HELP A LUDDITE: how do i make a mix CD?

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talking about just a proper one to play on any CD player, no 100-mp3 CDs or anything. what are good programs for ripping/converting/burning? is it feasible to make a mix CD from tracks that are on your pre-existing CDs? how about a combo of that and converted mp3s? aaaah technology confounds me at every turn!!! thanks in advance.

― Adrian (Adrian Langston), Thursday, 2 October 2003 08:15 (twenty years ago) link

Cakewalk Pyro is my software of choice. It's expensive (£35) but does a lot, very simply, very easily, and very, very effectively.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 2 October 2003 08:58 (twenty years ago) link

Adrian, it's a piece of piss to be honest. I do it just like that and I'm pretty clueless.

What software did you get with your CD burner? I personally use MusicMatch (downloadable for free) to rip tracks from pre-existing CDs into MP3 format on my computer, and then Nero to arrange and burn them to a mix CD. By most accounts Nero is the most popular program and it's dead simple to use, just drag'n'drop stuff. You can download a demo version I think that works for 20 days or something. Not sure from where. Others will be far more knowledgable than me on this subject. I just speak as a fellow luddite. ;)

― Nick H, Thursday, 2 October 2003 10:54 (twenty years ago) link

With iTunes, it's easier than falling out of a boat.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 2 October 2003 11:32 (twenty years ago) link

Program: Roxio CD Creator 5. Does an excellent job with CD-Rs (is a bit twitchy and surly with older CD-RWs, though.)
Technique:
1) Create a directory on your desktop.
2) Fill it with anywhere between 700 and 800 mb of WAV files.
3) Drop a blank CD-R into the CD-R drive tray, and start your program.
4) Tell the program to add the entire contents of the directory to the "project"
5) If theres not enough space, remove a few tracks until it comes close to filling the disc to the top, without going over.
6) Don't forget to click the "Disc at Once" button.
7) Check the CD-Rs case and see what speed it can handle burning at. If the case sez "x16" set the burning speed at "x12"; if it sez "x40" set it for "x36". Trust me on this, you'll burn fewer coasters.
8) Hit the red button that sez "Record"
9) Mail it to friends!

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Thursday, 2 October 2003 15:30 (twenty years ago) link

Or you could get a CD-Recorder and hook it up to your hi-fi. I think CD's sound made this way sound better and take the same time as making a mix-tape. Only, thing is a CD-Recorder will probably cost more than £100.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 2 October 2003 16:01 (twenty years ago) link

four years pass...

I usually just slap songs together haphazardly, be they MP3s or .wavs ripped from CDs. However, I'm in this exchange circle with a dozen people and my turn is coming up. My choices vary from the 50s through current, and the disparate levels are unusually large. What are my options?

I think I can equalize the levels with each song individually using Audacity, but that's a bit of a pain (unless someone can recommend a quick way to use it). I'm wondering if any CD burning software equalizes the levels automatically without much clipping and such. I have access to Nero, iTunes and RecordNow.

― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 17:25 (sixteen years ago) link

is it enough to change the volume adjustment on each individual track on itunes or were you looking to do something more advanced than that?

― jed_, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 17:31 (sixteen years ago) link

each tune on the playlist, i mean.

― jed_, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 17:31 (sixteen years ago) link

Nero has a "normalisation" option that should even out the volume of all your tunes.

― Bodrick III, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 18:10 (sixteen years ago) link

Like Janet Jackson, I like control. Audacity's Amplify effect works well, and avoids clipping, so I'll probably just edit the tracks I need to with that. But I'll compare the results with the Nero. Thanks!

― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 18:52 (sixteen years ago) link

Like Janet Jackson, I like control
WIN.

― VeronaInTheClub, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 19:27 (sixteen years ago) link

Non-luddites should check out a command line app called normalize to get a collection of sound files "evened out". It modifies the files in-place so make sure you have copies of the originals just in case.

It has reasonable defaults but if you want to be unreasonable you can crank it up and turn off its limiter to get that 21st century clipped sound.

― drench, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 21:10 (sixteen years ago) link

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