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How to Add Multimedia to Your CDs

Mar 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By David Battino

Unless you're cranking out recordings the length of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, you probably have a lot of wasted space on your CDs. Fortunately, it's surprisingly easy to add photos, movies, MP3 remixes, and other multimedia enhancements to your discs, delivering a richer experience to anyone who pops them into a computer. All it takes is a CD burner, some inexpensive software that you may already own, and a little know-how.

The possibilities are enormous. Instead of passing out a promo CD with your band's URL scrawled on the sleeve, you can put your entire Web site on the disc. Because even the slowest CD-ROM drives transfer data at broadband speeds, you'll be able to shower your audience with high-resolution graphics and audio without alienating modem users. You can even make your discs interactive, including hot links to your tour schedule, mailing list, and additional albums or sites. What's more, most replicators charge the same fee for pressing an enhanced CD as they do for a normal audio disc.

In this article, I'll explain how to create enhanced CDs on your home computer, reveal some pitfalls to avoid, and offer tips about what enhancements to include and how best to present them. Most of what I know I learned under the gun; I'd only had my burner for a few months when I was charged with producing the monthly enhanced CD for the largest music-magazine launch in U.S. history. I've since shipped nine enhanced CDs totaling more than 2 million units, and I was able to make each project better than the last. Once you start thinking about new ways to present your music, the ideas come pouring in.

WHERE THE BYTES ARE

Computer data can be stored on an audio CD in several ways. One that's often used for sampling CDs is to put the data (sampler patches, in this case) on track 1 and the audio on subsequent tracks. When that type of disc, called a mixed-mode CD, is inserted into a normal CD player, the player is supposed to skip the data track and begin playing track 2, the first audio track. When a mixed-mode CD is put into a computer, it appears to the computer as two discs — an audio CD and a CD-ROM. (In Windows, you won't see two icons, but you can access the audio tracks with CD-player programs.)

Unfortunately, some older CD players aren't smart enough to skip the data track, so they play silence (or worse, ear-splitting static) instead of the first audio track. Other players offset the track numbers by one in their displays, so the numbers no longer match the printed tracklist. Sampling CDs still use the mixed-mode format because some samplers can't read multisession discs (discussed next), but it's best to avoid this format when making audio CDs. Roxio's Toast, the most popular CD-burning program on the Mac, actually displays a warning if you try to burn a mixed-mode CD.

The recommended way to structure an enhanced CD is in two sessions, with the audio tracks first and the data track second. A session is a physical division on a CD, a block of data that's bordered by lead-in and lead-out areas. When you close, or finalize, a CD-R, the burner writes data in those areas. If you look closely at a multisession CD, you can see the gap between sessions (see Fig. 1). Because audio-CD players can read only a single session, they will ignore whatever data you put in the second session. Computer CD-ROM drives (except for very old ones) will see both sessions.

To produce a multisession enhanced CD, you need software that can write the audio tracks in Session-at-Once mode, which finalizes the session without closing the CD. On the Mac side, Emagic's WaveBurner, CharisMac's Discribe, and Roxio's Toast Titanium and Jam can do that. In Windows, Roxio's Easy CD Creator Deluxe and Ahead's Nero (among others) will do the trick. Accessing that feature is sometimes as simple as pressing a button; in other programs, you'll have to hunt for a check-box or an alternate menu command.

Once you've burned your audio session, your CD software should indicate how much space remains on the disc. Now it's time to add the data.

DATA FORMATS

The trickiest aspect of creating an enhanced CD is making it work on both Mac and Windows platforms, because the two use different file systems — ISO 9660 on the PC and HFS on the Mac. Fortunately, Macs can read ISO 9660 documents, so producing a basic cross-platform CD-ROM simply requires following the ISO 9660 naming conventions (see the sidebar “My Name Is True”) and including only documents, not programs. Although that may seem limiting, you can actually do a lot with documents; a multimedia Web site is just a collection of text, graphics, and sound files. If you're putting a Web site on a CD, make sure its internal links are relative, not absolute. In other words, use the format href=“mysite/index.htm” to point to a file in a folder called mysite, not href=“/c|/mysite/index.htm”. You have no idea what letter or name a viewer has assigned to the CD-ROM drive, so you need to specify a path that's relative to the file, not the drive.

You can include Windows programs (slide-show viewers, for example) on an ISO disc. If you burn the disc on a Mac and enable Apple Extensions, you can include Mac programs, as well. (Windows can't burn Mac programs without special software, which I will discuss later.) But using the ISO format has drawbacks. First, file names will be truncated to 8.3-character format on the Mac. Second, if you burn the disc on a PC, the documents may show up as generic files on the Mac, confusing the viewer or not opening when double-clicked. Third, you can't use custom window layouts, as in Fig. 2.

Because of those shortcomings, professional enhanced CDs are mastered in hybrid format, which combines an ISO part with an HFS part. Windows users see only the ISO portion, whereas Mac users see only the HFS one, though common files such as movies can be shared to save space. (Before burning the CD, you specify which files should be visible to each platform.) Because HFS is the Mac's native format, the CD behaves like a tiny hard drive — you can include programs, specify window layouts, and apply custom icons for complete creative control. I'll walk you through the process of creating a hybrid CD in a moment, but first, a word about the “official” enhanced-CD standard.

The original enhanced-CD specification was called the Blue Book standard. It required a specialized directory structure and set of files, including the notorious QuickTime Audio Containable file, or QuAC (pronounced “quack”). CDs produced to that spec are known as CD Extra or CD Plus discs and use the primitive-looking Universal Media Player to serve up graphics, movies, and Web links. But today it's hard to find a program to generate the required files. “Doing the QuAC file is totally useless,” says Ty Roberts, a pioneering enhanced-CD producer (see the sidebar “Full Blue Book Value”). “Even though I wrote the Blue Book standard and that file is supposed to be on true enhanced CDs, it's not useful for anything, and no one's supporting those tools today. If you can get them to work, great. If you can't, don't freak out.”

BUILDING THE DISC

Every enhanced-CD producer I've spoken with uses Toast on the Mac to burn hybrid discs, but Windows users can get in on the action, too. Surf to www.macdisk.com and download MacImage or Hybridator. The former is a comprehensive program that enables you to build hybrid discs with shared files, even embedding the codes that identify the files on the Mac. MacImage costs $55, but the downloadable demo version handles projects as large as 100 MB. Hybridator is a free utility that can mount HFS volumes (disks) or files and incorporate them into a hybrid CD, though the files won't be shared. The MacDisk site is well worth visiting even if you're a Toast user, because it's packed with information about making cross-platform CDs.

Making a hybrid CD in Toast involves several steps. The first is to create a Mac volume, which can be a removable disk such as a Jaz or Zip, or a temporary partition on your hard drive, which you can create with Toast itself. Because the entire contents of the volume will be burned to CD (including any files in the trash), it's important to set it up exactly as you want it to appear. Give the volume a descriptive name. Select Get Info from the File menu, click on the icon in the box that opens, and paste a custom icon on top of it. Open any folders you want to show the audience and line up their contents. For an elegant effect, use a program such as Iconizer Pro (www.naratt.com) to assemble a background picture out of icons.

Once your volume is set up, drag it to the main Toast window. Next, drag any files and folders you want to put on the ISO (PC) side of the CD to the window. If the items reside on the Mac volume, they'll be shared automatically. If they reside on a different volume, they won't show up on the Mac side. That is confusing at first, because it seems like you're putting two copies of some files on the disc, but Toast highlights the shared items to make it clearer (see Fig. 3).

Click on the Select ISO button and configure the ISO side for Joliet naming, Apple Extensions, and CD-ROM XA format. Finally, click on the Select Mac button and enable “Optimize on-the-fly,” and then click Record. Within minutes, you'll have a cross-platform enhanced CD. If the process seems convoluted, you can hire a service such as Disc Makers (www.discmakers.com) to do it for you. The company charges $275 to merge an audio CD and a CD-ROM into a hybrid enhanced CD. If you go that route, provide detailed instructions for the mastering engineer to ensure the files are laid out the way you want.

ROM WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY

Now that you know how enhanced CDs are structured, what kinds of media does it make sense to include? The short answer is anything you think will enhance your music. Some appealing items are Web links, e-mail links, contact info, bios, photos of your inspirations, lyric sheets (especially scans of early drafts), “behind the music” commentary, interviews, videos, bonus MP3 tracks, remixing applications, and Web sites (great for promo discs). Also consider including band-themed Winamp skins, screen savers, and desktop photos. You need to have the rights to distribute anything you put on your discs.

You can present those items in numerous ways. Your CD-burning program likely came with an application that can transform a folder full of graphics into an HTML slide show or a QuickTime movie. Many commercial enhanced-CD interfaces are built with Macromedia Director or Flash, but those programs are expensive and complex. Although I haven't used it, an inexpensive Windows program called Swish (www.swishzone.com) can be used to create HTML-based Flash animations. One of the most intriguing multimedia playback programs is the new QuickTime 5 Player, which supports embedded skins and runs on Mac and Windows. You can launch it from an HTML document so it floats above the Web page (see Fig. 4). Apple will let you include Mac and Windows QuickTime installers on your discs for free if you fill out a licensing agreement; see www.apple.com/quicktime/products/legal for details.

POLISHING THE PRESENTATION

Many CD-ROMs exploit the Windows Autorun feature or its Macintosh equivalent, QuickTime AutoPlay, to launch a program or a file automatically when a disc is inserted. That saves the viewer from having to burrow into a folder to locate the right file. But automatically launching a file on an enhanced CD can be annoying, because many computers play audio CDs upon insertion, causing two programs to fight over the disc. It is also probable that your audience will want to play the music side of the disc more frequently than the interactive side, so forcing them to view the latter is rude.

If you do want to launch something automatically on the Mac, it's a simple matter of specifying the file in your CD-burning program. Note that the file must be at the root level of the CD, and you must burn the CD in HFS mode. In Windows, you have to create a text file named autorun.inf at the disc's root level. In it, you might write:

[autorun]
open=progname.exe
icon=graphics\myicon.ico

That will launch the program called progname.exe in the same directory as the autorun file and apply the icon myicon.ico from a folder called graphics to the CD icon. (You locate icon-making programs at www.download.com.) To launch a file that is called mysite.htm instead, substitute the following line for the progname.exe line:

open=explorer.exe mysite.htm

A gentler approach is to put only the icon command in the Autorun file. You could also include a command that opens a folder containing the files you want to present. The syntax for that is:

open=explorer.exe foldername

Because many computer users disable the Autorun feature, it's considerate to include a plain-text Read Me file. You can also ease navigation by making support files invisible, either in the CD-burning program or (in Windows) by right-clicking on the file, selecting Properties, and checking the Hidden box. Test the disc on multiple computers to make sure that hiding the files doesn't cause any problems. It is also wise to test your disc on other people. If you find yourself grabbing the mouse to show them how to run it, you probably need to rethink the design.

Remember that you're making a computer disc, so scan for viruses before doing the final burn. Carlo Florio, a mastering engineer at Disc Makers, says that years ago, Kiss's Psycho Circus almost left the plant with a virus on it because a previous project had infected the mastering computer. Disc Makers' computers now scan every disc the moment it's inserted, and the company has had no trouble since.

Finally, don't forget to burn a few backup copies of the disc, or better, the disc image. On my first enhanced-CD project, which had a press run of 500,000 copies, FedEx destroyed the master disc on its way to the plant. I sent two backups by different couriers, and one of those didn't arrive.

IT'S SHOW TIME

Record albums used to come with posters, stickers, and (perhaps most compelling) enough space for evocative and detailed graphics. Although the transition to compact discs has brought a lot of benefits, one of the losses has been that wide canvas. With emerging music-delivery formats becoming more compact — witness the coin-size DataPlay disc at www.dataplay.com — or even completely immaterial (think MP3), now is a great time for you to consider adding multimedia enhancements to your music.

Producing an enhanced CD is a powerful yet inexpensive way to get your message out, and the exciting thing about the format is that you can take it as far as you want, from a simple folder of JPEGs to a sprawling virtual world. Tony van Veen, who's seen quite a few of the silvery platters as a vice president at Disc Makers, says, “There seems to be a mystique about preparing enhanced CDs, but it's really not that hard.”

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David Battino is the editor of EM's 2002 Desktop Music Production Guide. His favorite enhanced-CD trick is to use the AutoPlay feature to trigger rude noises.

MY NAME IS TRUE

For the updated and corrected sidebar about long file names, click here.

FULL BLUE BOOK VALUE

As part of the QuickTime 1.0 team back in 1991, Ty Roberts was one of the first people to see the potential of combining multimedia and music. Not only did he help develop the enhanced CD format but he also produced some of the most innovative and artistically successful discs, including Todd Rundgren's The Individualist, the Residents' Gingerbread Man, and Primus's Tales from the Punchbowl. Frustrated by the record industry's inability to grasp the benefits of enhanced CDs, Roberts is driving the concept in a new direction: onto the Web.

As chief technology officer of Gracenote, the online CD database service (www.cddb.com), Roberts oversees a technology called CDKey that matches CDs against Gracenote's million-album database and enables listeners to access hidden Web sites containing bonus tracks and other material. (CDKey is currently marketed only to record labels, but Infotects, the other partner in the operation, is considering offering it to independent artists. Contact them at CDKeysales@infotects.com if you are interested.) I asked Roberts to reflect on the past and future of the enhanced-CD format.

For a longer version of this interview, visit

“What we really were trying to do was build the ultimate liner-note experience,” Roberts said of his early releases on his Ion label. “Initially with David Bowie's product [Jump], we weren't able to do that. Our idea was, ‘Take all the ancillary marketing materials and turn them into a CD-ROM.’ It was a mistake on my part to think that would be interesting.

“What came later was being able to work directly with the artist to create something original and that complemented the music visually. Essentially, we animated every song. There was a world to explore, and it was all oriented around the music. One of the coolest things we did was give Les Claypool [Primus] a notebook and ask him to doodle in it. Scanning that in and letting the fans flip through it — so when you flipped the page it would synchronize with a song — was absolute magic. And it was extremely simple from a programming perspective.

“The problem [after the first enhanced CDs came out] was that unless the recording industry could prove it was going to sell more CDs by putting the stuff on there, there wasn't any financial justification to doing anything elaborate. What happened very quickly was that the enhanced CD became purely a way to collect an e-mail address. So today, although some enhanced CDs contain some interesting graphics and interactivity, they have the most minimal amount, which is about the equivalent of what someone would invest in a Shockwave animation on a Web site.

“It's kind of a shame. The recording business has not really been thinking about how to enhance its product other than enhancing the audio quality. It does these remastered box sets, and that stuff is cool. But it has done a very poor job in comparison with the movie business. Look what's going on in DVD for $19. It's something that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, made by thousands of people, for years. Also, the actual original producers, actors, and artists talk and describe every aspect of it, and you get all the outtakes and sketches. All that results in a product that consumers can buy for $19, and which, if you look in any consumer poll, they think is the greatest thing they've ever seen.

“Where is the record business with a thought process like that? The record has not evolved at all. That's something I think will happen. And if it doesn't happen because the record business does it, it'll happen because the artists do, as they watch their product become less competitive.”