Elaine
03-07-2004, 01:55 PM
Originally posted by Van Nugent
In this thread, I am compiling the commonly asked questions that we've seen in this forum. Unless noted, all applications/software mentioned can be found in the sticky 'Audio Software Links and Tutorials' (http://www.bst-secure.com/cdrg/showthread.php?t=48) thread. This thread is updated frequently so please check back often.
@@@ Compressed Audio Related @@@
* What (MP3) bitrate should I encode my favorite songs at?
It depends on the space/memory you have on the playing device, whether or not your player supports the higher bitrate, as well as if you can hear the difference from your system when going to a higher bitrate. To help you make your own decision, let's talk about the sound quality at different bitrates:
* 16 to 24kbps: The sound is about what you'd get from telephone. Many encoders will default to mono encoding at these BRs because it doesn't make much sense to encode in stereo at these low BRs.
* 32 to 48kbps: AM quality sound.
* 56 to 80kbps: FM quality sound.
* 96 to 112kbps: Near CD qual. Much better than FM but not "quite" satisfactory when compared with the CD source. 96kbps is a good choice for many portable MP3 players because it sounds relatively good and the file size is small.
* 128kbps is the most commonly used bitrate by many people. It's very close to the CD qual and lots of folks are satisfied with this bitrate. But from my experience, as well as others', it lacks the warmness and "air" that you can get from CD qual because bass below 60Hz and hi frequency above 12KHz or so are dropped off during the encoding process.
* 160 to 192kbps are closer to CD qual and these BRs normally are used for archiving purposes for good HiFi systems.
* 224 to 320kbps are used to archive music for high-end systems. Jumping from 128kbps to 256kbps will give most people noticeable improvement in both lo and hi frequency responses. The MP3s sound much closer to the CD tracks when play on high end systems. 320kbps is the highest BR you can encode as of today.
Also, you may need to consider VBR encoding if your player supports VBR. See "What is Variable Bitrate (VBR)?" below for more details on VBR.
Suggested further reading: MP3 Quality Test (http://www.mp3-tech.org/tests/gb/index.html)
* I've heard about mp3PRO. What is mp3PRO?
mp3PRO is a new compressed audio format designed to be backwards compatible with MP3 (more on this later). It was developed by Coding Technologies that includes 12 former employees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, the German research institute that created the MP3 format. mp3PRO is being licensed by RCA's parent company, Thomson Multimedia. mp3PRO contains 2 streams, the 1st stream is Layer III that can be read by "regular" MP3 players, and the 2nd stream called Spectral Band Replication (SBR) carries the information to restore high frequencies. To fully understand how mp3PRO works, let's look at a regular 64kbps MP3. The file would sound very dull because all info above 10KHz or so is discarded to make the file size small. mp3PRO, however, will store the hi freq info in the 2nd stream SBR. This info will be restored when you play an mp3PRO file on a correct player, i.e. mp3PRO player. Therefore, the song will sound brighter and more brilliant than the regular MP3 at same bitrate. On the other hand, if the file is played on a "normal" MP3 player, only the 1st stream will be decoded and the 2nd stream will be ignored. The file will play but you won't get all the qual as expected. And since regular MP3 players only recognize the 1st stream, the sampling rate will show up as 22.05KHz instead of 44.1KHz. Since mp3PRO files also have the .mp3 extension so how can you tell if a x.mp3 file is a mp3PRO or normal MP3 file? Interestingly, if you have dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) installed, the pop-up info box in Windows Explorer will tell you it's Mpeg 2 Layer 3 for mp3PRO, and Mpeg 1 Layer 3 for normal MP3. (The same info would be reported if you use other apps to get the information of the file.) Note that mp3PRO players will play regular MP3s perfectly but mp3PRO files will not sound good on regular MP3 players.
Nero and CoolEdit Pro 2.0 have mp3PRO encoder built in (actually, you'll need to purchase MP3 plug-in for Nero :)). There is also a free Thomson (RCA) mp3PRO player/encoder in the 'Audio Software Links' thread. dBpowerAMP will handle mp3PRO encoding with plug-in & MusicMatch plans to have the encoder in its next Jukebox release. Now MusicMatch Jukebox v.7.2 just comes out and this version supports mp3PRO (requires registering), FYI.
Believe it or not, a 64kbps mp3PRO is said to have a quality equivalent to that of a 128kbps MP3... Do some encoding and see (or hear :)) for yourself!
Suggested Sites for more info:
Thomson Multimedia (http://www.thomson-multimedia.com/gb/00/mp3.htm) - Coding Technologies (http://www.codingtechnologies.com/)
* What is Variable Bitrate (VBR)?
VBR is designed to give you a smaller file size while still maintaining the quality of the song. In Constant Bitrate (CBR) mode, the whole song will be encoded at the same bitrate. This is not a good way to encode music because for some "less demanding" passages, there is not much to encode and it would be better to drop the bitrate to reduce the file size. The encoder will dynamically encode each musical passage at appropriate bitrate depending on how demanding it is. Thus, a VBR MP3 will be smaller than the CBR MP3 at equal quality. But keep in mind that not all players support VBR. LAME is considered as the best MP3 encoder as of today.
You'll notice that the new LAME encoder version comes with the alt-preset settings for your convenience. The "alt-preset standard" gives average bitrate of 192kbps and equivalent to 256kbps CBR. The "alt-preset fast standard" is much faster and gives larger file size with slightly lower quality. The "alt-preset extreme" gives the highest qual, averaging about 256kbps with quality equivalent to 320kbps CBR. The "alt-preset fast extreme" is faster but gives slightly lower qual and bigger file size as compared to "alt-preset extreme". Finally, the "alt-preset insane" is just about the same as 320kbps CBR. It will give a quality about that of a 320kbps CBR with very little saving (or not at all) in disk space. That's why it's called "insane"!
Note that the alt-presets use Joint Stereo. Joint Stereo (JS) will encode the identical signals in both stereo channels as mono so if you don't want JS, don't use alt-presets.
B]@@@ Burning Related @@@[/B]
* How do I create an MP3 CD from MP3's with files in MP3 format instead of audio tracks (*.cda)?
You need to burn the MP3s in Data CD mode. If you use Audio CD mode, the burnware will automatically decode the MP3s and burn audio tracks instead.
* How can I eliminate the 2-sec gap between tracks?
To eliminate the 2-sec gap between tracks, you must burn in Disc-At-Once (DAO) mode and set the gap length to 0 second. Note that when burning in DAO, the disc will be closed after burn and you can't add any more tracks at later time.
Some burnware such as Nero and EasyCD Creator give you crossfade feature, which is very helpful in eliminating the gap as well as the click noise between tracks.
* How can I burn some tracks now and add more tracks later?
You need to burn in Track-At-Once (TAO) mode. As long as you still have enough space on the disc and the disc is still open, you can add more tracks at later time. Finalize (close) the disc when you burn the last track so that it will play on other CD players. There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind: First, TAO will give you a 2-sec gap b/w tracks and secondly, some burners may give you a click noise b/w tracks when burning in TAO (when the laser is switched off and on).
* Some tracks on my burned CD sound louder/softer than the rest. What can I do to make all of them sound equally loud?
This normally happens when you make a compilation from different CDs or sources. You'll need to normalize the tracks before or during burn. Many burnware like Nero will let you normalize the tracks when you burn them to CDRs. You can also use stand-alone apps such as MP3Gain (for MP3s) or WhiteTiger Studio (for WAVs).
* How do I burn CD Text on audio CD so that it will show the song titles and artists' names instead of track01, track02, etc.
I'm going to discuss the way to burn CD Text on Nero and EasyCD Creator because they're used by most people here. The procedures to burn CD Text on other burnware are similar. Your burner must support CD Text burning and you'll also need a CD Text player to display the text. A good CD Text player can be downloaded from the Multimedia Players section of the sticky Audio Software Links and Tutorials.
NERO: For those who use Nero Burning ROM, check THIS (http://www.bst-secure.com/cdrg/showthread.php?p=122#post122). Note that if you're burning from MP3s, Nero will use the info from ID3 tags for CD Text. Nero also can access the Internet database to get the album's information if you're burning from the whole album.
EASYCD CREATOR: For those who use EasyCD Creator, you'll need to create a new audio project. Drag and drop the files into the Music CD Project window, type in the New CD Title and Artist Name in the appropriate boxes. Right-click on the track and select Properties then type in the name for that track in the Name box. Rightclick on any track and select "Transition Effects". Now in the "Space Between Tracks" section of the "Audio Track Transitions" box, you can either set the "Gap" or "Crossfade". These options are equivalent to Pause and Crossfade options found in Nero. If you choose Crossfade setting, keep in mind that 1 frame is 0.0133 sec. So use value b/w 0.04sec (3 frames) to 0.0667sec (5 frames). Of course, you can use a longer crossfade depending on your "situation" but avoid using unnecessary too long crossfading as this may affect the 2 ends of the tracks. Remember to put a checkmark on the box "Apply Transition to All Tracks" then click OK. EasyCD will automatically set your compilation to Disc At Once when either Gap or Crossfade is set to value other than the default.
Click on the red button labeled Record then remember to click on the Write CD Text box in the Record CD Setup window. Click on Options button to expand the burn options and choose the Record Option you want (Record CD/Test Only/Test and Record CD). Make sure Disc At Once is enabled.
Just like Nero, EasyCD Creator can also access the Internet database to get the info on the album for you. To get the album's info from the Internet, select the source drive from the "Select Source Files:" dropbox then click on the button labeled "Name". If you're burning from MP3's, the file names will be entered automatically as the songs' titles. If you want to edit them, go to Properties as mentioned above.
* Can I burn MP3 CD in UDF using apps like DirectCD or InCD?
Most current portable & stand-alone MP3 players do not read Universal Disc Format. However, a few newer models such as the Philips 8cm MP3-CD player model EXP401 can read discs burned in ISO-9660, Joliet format, and UDF. You can burn in UDF if you have one of those players but for compatibility with your friends' (or your car's) players, you need to consider burning ISO discs.
* Can I burn multisession MP3 disc so that I can incrementally add more files to it at different times?
Again, similar to the UDF case, most current portable/stand-alone players do not read multisession discs but we're seeing more and more newer models that support multisession reading. If you have one of these models, just go ahead!
* I just downloaded the latest version of Nero but after entering the serial number, some features (such as crossfade) are not available - Or my Nero turns to Nero Express. What can I do?
You've used an OEM version serial number. You'll need to contact Ahead (http://www.nero.com/en/index.html#root) to purchase a full version S/N. For more info on S/N, please check here (http://195.88.216.21/en/index.html#c1004602918150). To enter a new S/N, go to Help then click on "Enter New Serial Number". Your Nero will turn to appropriate version depending on the type of SN you've entered.
* What's CD-Extra CD (Enhanced CD)? How to burn a CD-Extra CD?
CD-Extra CD belongs to the Enhanced CD family, which includes Mixed-Mode CD, CD-Extra CD, and Hidden-Track CD. A CD-Extra CD is a special multisession CD that consists of only 2 sessions, the 1st session has up to 98 conventional audio tracks that can be played on CD players and the 2nd session contains data or multimedia files in ISO-9660 file system that can be read by your multisession-capable CDROMs. I normally use the 2nd session to store cover bitmaps and lyrics for the tracks on the album. CD-Extra standards are defined by the "Blue Book" from Sony/Philips. CD-Extra works on the principles that CD players can access multisession CDs but can't recognize anything beyond the 1st session and your CDROM in Windows Explorer will show only the ISO part. Note that to create a CD that has audio tracks playable on CD players and, at the same time, data or multimedia information readable by computers, you must use CD-Extra burning and must NOT use Mixed-Mode CD burning. Mixed-Mode CD, on the other hand, is a single-session CD that has the data on 1st track plus up to 98 audio tracks (after the 1st data track). Mixed-Mode CD standards are defined by the "Red Book". Mixed-Mode CDs are used for games so you can find this type of CD in many games. If you try to play a Mixed-Mode CD on stand-alone CD player, you will get loud (white) noise when the player is trying to play the 1st data track and this may destroy your speakers if the level is too loud. Some newer players will mute the sound to prevent damages to the loudspeakers (and your ears). You will need to skip the 1st track if you want to listen to the audio tracks on the CD.
To burn a CD-Extra CD, choose CD-Extra mode from your burnware. Some burnware label this mode as Enhanced CD. This will open 2 compilation windows, one for audio tracks and one for data. Just drag and drop the audio files/tracks into the audio window and data files into the data window as you would when burning them separately. Nero and many other burnware also allow you to add CD Text info to the audio tracks, which is a nice feature that we may need.
In this thread, I am compiling the commonly asked questions that we've seen in this forum. Unless noted, all applications/software mentioned can be found in the sticky 'Audio Software Links and Tutorials' (http://www.bst-secure.com/cdrg/showthread.php?t=48) thread. This thread is updated frequently so please check back often.
@@@ Compressed Audio Related @@@
* What (MP3) bitrate should I encode my favorite songs at?
It depends on the space/memory you have on the playing device, whether or not your player supports the higher bitrate, as well as if you can hear the difference from your system when going to a higher bitrate. To help you make your own decision, let's talk about the sound quality at different bitrates:
* 16 to 24kbps: The sound is about what you'd get from telephone. Many encoders will default to mono encoding at these BRs because it doesn't make much sense to encode in stereo at these low BRs.
* 32 to 48kbps: AM quality sound.
* 56 to 80kbps: FM quality sound.
* 96 to 112kbps: Near CD qual. Much better than FM but not "quite" satisfactory when compared with the CD source. 96kbps is a good choice for many portable MP3 players because it sounds relatively good and the file size is small.
* 128kbps is the most commonly used bitrate by many people. It's very close to the CD qual and lots of folks are satisfied with this bitrate. But from my experience, as well as others', it lacks the warmness and "air" that you can get from CD qual because bass below 60Hz and hi frequency above 12KHz or so are dropped off during the encoding process.
* 160 to 192kbps are closer to CD qual and these BRs normally are used for archiving purposes for good HiFi systems.
* 224 to 320kbps are used to archive music for high-end systems. Jumping from 128kbps to 256kbps will give most people noticeable improvement in both lo and hi frequency responses. The MP3s sound much closer to the CD tracks when play on high end systems. 320kbps is the highest BR you can encode as of today.
Also, you may need to consider VBR encoding if your player supports VBR. See "What is Variable Bitrate (VBR)?" below for more details on VBR.
Suggested further reading: MP3 Quality Test (http://www.mp3-tech.org/tests/gb/index.html)
* I've heard about mp3PRO. What is mp3PRO?
mp3PRO is a new compressed audio format designed to be backwards compatible with MP3 (more on this later). It was developed by Coding Technologies that includes 12 former employees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, the German research institute that created the MP3 format. mp3PRO is being licensed by RCA's parent company, Thomson Multimedia. mp3PRO contains 2 streams, the 1st stream is Layer III that can be read by "regular" MP3 players, and the 2nd stream called Spectral Band Replication (SBR) carries the information to restore high frequencies. To fully understand how mp3PRO works, let's look at a regular 64kbps MP3. The file would sound very dull because all info above 10KHz or so is discarded to make the file size small. mp3PRO, however, will store the hi freq info in the 2nd stream SBR. This info will be restored when you play an mp3PRO file on a correct player, i.e. mp3PRO player. Therefore, the song will sound brighter and more brilliant than the regular MP3 at same bitrate. On the other hand, if the file is played on a "normal" MP3 player, only the 1st stream will be decoded and the 2nd stream will be ignored. The file will play but you won't get all the qual as expected. And since regular MP3 players only recognize the 1st stream, the sampling rate will show up as 22.05KHz instead of 44.1KHz. Since mp3PRO files also have the .mp3 extension so how can you tell if a x.mp3 file is a mp3PRO or normal MP3 file? Interestingly, if you have dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) installed, the pop-up info box in Windows Explorer will tell you it's Mpeg 2 Layer 3 for mp3PRO, and Mpeg 1 Layer 3 for normal MP3. (The same info would be reported if you use other apps to get the information of the file.) Note that mp3PRO players will play regular MP3s perfectly but mp3PRO files will not sound good on regular MP3 players.
Nero and CoolEdit Pro 2.0 have mp3PRO encoder built in (actually, you'll need to purchase MP3 plug-in for Nero :)). There is also a free Thomson (RCA) mp3PRO player/encoder in the 'Audio Software Links' thread. dBpowerAMP will handle mp3PRO encoding with plug-in & MusicMatch plans to have the encoder in its next Jukebox release. Now MusicMatch Jukebox v.7.2 just comes out and this version supports mp3PRO (requires registering), FYI.
Believe it or not, a 64kbps mp3PRO is said to have a quality equivalent to that of a 128kbps MP3... Do some encoding and see (or hear :)) for yourself!
Suggested Sites for more info:
Thomson Multimedia (http://www.thomson-multimedia.com/gb/00/mp3.htm) - Coding Technologies (http://www.codingtechnologies.com/)
* What is Variable Bitrate (VBR)?
VBR is designed to give you a smaller file size while still maintaining the quality of the song. In Constant Bitrate (CBR) mode, the whole song will be encoded at the same bitrate. This is not a good way to encode music because for some "less demanding" passages, there is not much to encode and it would be better to drop the bitrate to reduce the file size. The encoder will dynamically encode each musical passage at appropriate bitrate depending on how demanding it is. Thus, a VBR MP3 will be smaller than the CBR MP3 at equal quality. But keep in mind that not all players support VBR. LAME is considered as the best MP3 encoder as of today.
You'll notice that the new LAME encoder version comes with the alt-preset settings for your convenience. The "alt-preset standard" gives average bitrate of 192kbps and equivalent to 256kbps CBR. The "alt-preset fast standard" is much faster and gives larger file size with slightly lower quality. The "alt-preset extreme" gives the highest qual, averaging about 256kbps with quality equivalent to 320kbps CBR. The "alt-preset fast extreme" is faster but gives slightly lower qual and bigger file size as compared to "alt-preset extreme". Finally, the "alt-preset insane" is just about the same as 320kbps CBR. It will give a quality about that of a 320kbps CBR with very little saving (or not at all) in disk space. That's why it's called "insane"!
Note that the alt-presets use Joint Stereo. Joint Stereo (JS) will encode the identical signals in both stereo channels as mono so if you don't want JS, don't use alt-presets.
B]@@@ Burning Related @@@[/B]
* How do I create an MP3 CD from MP3's with files in MP3 format instead of audio tracks (*.cda)?
You need to burn the MP3s in Data CD mode. If you use Audio CD mode, the burnware will automatically decode the MP3s and burn audio tracks instead.
* How can I eliminate the 2-sec gap between tracks?
To eliminate the 2-sec gap between tracks, you must burn in Disc-At-Once (DAO) mode and set the gap length to 0 second. Note that when burning in DAO, the disc will be closed after burn and you can't add any more tracks at later time.
Some burnware such as Nero and EasyCD Creator give you crossfade feature, which is very helpful in eliminating the gap as well as the click noise between tracks.
* How can I burn some tracks now and add more tracks later?
You need to burn in Track-At-Once (TAO) mode. As long as you still have enough space on the disc and the disc is still open, you can add more tracks at later time. Finalize (close) the disc when you burn the last track so that it will play on other CD players. There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind: First, TAO will give you a 2-sec gap b/w tracks and secondly, some burners may give you a click noise b/w tracks when burning in TAO (when the laser is switched off and on).
* Some tracks on my burned CD sound louder/softer than the rest. What can I do to make all of them sound equally loud?
This normally happens when you make a compilation from different CDs or sources. You'll need to normalize the tracks before or during burn. Many burnware like Nero will let you normalize the tracks when you burn them to CDRs. You can also use stand-alone apps such as MP3Gain (for MP3s) or WhiteTiger Studio (for WAVs).
* How do I burn CD Text on audio CD so that it will show the song titles and artists' names instead of track01, track02, etc.
I'm going to discuss the way to burn CD Text on Nero and EasyCD Creator because they're used by most people here. The procedures to burn CD Text on other burnware are similar. Your burner must support CD Text burning and you'll also need a CD Text player to display the text. A good CD Text player can be downloaded from the Multimedia Players section of the sticky Audio Software Links and Tutorials.
NERO: For those who use Nero Burning ROM, check THIS (http://www.bst-secure.com/cdrg/showthread.php?p=122#post122). Note that if you're burning from MP3s, Nero will use the info from ID3 tags for CD Text. Nero also can access the Internet database to get the album's information if you're burning from the whole album.
EASYCD CREATOR: For those who use EasyCD Creator, you'll need to create a new audio project. Drag and drop the files into the Music CD Project window, type in the New CD Title and Artist Name in the appropriate boxes. Right-click on the track and select Properties then type in the name for that track in the Name box. Rightclick on any track and select "Transition Effects". Now in the "Space Between Tracks" section of the "Audio Track Transitions" box, you can either set the "Gap" or "Crossfade". These options are equivalent to Pause and Crossfade options found in Nero. If you choose Crossfade setting, keep in mind that 1 frame is 0.0133 sec. So use value b/w 0.04sec (3 frames) to 0.0667sec (5 frames). Of course, you can use a longer crossfade depending on your "situation" but avoid using unnecessary too long crossfading as this may affect the 2 ends of the tracks. Remember to put a checkmark on the box "Apply Transition to All Tracks" then click OK. EasyCD will automatically set your compilation to Disc At Once when either Gap or Crossfade is set to value other than the default.
Click on the red button labeled Record then remember to click on the Write CD Text box in the Record CD Setup window. Click on Options button to expand the burn options and choose the Record Option you want (Record CD/Test Only/Test and Record CD). Make sure Disc At Once is enabled.
Just like Nero, EasyCD Creator can also access the Internet database to get the info on the album for you. To get the album's info from the Internet, select the source drive from the "Select Source Files:" dropbox then click on the button labeled "Name". If you're burning from MP3's, the file names will be entered automatically as the songs' titles. If you want to edit them, go to Properties as mentioned above.
* Can I burn MP3 CD in UDF using apps like DirectCD or InCD?
Most current portable & stand-alone MP3 players do not read Universal Disc Format. However, a few newer models such as the Philips 8cm MP3-CD player model EXP401 can read discs burned in ISO-9660, Joliet format, and UDF. You can burn in UDF if you have one of those players but for compatibility with your friends' (or your car's) players, you need to consider burning ISO discs.
* Can I burn multisession MP3 disc so that I can incrementally add more files to it at different times?
Again, similar to the UDF case, most current portable/stand-alone players do not read multisession discs but we're seeing more and more newer models that support multisession reading. If you have one of these models, just go ahead!
* I just downloaded the latest version of Nero but after entering the serial number, some features (such as crossfade) are not available - Or my Nero turns to Nero Express. What can I do?
You've used an OEM version serial number. You'll need to contact Ahead (http://www.nero.com/en/index.html#root) to purchase a full version S/N. For more info on S/N, please check here (http://195.88.216.21/en/index.html#c1004602918150). To enter a new S/N, go to Help then click on "Enter New Serial Number". Your Nero will turn to appropriate version depending on the type of SN you've entered.
* What's CD-Extra CD (Enhanced CD)? How to burn a CD-Extra CD?
CD-Extra CD belongs to the Enhanced CD family, which includes Mixed-Mode CD, CD-Extra CD, and Hidden-Track CD. A CD-Extra CD is a special multisession CD that consists of only 2 sessions, the 1st session has up to 98 conventional audio tracks that can be played on CD players and the 2nd session contains data or multimedia files in ISO-9660 file system that can be read by your multisession-capable CDROMs. I normally use the 2nd session to store cover bitmaps and lyrics for the tracks on the album. CD-Extra standards are defined by the "Blue Book" from Sony/Philips. CD-Extra works on the principles that CD players can access multisession CDs but can't recognize anything beyond the 1st session and your CDROM in Windows Explorer will show only the ISO part. Note that to create a CD that has audio tracks playable on CD players and, at the same time, data or multimedia information readable by computers, you must use CD-Extra burning and must NOT use Mixed-Mode CD burning. Mixed-Mode CD, on the other hand, is a single-session CD that has the data on 1st track plus up to 98 audio tracks (after the 1st data track). Mixed-Mode CD standards are defined by the "Red Book". Mixed-Mode CDs are used for games so you can find this type of CD in many games. If you try to play a Mixed-Mode CD on stand-alone CD player, you will get loud (white) noise when the player is trying to play the 1st data track and this may destroy your speakers if the level is too loud. Some newer players will mute the sound to prevent damages to the loudspeakers (and your ears). You will need to skip the 1st track if you want to listen to the audio tracks on the CD.
To burn a CD-Extra CD, choose CD-Extra mode from your burnware. Some burnware label this mode as Enhanced CD. This will open 2 compilation windows, one for audio tracks and one for data. Just drag and drop the audio files/tracks into the audio window and data files into the data window as you would when burning them separately. Nero and many other burnware also allow you to add CD Text info to the audio tracks, which is a nice feature that we may need.