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How to burn an audio CD
By Colin Duwe
(September 20, 2005)
With numerous online music stores to choose from, it's simple enough to amass a huge collection of music on your computer's hard drive. And from that library you can assemble the perfect playlists to fit any occasion. But the question remains how to free your music from its computer prison. The most versatile way to make your music mobile is to burn it onto a trusty audio CD. You'll find a CD player just about anywhere you can play music: your car, your living room stereo, or the local bar.
Required attention span: 1 minute (plus about 5 minutes while the computer burns the disc) Ingredients
Before you start, you'll need to gather these elements:
Follow these simple steps
Assemble a playlist.
To make a new playlist click the plus (+) symbol in the lower-left corner or select File > New Playlist. Drag and drop music from your library into the new playlist.
Insert the blank disc in your computer.
Select your playlist and click the Burn icon in the upper-right corner twice.
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Required attention span: 1 minute (plus about 5 minutes while the computer burns the disc) Ingredients
Before you start, you'll need to gather these elements:
Digital music on your computer (Mac or PC)
CD-recordable (CD-R) or CD-rewritable (CD-RW) drive
Blank CD-R
Follow these simple steps
1
Download and install iTunes.
All the popular audio programs allow you to burn an audio CD. We've chosen iTunes because Apple's iTunes Music Store is so popular, but shoppers don't get the physical CD.
All the popular audio programs allow you to burn an audio CD. We've chosen iTunes because Apple's iTunes Music Store is so popular, but shoppers don't get the physical CD.
2
Assemble a playlist.
To make a new playlist click the plus (+) symbol in the lower-left corner or select File > New Playlist. Drag and drop music from your library into the new playlist.
3
Configure your settings.
Select Edit > Preferences and click the Burning tab. Select your preferred speed; typically, you'll use Maximum Possible. If you burn a disc and find it doesn't play perfectly, try selecting a slower burning speed. Ensure that the Audio CD button is selected. Choose how long a gap should be inserted between songs. If you have continuous mix DJ music, make sure there is no gap between songs.
Select Edit > Preferences and click the Burning tab. Select your preferred speed; typically, you'll use Maximum Possible. If you burn a disc and find it doesn't play perfectly, try selecting a slower burning speed. Ensure that the Audio CD button is selected. Choose how long a gap should be inserted between songs. If you have continuous mix DJ music, make sure there is no gap between songs.
4
Insert the blank disc in your computer.
5
Select your playlist and click the Burn icon in the upper-right corner twice.
6
Wait while the CD is burned.
The window in iTunes will display a progress bar along with an estimated time to completion. You'll hear a distinctive completed jingle letting you know that your new disc is ready to go out and rock the world.
The window in iTunes will display a progress bar along with an estimated time to completion. You'll hear a distinctive completed jingle letting you know that your new disc is ready to go out and rock the world.
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Have audio CDs that you want to make into digital files? Rip them into WMA files.
If you have continuous DJ mixes and are sick of hearing the little pauses that show up between tracks on most MP3 players, consider ripping each CD as one uninterrupted track.
