Section 54. Create an MP3 CD


54. Create an MP3 CD

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

52 Create an Audio CD from a Playlist

53 Customize CD Burning Options


SEE ALSO

56 Create an MP3 CD from Purchased AAC Music

94 Back Up Your Music to CD or DVD


These days, the mix CD is starting to fall from favor as the preeminent way to create discs of your digital music. Without any inherent way to identify the track names or artists , and with the capacity to hold only about 75 minutes of music when you use uncompressed CDDA audio format , you're stuck with burning dozens of discs if you want enough to keep you entertained on a long road trip.

The answer has come in the form of the MP3 CD, which is a standard data compact disc whose contentsinstead of a couple of dozen uncompressed CDDA filesare hundreds of much smaller MP3 files, which sound almost as good. Whereas the music on a standard audio CD lasts only a little more than an hour , an MP3 CD can hold up to 12 hours of music; what's more, the MP3 files retain all their info tags, such as each track's song name , artist, album, and genre , which can be read and displayed during normal playback by devices that can read MP3 CDs. More and more car audio systems entering the market today support MP3 CDs, and just about all commercial DVD players do as wellit's become a ubiquitous technology. Fortunately, iTunes makes it just as easy to create MP3 CDs as it does to burn standard audio discs.

NOTE

The music on an MP3 CD will sound just as good as any mix CD you create from songs in iTunes, because those songs are compressed to begin with; uncompressing them to burn them to a disc doesn't increase their sound quality in comparison with how they sounded on the original source discs. Fortunately, it's difficult to tell the difference unless you're a real hard- core audiophile.

iTunes does not convert tracks to MP3 format on the fly as it burns, so you can create an MP3 CD only from tracks that are already in MP3 format. If you plan on burning a lot of MP3 CDs, consider importing your CDs' music in MP3 format instead of in AAC format (which cannot be burned directly to an MP3 CD). See 64 Customize Importing Options for details or 56 Create an MP3 CD from Purchased AAC Music for instructions on how to create an MP3 CD using existing music in formats other than MP3.


54. Create an MP3 CD


1.
Configure iTunes to Create MP3 CDs

Before you can burn an MP3 disc, you must set up iTunes' Preferences to do that. As described in 53 Customize CD Burning Options , set the Disc Format option on the Burning tab of the iTunes Preferences window to MP3 CD . Click OK . Each disc you create from now on will be an MP3 CD, until you go back into the Preferences window and change the Disc Format back to Audio CD .

2.
Create a Suitable Playlist

Make a playlist containing the songs you want on the disc. As discussed in 34 Create a Playlist , navigate into the library and drag songs from it into the playlist, keeping in mind that typical CD-R discs can hold up to 650 or 700 megabytes (MB) of music data (depending on the type of disc; the disc packaging will note the exact capacity). Use the statistics shown at the bottom of the iTunes' window to determine how large (in megabytes) your playlist will be. (For MP3 CDs, the total file size of the playlist is a more important consideration than the playback duration, which you used in 52 Create an Audio CD from a Playlist .)

NOTE

If you create a playlist that's larger than the capacity of the disc, iTunes presents a warning at the time you burn the disc, telling you that only a portion of the playlist will be burned. You can choose to burn as much of the playlist as will fit on a single disc, or cancel the operation so that you can reduce the playlist's size yourself. iTunes won't burn a playlist to multiple MP3 CDs because Apple figures that 12 hours of listening time should be enough for any playlist you've constructed .

The playlist name becomes the volume name for the burned disc; be sure to use a short, simple name (15 characters or less) that doesn't contain any special characters because the standard ISO 9660 CD-ROM format that iTunes creates doesn't support long or complex volume names.

To skip burning certain songs in the playlist, disable the check boxes next to the song names in the list.

NOTE

An MP3 CD can only contain MP3 files, so tracks in the playlist that are not in MP3 format become grayed out and their check boxes are disabled during the burn.

3.
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.

4.
Insert a Disc

In the display oval at the top of the window, iTunes prompts you to insert a blank disc and tells you the total burned capacity and playing time of the selected playlist (this can differ from the reported length of the playlist at the bottom of the iTunes' window if you disabled any of the songs' check boxes). If your computer has a CD tray, it is automatically ejected so that you can insert the disc. Otherwise, insert the disc into the drive slot until the drive pulls it in.

NOTE

You can use a burnable DVD ( DVD-R , DVD-RW, DVD+RW) disc instead of a CD in this task to create a data disc with up to 4.7GB of music files on it; however, be aware that hardly any players on the market will be able to read it (it won't play in a car stereo, even if your car player supports MP3 CDs). An MP3 DVD can be used only in computers.

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.

5.
Burn the MP3 CD

Click Burn Disc for the second time to begin the burn process. When the process is complete, the MP3 CD appears in the Source pane in the iTunes' window to show the tracks you've just burned.

Eject the disc from your computer; it's formatted as a data CD-ROM (with a volume name equal to the name of the playlist) that you can mount in any PC or Mac and can play in any CD player that is capable of reading MP3 CDs.



iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap
iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328992
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 152
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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