Now that you know how to import and organize a library of MP3
files, you may want to take advantage of a very powerful feature
offered in iTunes: CD burning. If you combine iTune's organization
and customization features with the ability to create your own
music CDs, iTunes is a great mastering environment.
When you install it, iTunes has lots of authoring support, but
to complement it well and support virtually any CD recorder drive,
you have to install Disc
Burner, another free download from Apple. Download, install and
restart. Now you are ready for a great experience.
Before you start
Most MP3 files offer poor audio quality. If you are to create
your own CD and play it on your Discman, home stereo, or other
people's equipment, you want quality to really enjoy the music. We
discussed 128 kbps and 192 kbps encoding last week. That's good for
computer speakers, but it will sound like crap in a real-time CD
player or a stereo with standard quality speakers. To ensure
quality recording, you need to encode your tracks with nothing but
the best.
Of course, optimal quality encoding will hog lots of hard disk
space. This is why I recommend that you import the tracks you need
for your CD as temporary files and leave the permanent ones at 128
to 192 kbps on your hard drive. Burn your CD with the higher
quality files and throw the temporary files away when you're done.
Before you do, just rename the original tracks to other (but
similar names) to avoid confusion when preparing your future CD's
playlist. If you don't know how to import, refer to last week's column about importing tracks.
Now, let's set those encoding settings. Pull down the Edit menu
and select Preferences. Once there, click on Importing, and a pull
down the second pop up menu, to choose on Custom. You will get that
window. Adjust the settings to the same as in the screen shot
below.
The difference between these settings and normal settings is
easy to explain. The Bit Rate influences the quality of an MP3
file. Because you are turning on the Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
encoding and setting it to Highest quality, you are taking the
sound output to another level. Setting the Stereo setting to 320
kbps adds even more quality to your file. Also, make sure to set
the Sample Rate to 44.100 KHz. This will ensure that you get top
quality recordings on your custom compact discs. You want your
music to sound as good as the original thing, right?
Create a playlist, using the button we learned to use last week
or selecting New Playlist in the File menu. Name it. When importing
one or a couple of songs from the original CD, all you need to do
is uncheck all the songs' checkboxes, except the ones for the
songs you wish to import. Click on Import. Do it for all the
songs you need from your different discs.
As I'm a huge fan of Metallica's old (1980s) albums; I like to
listen to them often. If I go on the road or somewhere with my
Discman, I don't feel like carrying five CDs just to listen to my
favorite tracks. I like listening to whole albums, but the best of
a band can be just fine when I'm not home. So I'll create a "Best
of Metallica" disc.
I imported my songs in temporary "super high quality" files
(remember, 320 kbps, 44.100 KHz, and Variable Bit Rate encoding)
and organized them into a playlist. I dragged and dropped them
around to make sure to give them the order I want. When you do
that, make sure to select which tracks are good openers and
stuff.
Quit all applications. It makes things go faster and eliminates
the risk of iTunes being bothered, which would result in loss of
quality or sound glitches. Insert a blank disc in your recorder.
Click on Burn CD (see the button in the screen shot above). iTunes
will look for your CD recorder and do its preliminary work. When
ready, you will get what's in the screen shot below.
Click on Burn CD again, and iTunes will get going.
Burn, baby, burn!
iTunes and your recorder will enter a preparing phase, preparing
all your tracks for the burning process. After that, it will do
actually burn them into the disc. The time needed to do this
depends on the number of MP3 files you are burning, their size and
your recorder's speed. Make sure that iTunes is the active
application to keep things going fast.
A couple of extra seconds and it will be
over.
Once this is done, take the disc out
of the recorder and insert it in your normal CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
drive. Name the disk and the tracks, since every time that you will
stick the new disc in your Mac's drive, iTunes will remember the
album and track names.
After burning my Best of Metallica disc, I listened to it and
found it just great. It sounded as good as the original tracks on
the albums. The audio was crisp, clear, and no annoying noises got
in my way. This is exactly what you should be after.
A word about disc quality
When you head to a store to get recordable compact discs, be
careful about what you buy. Most CD-Recordable media is a bunch of
baloney. Here are a few tips:
No spindles: the freaky El Cheapo spindle packages
reserve nothing but bad surprises. They will work for a while, but
those were manufactured with quantity in mind, not quality.
Don't even trust brand names that offer this.
No 80 minutes: As great as it is, compact disc
technology has its limits, and one of them is the 74 minute time.
You can't stretch it without sacrificing quality, durability, and
usability.
No ReWritables: Disc that allow you to write more than
once are good for one thing: temporary burns. If you wish to burn
computer data to transfer to another computer, that's great. It's
not for audio or critical backups. Moreover, it is less resistant
to heat.
Marker: To write the name of the CD on the media itself,
get a waterproof permanent marker with fine point. I personally use
Staedtler markers, and they've been doing great so far. Remember
not to write on the side where the recorder wrote the data!
What brands should you use? Look for Sony or Maxell. Those are
the only brands I would trust. Depending on which variety you buy,
the price can be around US$1-2 per CD. All of this sounds
restrictive, but the quality of your audio, from the encoding
settings to the quality of the media you use, depends on everything
I told you about. If you want good burns that last for a while with
great sound, encode quality files and burn them on quality media.
It's worth the extra touch.
Happy burning!
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Once this is done, take the disc out
of the recorder and insert it in your normal CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
drive. Name the disk and the tracks, since every time that you will
stick the new disc in your Mac's drive, iTunes will remember the
album and track names.
