A "Hidden track" on CD and audio in pauses

A client wants the first track to be “hidden”. I followed the instructions in the manual and also what I could find on line. No luck. Has anyone here recently done this with WL 11.1? and can tell me their “secret”. Thanks in advance.

@Thomas_W_Bethel AFAIK you cannot hide tracks.

See Placing a Clip Before Track 1

FWIW this is what I tried to do…no luck!

Got it! I thought you were talking about hiding tracks on the montage track display (you could perhaps change your topic title to ‘Hidden CD tracks’ to clarify this). I’m afraid I have no idea with regard to hidden CD tracks. I’ve never done it.

Thomas, it works do a search in here on hidden track/CD Track
I have done it and WL 11.1 should not be different…

https://forums.steinberg.net/search?expanded=true&q=Hidden%20CD%20Track%20%23wavelab

regards S-EH

Thanks for the reply. I read all that before I tried to do this for the client. I did a similar thing for this same client about 10 years ago and it worked perfectly. That was using a different version of WL. I am wondering if there’s a “glitch” in WL 11??? Maybe because they are using a different CD burner setup??? Thanks again!

What is not working exactly?

I followed all the instructions, burned the CD and I cannot get the hidden track to playback on any CD player that I own and my client is having the same problems.

What operation are you doing, on your player, to play the hidden track?

Starting the CD on track #1 and then “trying to rewind it” no luck.

To check if your CD has a hidden track, import the CD into WaveLab. You will see if there is music before the 1st track. I quickly burn one here, and the “hidden track” was burnt.
Not all CD players are capable of playing hidden tracks. There is no requirement for a CD player to be able to rewind before position 0, AFAIK.

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You could always use the old-school method. Leave a couple minutes after the last track and put it there with no markers

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I suggested that to the client and he wants it as a hidden first track. I will try what PG suggested. Thanks for the reply.

No luck! I have done everything suggested and I cannot get the hidden track to playback by rewinding. I guess the client will have to think of something different. It is strange in that it worked a few years ago but not now. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions…

Did you try importing the CD in WaveLab? If you find the audio before the 1st track, you know the “hidden” track is there.

Yes I did and it imported al the tracks with track marker but nothing before the first marker.

This is exactly what I did

Placing a Clip Before Track 1

You can create a hidden CD track before track 1, for example.

Procedure

  1. In the montage window, place a clip without CD track markers prior to the first track start marker in the audio montage.

Note

It is recommended that you do not place the hidden track at the very start of the montage but leave a little room between the montage start and the start of the hidden track.

  1. In the CD window, select Options > Audio in Pauses.
  2. Proceed with writing the CD.

To hear the hidden track after writing the disc, rewind from the start of track 1.

Something I am missing???

Really? Because I did the test a few days ago, and the audio was present before track #1 (importing CD from WaveLab). If not, the procedure you follow to burn the CD is correct.

This is out of the standard, not all players do that.

I did a standard CD import from WL 11.1, All the “marked” tracks got imported but the first one (un marked) did not. WL imported all the tracks as individual files. Am I really missing something simple???

Thanks for all your help and guidance.

-TOM-

Even if you save individual files, you should see the pause area. But you need to have this option activated:

I did that.