[mfsoa]

Hi everyone,
If you rip a regular CD as an MP3, and then burn that to a CD-R as a Redbook CD (as opposed to a data disc), is there a way to tell by looking at the data on the CD-R?

For example if the original WAV file is 500 MB, 16/44, will the burned CD-R also be 500 MB or will it be the size of the MP3 file it came from, say 100 MB?   I guess the CD-R will still be 16/44 since it is burned to Redbook standards, but if the file size is bigger than the MP3 it came from, what is all the extra data - just zeroes?

Thanks for any advice.

-Mike

[rbbert]

Try these suggestions:

http://wiki.dimeadozen.org/index.php/DimeFAQ:How_to_analyze_an_audio_file_for_lossin ess

[ted_b]

You ask a relevant question, because if you convert to Mp3 on the rip, yet convert back (Mp3 to wav) before the burn, the file sizes will be darn near identical to the original.  Fore xample, I just now took Yes Fragile:
FLAC stored  398 meg
converted to lossless wav  607 meg
then converted to 192kbps Mp3   91 meg
take that Mp3 and convert it back to wav (lossy to lossless) 607 meg!!

A spectrum analysis in something like Audacity below, however, will easily show a normal redbook 22k brickwall (i.e top of the energy graph) where an Mp3 will show 15-16k or worse.  Anything less than 22k graphed will uncover lossy source material.  See arrows below for Long Distance Runaround, wav and Mp3-to-wav (MP3'd source on right)

[srb]

That will work if you are inspecting standard audio files on a computer data disk drive.  But mfsoa asks "is there a way to tell by looking at the data on the CD-R?".
 
When you burn files to a CD in Redbook audio format, the files are in the .cda format and none of the audio programs I have can directly open those (and the computer only shows each .cda track as a 44 byte file).  I think you might have to re-rip the burned CD-R back into another losless file format to be able to inspect them in an audio editor/converter.
 
Steve

[mfsoa]

Great info guys, thanks very much. 

[srb]

I found that independent of the MP3 bitrate (whether 128kbps or 320kbps), an album burned to a Redbook audio CD format was a few megabytes larger than the original CD, most likely due to the sector and TOC format of the CD-R media compared to the original pressed factory CD.
 
Another alternative would be to burn to an MP3 audio disc format which would only use space relative to the MP3 filesize, but playback would be limited to CD players that can play that format - some can and some can't.
 
Steve