Chapter 8
Feeling the iTunes Burn
In This Chapter
Once upon a time, when vinyl records were popular, rock radio disk jockeys (who didn't like disco) held disco-meltdown parties. People were encouraged to throw their disco records onto a pile to be burned or steamrolled into a vinyl glob. I admit that I shamelessly participated in one such meltdown. However, this section isn't about that. Rather, burning a disc is the process in which the CD drive recorder's laser heats up points on an interior layer of the disc to record information.
Using Recordable CDs and DVDs
If you have a CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-R drive (such as the Apple SuperDrive for a Mac) and a blank CD-R (R stands for recordable), you can burn music, audio books, and audio podcast episodes on audio CDs that play in most CD players. You can fit up to 74 minutes of music on a high-quality audio-format CD-R; most can go as high as 80 minutes.
Blank audio CD-Rs (I'm talking discs now and not drives) are available in stores that carry consumer electronics. You can also get them online from the Apple Store (not the music store — the store that sells computers and accessories). Choose iTunes
Shop for iTunes Products (Mac) or HelpShop for iTunes Products (Windows) to reach the Apple Store online.
You can also burn an audio CD-R of song files in the MP3 format, which is useful for backing up a music library or making discs for use in MP3 CD players. You can play MP3 files burned on a CD-R in MP3 format on any MP3 disc player, on combination CD/MP3 players, on many DVD players, and (of course) on computers that recognize MP3-formatted CDs (including computers with iTunes). An MP3-formatted CD-R can hold more than 12 hours of music. You read that right — 12 hours on one disc. This is why MP3 discs are popular: because they are essentially CD-Rs with MP3 files stored on them.
Creating a Disc Burn Playlist
To burn a CD (actually a CD-R, but most people refer to recordable CD-R discs as CDs), you must first define a playlist for the CD. (See Chapter 6 to find out how to create a playlist.) You can use songs encoded in any format that iTunes supports; however, you get higher-quality music with the uncompressed AIFF and WAV formats or with the Apple Lossless format. (You can back up your library to DVD without creating a playlist, as I describe in the section “Backing up to DVD-Rs or CD-Rs,” later in this chapter.)
If your playlist includes music purchased from the iTunes Store in the older protected AAC-encoding format (before 2009), some rules might apply. You can burn seven copies of the same playlist containing protected songs to an audio CD, but no more. As of this writing, all music you purchase in the store is in the newer unprotected iTunes Plus format, with no limit on burning discs.
You can get around this limitation by creating or using a new playlist, copying the protected songs to the new playlist, and then burning more CDs with the new playlist.
Calculating how much music to use
When you create an audio CD playlist, you can calculate how many songs can fit on the CD by totaling the durations of the songs. You can see the size of a playlist by selecting it; the bottom of the iTunes window shows the number of songs, the duration of the songs, and the amount in megabytes for the selected playlist. Click the duration to see a more precise total time for the playlist, as shown in Figure 8-1.
Figure 8-1: Click the duration of the playlist below the List pane to see the total time.
In Figure 8-1, the selected playlist takes about 1.1 hours (1:08:54, to be precise) to play, so it fits on a standard audio CD. (The 15 songs take up only 65.3MB of hard drive space; they were purchased from the iTunes Store.)
Always use the actual duration in hours, minutes, and seconds to calculate how much music you can fit on an audio CD — either 74 or 80 minutes for blank CD-Rs. I recommend leaving at least one extra minute to account for the gaps between songs.
You do the opposite for an MP3 CD or a data DVD. Use the actual megabytes to calculate how many song files can fit on a disc — up to 700MB for a blank CD-R. You can fit lots more music on an MP3 CD-R because you use MP3-encoded songs rather than uncompressed AIFF songs.
If you have too many songs in the playlist to fit on a CD, iTunes gives you the option to cancel the burn operation, or to burn as many songs in the playlist as will fit on the CD (either audio or MP3). Then it asks you to insert another CD to continue burning the remaining songs in the playlist.
Importing music for an audio CD-R
Before you rip an audio CD of songs that you want to burn to an audio CD-R, you might want to change the import settings (as I describe in Chapter 3). Use the AIFF, WAV, or Apple Lossless encoders for songs from audio CDs if you want to burn your own audio CDs with music at its highest quality. You can also burn MP3-encoded songs on an audio CD, but the quality is not as good as with AIFF, WAV, or Apple Lossless.
Switching import encoders for MP3 CD-Rs
MP3 discs are essentially CD-Rs with MP3 files stored on them. Consumer MP3 CD players are readily available in consumer electronics stores, including hybrid models that play both audio CDs and MP3 CDs.
You can fit 8 to 12 hours of stereo music on an MP3 CD with the MP3 format — the amount varies depending on the encoding options and settings you choose. For example, you might be able to fit up to 20 hours of mono (monaural) recordings because they use only one channel and carry less information. On the other hand, if you encode stereo recordings at high bit rates (above 192 bits per second), you may fit up to 9 hours.
You can use only MP3-encoded songs to burn an MP3 CD-R. Any songs not encoded in MP3 are skipped and not burned. Audible books and commercial spoken-word titles are typically provided in an audio format that uses security technologies, including encryption, to protect purchased content; however, you can include anything that is encoded in MP3, including audio books from other sources. But you can't burn an MP3 CD-R with Audible files; any Audible files in a burn playlist are skipped when you burn an MP3 CD-R.
Burning a Disc
Burning a CD is a simple process, and getting it right the first time is a good idea because when you burn a CD-R, it's done — right or wrong. You can't erase content and reuse a CD-R. Fortunately, CD-Rs are inexpensive, so you won't be out more than a few cents if you burn a bad one. (Besides, they're good as coasters for coffee tables.)
Follow these steps to burn a disc:
- Select the playlist and then click the Burn Disc button.
The Burn Disc button appears in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window whenever you select a playlist (refer to Figure 8-1). After clicking Burn Disc, the Burn Settings dialog appears, as shown in Figure 8-2.
- Select options in the Burn Settings dialog and click the Burn button.
See the following section for instructions on selecting these important options.
- Insert a blank disc (label side up).
iTunes immediately checks the media and begins the burn process, displaying a progress bar and the names of the songs burning to the disc.
If you chose the MP3 CD format, iTunes skips over any songs in the playlist that aren't in this format.When iTunes finishes burning the disc, iTunes chimes, and the disc is mounted on the Desktop.
- Eject the newly burned disc from your drive and then test it.
- Don't delete your burn playlist yet.
You can read why in the later section “Troubleshooting burns.”
Burning takes several minutes. You can cancel the operation at any time by clicking the X next to the progress bar, but canceling the operation isn't like undoing the burn. If the burn has already started, you can't use that CD-R or DVD-R again.
If the playlist has more music than can fit on the disc using the chosen format, iTunes asks whether you want to create multiple audio CDs with the playlist. If you choose to create multiple audio CDs, iTunes burns as many full songs as possible from the beginning of the playlist and then asks you to insert another disc to burn the rest. To calculate the amount of music in a playlist, see the earlier section “Calculating how much music to use.”
Choosing Your Burn Settings
Set the following options in the Burn Settings dialog to ensure that you burn your CD right the first time (refer to Figure 8-2):
- Preferred Speed: Choose a specific recording speed or the Maximum Possible option from the Preferred Speed pop-up menu. iTunes typically detects the rating of a blank CD-R and adjusts the recording speed to fit. However, if your blank CD-Rs are rated for a slower speed than your burner or if you have problems creating CD-Rs, you can change the recording speed setting to match the CD's rating.
- Disc Format: The disc format is perhaps the most important choice you have to make. Decide whether you're burning an audio CD (CD-R), an MP3 CD (CD-R), or a Data CD (CD-R) or DVD (DVD-R or DVD-RW). Your choice depends on what type of player you're using or whether you're making a data backup of files rather than a disc that plays in a player. Choose one of the following:
- Audio CD: Burn a normal audio CD of up to 74 or 80 minutes (depending on the type of blank CD-R) using any iTunes-supported music files, including songs bought from the iTunes Store. Although connoisseurs of music might use AIFF- or WAV-encoded music to burn an audio CD, you can also use songs in the AAC and MP3 formats.
- MP3 CD: Burn an MP3 CD with songs encoded in the MP3 format. No other formats are supported for MP3 CDs.
- Data CD or DVD: Burn a data CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, or DVD-RW with music files. You can use any encoding formats for the songs.
Important: Data discs won't play on most consumer CD players: They're meant for use with computers. However, data discs are good choices for storing backup copies of music bought from the iTunes Store.
- Gap between Songs: You can add an appropriate gap between songs, just like commercial CDs. With this option enabled, you can set the gap time as well. You can choose from a gap of 1 to 5 seconds, or None. I recommend leaving the menu set to the default setting of 2 seconds for playlists of studio-recorded songs, and None for concerts and songs recorded live. Albums and song selections that you set to be gapless (see Chapter 5) will likewise be gapless if you set the Gap between Songs option to None.
- Use Sound Check: Musicians do a sound check before every performance to check the volume of microphones and instruments and their effect on the listening environment. The aptly named Use Sound Check option in the Burning preferences dialog turns on the Sound Check feature to balance your tunes, volume-wise.
- Include CD Text: Selecting this option adds the artist and track name text to the CD for certain CD players (often, in-car players) that can display the artist and track name while playing a CD.