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General discussion

How do you copy music?

Dec 17, 2004 7:51AM PST

My son wants to copy some music from a CD I have to a new one, can someone tell me how to go about this from beginning to end. We have windows xp with a DVD r/rw, I'm not sure what kind of software you need or if you need any at all and what type of CD do we need to copy onto?

Discussion is locked

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Nzminnie, Lots Of Software Will Do It........
Dec 17, 2004 12:13PM PST

...including Roxio and Nero, (XP also has burning software of it's own, but I don't prefer it) but since you mentioned that you want to copy music directly from a CD and IF this is a commercial music CD, then it appears like copyright laws may be violated. The software manuals should give specific instructions on how to do what you are asking...Since the forum policies prevent us from violating any laws, we should leave it at that.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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ripping
Dec 18, 2004 12:08PM PST
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Audio CD "Duplication", presumably...
Dec 18, 2004 1:47PM PST

While mp3-ripper might be a fine product, it sounds to me like you want to copy (i.e. duplicate) an Audio CD. From what I read on mp3-ripper's site (though I admit I only scanned it briefly), duplicating an audio CD isn't its primary function.
As Grif Thomas stated, Roxio and Nero are the top-rated commercial offerings and both of them will create exact copies. Both are excellent (most of my non-technical customers seem to prefer Roxio for ease of use, but Nero has made such great strides in that area it's hard to differentiate). Both are also expensive-ish...around $70 or so (but you can find some pretty good deals online if you look hard enough). For free CD burning\copying software, you could try this:

http://www.download.com/BinArtisan-CD-Burner/3000-2646_4-10343654.html?tag=lst-0-3

or peruse CNet's own downloads.com area:

http://www.download.com/3150-2646_4-0-1-0.html?qt=&author=&titlename=&desc=&dlcount=&daysback=&swlink=&gfiletype=&os=&li=49&dlsize=&ca=

(filter the search by "Free" at the bottom of the list page, to see only freeware offerings)

Rageinmachine

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You can use the Windows Media Player
Dec 18, 2004 2:05PM PST

You can copy music to your hard drive as a Window Media Audio (.wma) file. Then copy it back to cd, it will convert it to compact disk audio (.cda) format automatically. No need to have extra software if you don't already have it.

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software
Dec 18, 2004 8:16PM PST

You should have software on your computer for burning CDs. I've never known a computer to come with a CD or DVD burner and no software to run it. Do you know which one is installed?

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Thanks for the replies
Dec 19, 2004 1:05PM PST

Thank you everyone for replying. I and my son are both very much beginners in computing (though we're lerning pretty fast!) I'm not sure where I go to find out what software my computer has - could you please let me know the easiest way! The CD he wants to copy is one that a friend of his gave him. As it has already been copied I am presuming the music has been downloade off the net and not copied from a copyright CD.

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copy CD
Dec 19, 2004 7:15PM PST

"As it has already been copied I am presuming the music has been downloade off the net and not copied from a copyright CD."

Chances are, the downloaded music is pirated.

To find the software program, go to start then all programs. You need to look at the list. If you don't know what each program is, open it and see what it does. Another option, write down the name, go to Google and do a search.

There are situations where a computer company installs a trial version of a software program that expires. If that is the case with your computer, then you may need to purchase a CD burning program. There are many to choose from. I use Roxio and haven't had any problems. There are also some free for the download. I have no experience with them and can't comment.