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Making a CD on your home computer is a relatively easy thing to do, thanks to modern technology. Here are some tips and guidelines on how to proceed.
Burning a CD of your favorite tunes
In order to make your own CDs, you’ll need the following:
- A CD burner drive. Unless you have an old computer, it’s already pre-installed on your hard drive.
- CD burner software. You computer is probably equipped with a software program; if not, or if you want to update, some good programs are available for a price from Roxio, NTI Media Maker, Nero, Power2Go, and Corel. iTunes contains a very good CD burner, and it's free to both Mac and PC users.
- Blank CDs. I’ve found the brand Taiyo Yuden (which can be ordered on the internet) to be excellent. But the regular brand names like Sony and Memorex work fine. In most cases you should use CD-R (record only) CDs as opposed to CD-RW (rewritable).
File formats
Audio CDs use two basic file formats:
- Traditional CDs are comprised of uncompressed sound files like wav and aiff. These allow as much as 80 minutes of music per CD.
- CDs of mp3 files have gained much popularity because they can typically give you around 12 hours of music on one CD.
You cannot mix the two formats. And you must have an mp3 player to play back mp3s. Some newer CD players will play both formats, but you must be sure the player designates that it will play mp3 files.
The burning process
- Drag your music files into the burner software in the order you want them played.
- Most burner software allows you to burn the CD in either the regular format OR MP3 format. Adjust your settings accordingly.
- If you have too much data for the disc, the software will tell you.
- When you're happy with the song order, insert a blank disc into the CD drive and click the burn button. When the burning process is finished (usually a very short time) you’ll be asked to eject the CD.
- Label the CD. If you write on the disc, always use a soft-tipped marker. Make sure you don’t write on the "grooved" side!
Making CDs of your own original recordings
If you have recorded your own material and want to make CDs of it to sell to the public, there are many companies that handle the whole assembly procedure for you, including CD duplication, graphic design, printing, and packaging.
Search the web using the keywords “CD duplication” or CD replication” to find a company that best suits your needs and budget.
You can save some money by handling the assembly process yourself, especially if you want to print only a few CDs. If so, here’s the procedure:
- Many people do not have mp3 players, so you should burn the CDs using the regular format.
- Follow the above tips and burn as many CDs as you need.
- Print CD inserts and label the discs. Original art gives this a nice touch, and you may want to consider consulting with a graphic designer. CD insert and disc labeling software is available, or you can hire a printing company.
- After the inserts and CDs have been printed, place them into jewel cases, have them shrink-wrapped (an optional step) and you’re ready to market your music!
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