Section 85. Create (or Burn) a Custom Audio CD


85. Create (or Burn) a Custom Audio CD

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

20 Burn a CD/DVD

84 Create a Playlist or Smart Playlist

78 Add a New Printer


SEE ALSO

86 Synchronize with an iPod


"Rip, Mix, Burn," exhorted Apple's ad when iTunes was released. The whole idea of digital music management is that you can take the music you already own, import it into your computer, organize it according to your own likes and dislikes, and then make your own "mix" CDs of your favorite music arranged just the way you want them.

iTunes makes creating your own mix CDs nearly as simple as importing the music in the first place. Simply create a playlist containing the music you want to burn onto a CD, and then insert a blank writable CD into the CD-ROM drive, and let iTunes do the rest. You can then play the CD in your car, on your portable stereo, at a dance , or wherever your fancy strikes. iTunes even lets you create attractive printed inserts for your CD jewel cases, making custom-burned mix CDs into ideal gifts for music-loving friends or family members .

1.
Create a Suitable Playlist

The first step in creating a custom mix CD is to make a playlist containing the songs you want on the disc. (See 84 Create a Playlist or Smart Playlist for details on creating a new playlist.) Drag the songs from the Library to the playlist, keeping in mind that typical CD-R discs can hold up to either 71 or 74 minutes of music. Don't make the playlist any longer than this! Use the statistics shown at the bottom of the iTunes window to determine how many minutes your playlist will last.

TIP

iTunes can burn playlists that are longer than will fit on a single CD, if you have multiple blank CDs to use. See step 5 for details.

2.
Click the Burn Disc Button

When you're viewing the playlist, the Browse button in the top-right corner of the iTunes window becomes a Burn Disc button; click it to begin the creation of the new disc.

85. Create (or Burn) a Custom Audio CD


3.
Insert a Disc

In its display oval, iTunes prompts you to insert a blank disc. If your Mac has a CD tray, it is automatically ejected so that you can insert the disc. When the disc is inserted, iTunes recognizes the blank media and automatically changes the message in the display oval to a prompt telling you to click the Burn Disc button again (it is now throbbing gently) to begin burning the playlist to the disc.

If you don't click Burn Disc within about 10 seconds, iTunes cancels the operation and ejects the disc.

TIP

You can also insert the CD before you click the Burn Disc button; if you do, Mac OS X will prompt you asking whether to prepare the disc for use as an audio CD (by switching to iTunes) or a data CD (by mounting it in the Finder). If you choose to open iTunes, iTunes can then burn a playlist immediately without prompting you to insert a disc.

4.
Burn the CD

Click Burn Disc for the second time to begin the burn process. When the process is complete, the CD appears in your Source pane to show the tracks you've just burned. Eject the disc to use it in any CD player.

5.
Burn a Long Playlist to Multiple CDs or an MP3 CD

If your playlist contains too much music to fit on a CD, iTunes automatically detects this when you click Burn Disc . iTunes asks whether you want to burn the entire playlist to multiple CDs, or to cancel the burn process and trim the playlist down to fit on a single disc.

Yet another option you have is to burn the music to an MP3 CD or a data disc, leaving the songs as MP3 or AAC files. Normally, iTunes creates an audio CD, which involves expanding each MP3 or AAC audio track into its uncompressed form and then writing it onto the disc as raw CDDA datajust like a regular music CD. An MP3 CD, on the other hand, is essentially a computer data CD-ROM full of MP3 files, identical to the ones on your hard disk. A CD can hold only 74 minutes of uncompressed CDDA, but it can hold about 12 times that amount of compressed MP3 music. Additionally, an MP3 CD can preserve all your ID3 tags for the benefit of devices that can read them and display them during playback. The downside is that although devices that can read MP3 CDs (including many factory-installed or aftermarket car stereo units) are becoming more common, they are still nowhere near as numerous as standard audio CD players, which can't handle MP3 CDs.

NOTE

The difference between an MP3 CD and a data CD (or DVD) is that in an MP3 CD, all songs are converted to MP3 format so as to be compatible with as many music devices as possible, whereas a data CD or DVD is designed purely for use in a computer, where you can mount the disc and work with the individual music files on it. This means that a data disc can contain some songs that can't be converted to MP3 format, such as Internet Radio streams, purchased AAC tracks, and MIDI music files.

TIP

You can set iTunes to create audio CDs, MP3 CDs, or data CDs/DVDs by default in the iTunes Preferences dialog box on the Burning page. You can also use that page to set various options for audio CDs, such as the length of the gap between tracks and the burning speed (cheaper brands of CD-Rs may have to be burned more slowly for reliable results).

6.
Print a Jewel Case Insert or Playlist Contents

iTunes provides a number of attractive layout formats (or themes ) for printing paper inserts that can be put into jewel cases for holding your custom mix CDs. You can choose several themes that take advantage of color printers, and several others that are optimized for monochrome printers; you can also select from themes that simply print textual info on solid-color backgrounds, and other themes made automatically from mosaics of the album art embedded into the songs in the playlist. For best results, make sure to add album art to all your songs in the playlist; see 83 Import (or Rip) an Audio CD for more information about adding album art to songs that don't have any.

Select the playlist from which you burned the CD, and choose Print from the File menu. All the options for printing jewel case inserts are provided; browse the options in the Theme menu to see a preview of what each layout will look like. Be sure to allow for whether your printer supports color or not; don't pick a color theme if your printer is only capable of black-and-white output.

NOTE

You can also print a Song listing (a sheet containing a simple list of all the songs in the playlist) or an Album listing (a sheet with all the songs grouped by album, shown next to the album art for that album) using this dialog box.

When you've found a theme you like, click Print . A sheet is printed that has registration marks and full- bleed coverage, allowing you to cut out the jewel case insert with a razor knife . Fold it in half and insert it into the jewel case with your burned CD.



MAC OS X Tiger in a Snap
Mac OS X Tiger in a Snap
ISBN: 0672327066
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 212
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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