Audio minutes per CD??

[Rick]

Hello

I am a first time user on this board. My question: How many audio minutes can I fit on one CD(no music only talking). I am needing to make a audio CD that has up to 7 hours of verbage. I am using Pro Tool as my recording device. I am just starting a project and I need to know what my parameters are.

Thanks,

Rick

[vdi_nenna]

74 minutes for most cds. There are some 80 minute. I'm not sure if you record something in mono that it will require less space, giving you more time. Try asking this question at

http://www.audioasylum.com

They have serveral different forums there. A few on digital.

MP3 can store many hours worth of audio on one CD, but not all CD players can read the MP3 format.

good luck.

Vince

[Edited by vdi_nenna on 03-05-2001 at 02:21 PM]

[Eric]

I thought I remember hearing that CDs were designed to hold 77 minutes and several seconds - enough to hold Beethoven's 9th Symphony in its entirety.

[Schaef]

I believe technically its about 72 minutes, but I've seen
longer on standard audio CDs. It doesn't matter if the
recording is spoken word, classical music, stereo, or mono,
it all takes the same amount of space. The format is set
at 44Khz/16bit stereo recording irregardless of the actual
recording. Also, since its not compressed, the content
doesn't affect it either. It's not until you get into the
things like Dolby Digital, DTS, MP3, and things like that
do you get to different space requirements depending on the
quality needed and the number of channels recorded.

Hope this helps out!

P.S. - to Eric, I do believe it is Beethoven's 9th that is
the reference used to determine the length of a CD.

[JazzFrac]

An 80 minute Audio disc will hold just over 78 minutes, when recorded with certain software, most of the time, though you're only allowed 74 minutes with standard software. The first option is probably what they use to record the properly played 9th.

[spootyguy]

Also, some software allows you to 'overburn' CDs, which is not recommended but if high quality CDs are used this can add several minutes to the recording. Cheap CDs tend to fail.
This is not one to count on though, as it depends on your CD recorder, the disc quality and the software.

[Nisbeth]

I think spootyguy is right - it depends on the recorder and software. I have two cd's which are 79.56 and they work fine in every player I have tested them in. They are made with Toast Pro for Mac and my Yamaha 8424 recorder, but other combinations might yield different results.

/Regards

[PassFan]

I heard that story as well when I was in school but there really is a technical reason that has to do with the bit rate and quantization. Ken Pollman is the digital expert. Used to teach at Miami I think. Has a couple books out.

[WhtCastle]

OK, time to flex the geek muscles.....
The ussual CD is a 74minute disc, now depending on:
a)the burner
b)the burning software
c)the CD

It will either hold 74minutes, or more. (I've gotten 76minutes out of a few.)
By lowering bitrate, going to mono etc. DOES NOT MATTER
Audio does not work with files sizes, it uses minutes. You could burn a 74minute wav file that is 3gig on a cd. You could burn 20 mp3tracks that are 50meg in size only, but that is 74minutes long, and fill the CD. Again; with audio, FILE SIZE DOES NOT MATTER. Same goes for 80minute CDs, and I've gotten those to hold just under 82minutes.

Now for the '7hour long CD', Schaef said it right, you can't do normal audio. If you want my recommendation, get an MP3 CD-Decoder, and take your recorded talkin and downsample it to mono, and at the most 96kbps, but depending on size that yeilds, maybe somethin down to even a 48kbps. On that note (and I'm probably wrong) I think I read somewhere the quality of a phone conversation is roughly equal to 8kpbs. I hope this helps somewhat.

[hifiZen]

ummm... i think your burner would run out of media before it could fit that 74-minute 3GB .wav on your disc ;-) There *is* a limit to the actual number of bits that can be put on a CD.