if I approve of this as I prefer to do it myself.  There are some pieces that have an odd 'spike' here and there (maybe a drum beat) so it's that that would be brought to the top.  The remaining waveform would be averaging way down from that.  Then there are other pieces (maybe played with organ voices) that are pretty constant across the board (ie. no 'spikes').  A piece like this would be Normalized so the whole piece was near that top mark.  When playing the CD, a piece like this would sound much louder than the other one with the 'spikes'.  When I Normalize a piece like this I do it to -3dB or -4dB rather than the 0db at the top.  This makes this track a little quieter than doing it to 0dB, so each track on the CD is more or less the same for overall volume.  If a program does something 'automatically' I reckon it would override what I was trying to achieve.

3.  The program automatically puts a gap of 2 seconds in between tracks so you get a bit of silence between one track ending and another starting.  I always have a short bit of silence at the beginning of my recordings, and again at the end.  There's nothing worse than eg. playing an MP3 and for it to take a long time before it starts playing anything.  Makes you wonder if it's even working.  So to have that 2 second gap is perfect.  I bought a CD once at our organ club where there was no gap between one track and the next.  This had been done by the artiste playing that night.  What were they thinking of?
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