Although we live in the era of digital streams and cloud storage, audio CDs remain relevant even today. They work in old radios, players in hotels, cars and even in some home devices. After all, vinyl is still alive, new cassette players have appeared on the market. And what's worse than a CD? Especially since some CD players are high-end equipment.
I once burned a CD of my favorite tracks for my mom's car, and only when I got home did I realize that it wouldn't play — instead of music, the computer was playing a list of files. That was the first time I learned the difference between a regular MP3 disc and a real Audio CD.
However, creating such a disc is a little more complicated than copying audio files to a flash drive. Audio CD is not just a set of WAV or MP3 files. It is a special format where the sound is stored as pure PCM samples, without a file system of the type we are used to.
In this guide, you will learn how to properly prepare audio files, edit them if necessary and burn a disc that will play on any device that supports CD-Audio.
1 What is an audio CD?
Audio CDs have been around since the 1980s, but no digital storage medium has been able to compete with them. MinmDisk was killed by its high price, and DVD Audio came along too late, when music had already migrated to the Internet. According to the specifications, the data is stored in PCM format with a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz, 16 bits per sample and stereo sound. So it is essentially a WAV file burned in a special way onto an optical disc without a file system.
When creating an audio CD, you choose between Disc-At-Once (DAO) and Track-At-Once (TAO) recording modes. DAO burns the entire disc in one continuous pass, while TAO burns each track separately. It may be tempting to use TAO mode to add more songs to the disc later, but not all players will be able to see them. Therefore, we strongly recommend using DAO mode for the best compatibility.
Just keep in mind that we are not talking about simply copying MP3 files to a disc, that does not work. To make the disc "real", you need to use an audio CD burning program, such as Audio CD Burner, which we will use as an example in this tutorial.
2 Preparing audio files
Before you start recording, make sure that your audio files meet the requirements:
- Format: WAV (or CDA - but this is not a real audio file, but something like a shortcut)
- Sampling frequency: 44.1 kHz
- Bit rate: 16 bit
- Channels: stereo
If your tracks are in another format, such as MP3 or FLAC, then they need to be converted to WAV before recording. For this, you can use audio converter or online services that allow you to save in the desired format. In principle, the recording software can convert files on the fly, but if an error occurs, you will have to throw away the disc. Are you ready to risk it?
Interesting fact: many modern cars and stationary players can play MP3 discs recorded in the usual way, and some older players do not recognize recordable discs at all, preferring only the factory version.
3 Editing audio (optional)
In general, you can skip this step, it is not mandatory. But if you do something, you need to do it well. Almost any audio editor will do for this, for example Free Wave Editor. At a minimum, you need to do two operations:
- Remove the silence at the beginning and end so that the gaps are the same.
- Align the volume level so that everything sounds the same.
Of course, you can adjust the sound through the equalizer, remove noise from old recordings or expand the stereo sound, but it is up to you. It is only important that after editing the file is saved again in WAV with the parameters: 44.1 kHz, Stereo, 16 bit. Only then will it be compatible with any player.
4 Burning an audio disc using Audio CD Burner
When all the files are ready, it's time to move on to the recording process itself. For this, the Audio CD Burner program is suitable - a simple and reliable utility that can work with MP3 and WAV files and create discs that can be played in any CD player.
Step 1. Installing the program
Download and install Audio CD Burner from the official website. After installation, you will see buttons on the toolbar for calling additional tools that can help with conversion and editing.
Step 2. Adding audio filesRun the program and click the "Add" button to add your WAV files. You can also use the built-in browser to find the tracks you need.
If you want to change the playback order, use the "Up" and "Down" buttons. This is especially convenient if you are assembling a disc in a certain sequence - for example, for a presentation, wedding or gift.
Step 3. Checking the volumeMake sure that the total length of your tracks does not exceed the capacity of the disc. A regular CD-R can hold up to 74 or 80 minutes of audio. If you add more, you will see it at the bottom of the window, on the free space usage bar.
Step 4. Insert a discInsert a blank, unwritten disc into the drive. If you are using a rewritable disc (CD-RW), make sure it is cleaned. You can use the built-in cleaning function in the program for this.
Step 5. Start burningClick Burn! to open the burning window. Select the burning speed (it is better to choose a low one, for example 4x–8x — then the disc will be more stable), and click "Start".
The program will start burning, and in a few minutes you will have a disc that can be inserted into any car stereo, home tape recorder or even professional DJ equipment.
5 Useful tips
- Don't use MP3 to create an audio CD unless you are sure that the player supports this format.
- Testing the disc after burning is a must. Try it in a car, on an old player, or in a DVD player.
- The size of one audio track on a CD is limited to 650-700 MB. This is due to the limitations of the format, so you should not make very long tracks.
- CD-RW discs can sometimes have playback problems. It is better to use CD-R for maximum compatibility.
- If you are capture music from a streaming service, then choose the correct WAV format right away so as not to re-encode it before burning to CD.
6 Conclusion
Creating an audio CD is difficult from the very beginning, because recording drives have not been installed in modern computers for a long time. Therefore, you will have to be resourceful to make the disc work in an old car or at a dacha where there is no Bluetooth or USB input.
With the choice of software, everything is much simpler - the required converters and editors are usually easily accessible, and the recording software may well come with the CD recorder. Otherwise, you can always use the Audio CD Burner specified in the manual. And if you add a little creativity and attention to detail, such a disc can become not just a music carrier, but a real gift or an element of a collection.