Good Quality Mix CDs

ledhed

Personally, I hate having to get up and change CDs when I only want to hear one song on the CD. To make a long story short, what is the best way to get a good sounding mix CD?

I was thinking that the best quality I can probably do is import either the CDA files off of the CDs or completely lossless WAVE and then burn with my computer. Any other ideas?

jcaut

Here's what I do when I want to make a mix CD:

1.) Rip the tracks I want to use using EAC, secure mode, to .wav files.

2.) Launch EAC's "write CD" tool, create a cue sheet and add the tracks I want, however I want them.

4.) Burn the compilation to a quality blank (I've been using Maxell CDR-pro discs lately- They're Taiyo Yunden discs, my drive likes them, and my local Walmart carries them-) at the slowest speed I can. I've found very few discs that my drive is willing to burn at less than about 8x. While I agree that slower would be better- preferably 1x-, it's also important to do what works best with your burner/disc.

Jason

PS: Personally I've never been able to hear a difference in the various methods of duplicating a CD. At least the methods that don't involve any compression, normalization or other modifications. I just do what I do because I like that method and it's always worked well for me.

drew spelts

Heck I just burn them straight off Itunes. But I do not have a stand alone CD player either (Yet).

crazy

drew spelts wrote:

Heck I just burn them straight off Itunes. But I do not have a stand alone CD player either (Yet).

For some reason, I'm not happy with the quality I get when burning them straight off iTunes. I used the lossless mode to rip the music, but when burning them onto a CD, the volume seemed to be significantly lower that what was on the original disc.

I was using iTunes on an iMac (latest version of OS X)

steveinaz

I've got a number of "Classic Rock" mixes I've done just with Nero and my burner. They're great for parties and they sound great. I usually get an average of 17 tracks on 1 CD which is cool.

cfrizz

Copy songs from cd to pc, or download song from web to pc. Copy on to blank disc!

Every song is a favorite, sounds great & most importantly I get to utilize the entire disk!

When I think of all of the space wasted on a purchased disk when it can hold up to 20 songs & I have spent 10-20 dollars for 10 songs out of which I only like 1 or 2 I become infuriated!

God bless technology!!!

szhleppy

I have found FLAC to provide a much better sounding file than the other formats. Sounds great through the PC system, makes a great CD, and can also be easily converted to MP3 for download to my Pioneer Inno (also an XM Radio). Through Winamp, the FLAC file can also be converted for use on your iPod.

Drumingman

Do Name Brand disc sound any better than Off brand disc?
Do you trust them more?

I know when I recorded on Audio tape it either Maxell or TDK.

.Jon

szhleppy wrote:

I have found FLAC to provide a much better sounding file than the other formats. Sounds great through the PC system, makes a great CD, and can also be easily converted to MP3 for download to my Pioneer Inno (also an XM Radio). Through Winamp, the FLAC file can also be converted for use on your iPod.

except wav will always be the best, considering it is completely uncompressed, (yes i know flac can be too) its the basic and root udio file type of windows, and is amazingzesssdf

crazy

.Jon wrote:

except wav will always be the best, considering it is completely uncompressed, (yes i know flac can be too) its the basic and root udio file type of windows, and is amazingzesssdf

So what's the best way to rip uncompressed WAVE files to a computer? Can Windows Media PLayer do this?

Also, once I have say 15-16 WAVE files and want to create my custom CD, can I use any software to burn it at maximum quality?

.Jon

well i use audiograbber - http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

Its free and does an excellent job. You just have to know how to go through the settings to get it to do what you want. Like how to change it so its digitally ripping them off the atapi (sp?) interface instead of from the cd input on your soundcard. Pretty easy stuff, just click on teh options and go rom there.

michael_w

I normally don't create mix cds but if I do I'll more than likely just take it off my computer and burn with nero. I have around half my music ripped to my computer at either 192 kb/s or 320 kb/s (depends on cd -- good cd = higher quality). When I do rip cds to my computer I use exact audio copy. It does an amazing job at getting the best possible rips. 160 gigs only goes so far though Maybe time for a second harddrive?

That said, if I were to want to spend the time to make a perfect copy of a disc but of only a couple songs and then compile into a mix cd, I would probably use EAC to rip the songs as .wav's and then just burn really slowly with Nero. I try to stay away from any really cheapo blank discs such as those found at night markets or other shady places. I've been using these (link) for a while now and have found them fairly decent. They're off brand style, but they're cheap when you catch them on sale and often come with a bonus gift like a 98 disc cd wallet.