SteveG, Thanks for the detailed guidance. I tried creating the 17 tracks as individual audio files, of exact same duration, and stripped out the CD track markers, then built a new CD Layout from these 17 new wav files, from scratch, and weirdly I got the same burn result: those same three tracks drop their artist's info, and the other 14 retain it. I had left all of the other metadata (including RIFF) unpopulated: Audition shows only empty slots for all RIFF fields. The only metadata I added was for the track artists, and that was added on the CD Layout pane. So, I spent a few hours this morning looking for servicable CD authoring software. Ignoring chincy products targetting casual users (e.g., Roxio), and software houses I avoid (NCH) ... I see: (1) Sonoris DDP Creator, $274 (2) Sony CD Architect $115 Amazon download, but this is legacy software. (Sony sold it to Magix, and it was briefly sold as Magix CD Architect 5, before Magix discontinued it, rolling those tools into Sound Forge.) (3) Sound Forge Studio 13 $60 - lacks DDP export & Red Book audio CD mastering / burning ... I'm not clear on whether that also means it can't write CDTEXT for metadata like track artist. (4) Sound Forge Pro 13, $399 - has it all, but I only need the CD authoring, and this option would have me paying for every other audio tool that I'm already paying monthly for in Adobe suite. (5) Steinberg Wavelab Pro 10, $412 - presumably same situation as Sound Forge Pro 13: buying the farm to get a couple eggs. I'm tempted to risk Sony CD Architect. PROS: Reviewers who liked it said "It was a solid reliable pro level tool, in its day, and despite no updates, it does everything that still needs doing in CD authoring." Which sounds perfect. CONS: But of the current 10 Amazon reviews, one claims it's incompatible with W10; the other reviewers report it runs but don't mention their OS, and so may not be W10. The one reviewer claiming W10 incompatibility says the user forum is loaded with these complaints, but as orphaned software, there are no fixes pending. The next best bet seems your Sonoris, since it's so dialed in on exactly producing CDs and nothing else. That seems perfect, ... but it's a little pricey for me since 99% of my business is video (DVDs and Blu-rays), and I only rarely do CDs as peripheral outputs for some musicals -- my work is in video of live theatre. (And even then, it's gratis work: giving the theater an audio CD for their archives, grant applications, & cast parties, since I can't/won't charge when they don't have copyright for that mode of distribution.)
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