Can someone please help me learn how to burn a CD that will play in my car CD player?
By crispycritters from ID
The key to making a CD that will play in any CD player is to make sure you make an "audio" CD (music CD). If you are using Windows it will ask you what kind of CD you want to make when you put a recordable CD, known as a CD-R, into your computer. And I should add you can only make a music CD with your computer if it has a CD/CDr player.
Windows Media is the simplest way to make an audio CD. When you first put in the blank CDR and Windows asks you what type of CD you want to make select audio. Then Windows will open a folder (usually). Close it and open Windows Media Player.
Windows Media Player has a menu across the top sort of like Tabs. Choose the one that says "Burn".
Look on the right side of the new window; it will say something like drag music here or (something else I can't think of).
Okay let's back up. Before starting any of the stuff above make a folder. Call it MY CD or something you will remember. I call mine CD Project. Find the songs you want to record and put them in this folder. You want them to all be the same type WAV or MP3 are the best choices. I prefer MP3. MP3s are smaller files with just as good quality as WAV so you can get more songs on one CD.
Okay let's continue from above. You have Windows Media Player open and you are looking on the right where it says, "Drag Music Here". Open up the folder you made and put your music in. Drag each song you want on the CD, in the order you want the songs, into the area on the right.
Depending on the type of CDR disc you bought you will see a little bar above the music on the right showing you how much time you have to record on the CD. This time is the culmination of all the song's time. You may have to juggle a few songs and omit a few and possibly add one or two if you want to get all the songs possible on the CD.
This will get you started. The more you experiment the better you'll get. You may even have to waste a few CDRs. If you don't have any CDRs I can tell you right now there is a sale at Office Max (I just bought CDRs today). You can get a spindle of 100 CDRs for 14.99 plus tax. That is super cheap and even though you may not need that many it will give you some to waste and some for the future.
Burning CDs for a car is great because with a little practice you can get 20 plus songs on a CD that will play in your car eliminating the CD clutter. That's lesson 2. Let me know when you're ready for it.
Oh yeah. Once your CD is burned name it. Make a folder called burned CDS. Make a folder IN that folder with the name of the CD you just made. Move the songs you put on the CD from your CD Project folder into this folder. Now when you want to make another CD like the one you just made (maybe with one or two different songs) you can go to the folder for the CD and copy it to your project folder or just pull your music directly from the CD folder. I also try to save my CD selections as a playlist which makes it easier to bring up a CD already made and burn it again.
You may want to burn again because your CD gets scratched and doesn't play right or someone may like your CD and ask for a copy. You may even want to make a CD or two for gifts. I made a Christmas CD for my mom and our pastor's wife. Same CD burned twice. Have fun. (12/07/2009)
By Suntydt
Don't mean to sound smug, but all of the other posts is only one reason I bought a Mac. It is set up for iTunes, you just have to register. Then you put your cds or other downloaded music into the iTunes library. Then I make a file in the left side, the iTunes menu. Drag the music you want to put on a disc, from the library into one of those file/folders. Then put in a black music cd and there is a burn tab on the bottom of the iTunes window and click it. That's all there is to it. (12/09/2009)
Try nero.com. I believe there are free downloads. It is so easy to burn, even I can do it. (12/10/2009)
By Denise
I found out that not every cd will play in a car. My car player likes some older blank cds (recorded on a computer) and rejects some of the newer ones.
I can give you one hint: By accident, when I was trying to figure out how to record with Nero, I discovered that the recordings done by clicking and dragging the song titles on to the recording template had a much better chance of being usable in my car. Unfortunately, I can't be more specific because I don't know how to re-create it off the top of my head. (12/16/2009)
By Holly
I had the same problem and had to replace the cd burner. Nowadays only a dvd/cd burner is in the stores. (12/16/2009)
By Holly
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