getting ready to burn a cd

[firetooth]

okay, on to the next phase.

Could someone direct me to how to prepare my .aup file to burn to a CD? Anything I should know?
Reading the manual suggest using a .wav file so I shall attempt to do that. Does anyone think it is better to convert to MP3 and then burn?

I have Windows Media Player on my computer. Was just reading about freeware, wonder if people have preferences for CD burning, I am going to be ripping a few tracks from other CD's also. Looks like JetAudio Basic is popular, as well as Easy CD-DA extractor, which is free for 30 day. Also Nero Multimedia Suite appears to be free via File Hippo.

Thanks!

[kozikowski]

There is a tutorial on this one. It's pretty common.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/How_to_burn_CDs

Do Not make an MP3. MP3 is a compressed format that causes audio damage. The show in Audacity is perfect and uncompressed and the music on the CD will be perfect and uncompressed. You shouldn't damage the quality of the show in the middle.

Koz

[firetooth]

thanks again Koz! Is there another place to ask about favorite burning/ripping programs?

The CD burning tutorial looks great!

[firetooth]

just did it! burned a track on a cd using Windows Media Player!

Going to go back and work on some more songs now. well, been at this for almost 14 hours today. maybe start again tomorrow

ps still would like a bit of advice/direction on using the mixer board. see my post on this topic, Thanks!

[steve]

Is there another place to ask about favorite burning/ripping programs?

Windows Programs (all free):

For burning:
CDBurnerXP

For ripping:
Foobar2000 (also a great audio player - rips really fast)
C-Dex (dedicated ripping program - good quality rips but not quite as fast as Foobar2000)
Exact Audio Copy (if the disk is in good condition it will create perfect copies. Can be extremely slow with scratched or damaged disks)

[ignatz]

My choices; all free and all work in Windows.

To rip: CDex; you can rip to WAV or to mp3 directly. It's user friendly as these things go. The defaults work OK. If I remember right, you choose which decoder to use and I always point it to LAME--which can be downloaded separately.

To burn CDs: ImgBurn; you need to make a cue file (aka "playlist") before you can burn a CD, unlike some programs. You load the files chosen for the burn, put them in correct order, and then make the cue file. The burn operation then refers to the cue file to get the correct order.

To playback on a PC: I-Tunes. I use a real old version from about 2002 or so. It works fine. I like I-Tunes because of the full screen interface. I don't use it on a portable device of any kind--I don't even own one. I replace Quicktime in I-Tunes with Quicktime Alternative.

To convert between file formats: this can be done with Audacity or with Switch (from NCH Software if memory serves).

Retail music CDs are pressed, not burned. The burning process on home-made CDs uses a photo-chemical process with dyes to replicate the pits found in retail CDs. Home burning can be finicky---some burners like particular brands of blanks better than others, like certain burn speeds, etc. I use Taiyo Yuden brand blanks, which are difficult to find in stores but easy online. Burn at a modest speed--maybe 8x or 16x.

[steve]

Another good file format conversion tool is SUPER (by erightsoft). Downloading it is a link jungle, but it's free and well worth the hassle of downloading.

[firetooth]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I have done a non-professional burn of one test song so far using Windows MP. The quality turned out quite good, maybe lost a tiny bit of range, but really minute. It can rip too, they say. Anyway, will look into these other suggested programs. Appreciate the help!