Using Easy CD Creator to Make an Audio CD

Audio CD Specifications

An audio CD is a CD containing digital audio tracks recorded in the Compact Disc-Digital Audio (CD-DA) format.

NOTE: If you want to copy the contents of an entire audio CD onto a CD-R disc, see the section entitled Using CD Copier Deluxe.

Audio CDs can store up to 74 minutes of music and may contain up to 99 tracks, each usually representing a separate piece of music. Audio CDs can be played back from a home or car CD player or from a CD-ROM drive. Using Easy CD Creator, you can:

• Make CDs from Wave files on your hard drive

• Compile audio CDs of your favorite music

How to Make an Audio CD

To make an audio CD, you can record songs from:

• Tracks on an existing CD

• Wave files stored on your hard drive (*.wav, a standard Windows format for sound files.)

• A combination of Wave files and tracks

IMPORTANT! Easy CD Creator is designed to assist you in reproducing material in which you own the copyright or have obtained permission to copy from the copyright owner. Unless you own the copyright or have permission to copy from the copyright owner, you may be violating copyright law and be subject to payment of damages and other remedies. If you are uncertain about your rights, contact your legal advisor.

Recording Audio Tracks from an Existing Music CD

To record songs (audio tracks) from an existing music CD, you need to first create a CD layout - a file that contains the list of songs and the order in which they will be recorded - then record the layout to a blank CD. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select New CD Layout from the File menu or open an existing CD layout.
   

2. Click the Audio CD Layout tab.
   

3. Insert the source CD, which contains the songs you want to record, into your ZipCD drive.

   NOTE: You can record directly from a CD-ROM drive only if it supports digital audio extraction.

4. In the Explorer section of the window (the top half), select the drive where the source CD is located to view the list of songs on the CD.
   

5. Drag the songs that you want to record from Explorer to the Audio CD Layout window. To change the name of a song, see Renaming Songs in Your CD Layout.
   

6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each existing music CD from which you want to record songs.
   

7. Select Create CD from the File menu when you have placed all of the songs that you want to record into the Audio CD Layout window. The CD Creation Setup box appears.
   

8. Make changes, if any, to the CD Creation Setup settings and click OK.

Easy CD Creator begins recording your CD layout to a blank CD. Insert a blank CD when prompted. When the CD is finished, a final message box appears notifying you that the recording is complete.

NOTE: To make a sleeve that lists the CD title, songs, etc., see Making a Custom Jewel Case Insert.

Recording Wave Files Stored on Your Hard Drive

To record an audio CD using Wave files (*. wav), the Wave files must be stored on your hard drive at 11, 22, 44.1 kHz, 8- or 16-bit, mono or stereo. To make a Wave file from an existing CD, see Pre-recording Audio Tracks to Wave Files.

To record Wave files stored on your hard drive to a blank CD, follow these steps:

1. Insert a blank CD into your ZipCD drive.

2. Select New CD Layout from the File menu or open an existing layout.

3. Click the Audio CD Layout tab.

4. Select the Wave files you want to record from Explorer and drag them to the Audio CD Layout window.

5. Select Create CD from the File menu when you have finished adding all of the songs you want to record to your CD layout.

6. Make changes, if any, to the CD Creation Setup settings and click OK.

Easy CD Creator begins recording your CD layout to a blank CD. When the CD is finished, a final message box appears notifying you that the recording is complete.

Pre-recording Audio Tracks to Wave Files

Pre-recording audio tracks to Wave files on your hard drive is a way to:

• Minimize swapping CDs in and out of your drive if you want to make more than one copy.

• Improve the sound quality if your CD recording system is less than optimal.

• Save time if you want to record the same track(s) to multiple CDs.

You can pre-record one Wave file at a time. To pre-record a Wave file from an existing CD, follow these steps:

NOTE: Pre-recording audio tracks to Wave files requires approximately 10 MB of space on your hard drive per minute of music.

1. Insert the source CD, which contains the song you want to pre-record to your hard drive, into your ZipCD drive.

2. Click the Audio CD Layout tab.

3. Select the audio track you want to pre-record from Explorer and drag it into the Audio CD Layout window.

4. Highlight the audio track in the Audio CD Layout window.

5. Select Pre-record to WAV file from the Track menu.

6. Type in a file name for the Wave file and choose a different location on your hard drive if you do not want to record your Wave file to your Temp directory.

7. Click Save.

Easy CD Creator pre-records your Wave file to your hard drive. A final message box notifies you when the recording is complete.

Combining Both Audio Tracks and Wave Files

You can make an audio CD that contains songs both from prerecorded Wave files stored on your hard drive and from audio tracks on an existing music CD. To do so, follow the steps outlined in Recording Audio Tracks from an Existing Music CD and Recording Wave Files Stored on Your Hard Drive above, depending on the type of songs you want to record.

Once you have added all of the audio tracks and Wave files you want to record to your CD layout, select Create CD from the File menu.

Modifying Your CD Layout

Using Easy CD Creator you can modify the CD layout by changing the order of your songs, removing songs from your CD layout, merging (composite) tracks, and splitting composite tracks. For detailed instructions on doing this, refer to the Online Help within the Easy CD Creator software. To access the Help Topics:

1. Click on the Help menu and select Help Topics or click on the Help Icon on the Icon Bar.

2. Select Making an Audio CD from the list of help topics.

3. Select Modifying Your CD Layout.

Renaming Songs in Your CD Layout

To rename a song listed in your CD Layout, follow these steps:

1. Select the song you want to rename in the Audio CD Layout.

2. Select Rename in the Track menu.

3. Type in the new name in the text box.

By default, Easy CD Creator closes the session so you can listen to your audio CD on a home or car stereo. However, if you selected Leave Session Open in the Advanced tab and you have added all the songs you want to record, you must close the session before you can listen to the CD on a home or car CD player. To close the session, follow these steps:

1. Select Disc Information from the Disc menu.

2. Click Close Session.

3. Click OK.

Easy CD Creator closes the session.

NOTE: You can add more sessions to the CD, but only the first session on an audio CD can be played back on home or car CD players, as long as the session is closed.

CD-DA Recording Tips

Read the following section for useful information when recording audio CDs.

Using Easy CD Creator Wizard

The easiest way to make an audio CD is with the help of the Easy CD Creator Wizard. The Wizard appears when you first open Easy CD Creator and guides you step-by-step in the creation of a simple data or audio CD.

To make an audio CD with the assistance of the Wizard, see Using the Wizard to Make a CD in the section entitled Using Easy CD Creator.

Using CD Copier Deluxe

If you want to copy an entire audio CD from start to finish, use the Easy CD Creator CD Copier feature. See Using CD Copier Deluxe for instructions.

Minutes on a CD

A CD's capacity is measured in minutes. Recordable CDs are available in 21-, 63-, and 74-minute sizes.

Recording Time

Recording times vary based on the read and write speed settings of your ZipCD drive and whether you are recording tracks from existing music CDs or WAV files.

Recording from a CD-ROM Drive

If you have a CD-ROM drive that can read (not just play) audio CDs digitally - meaning that it supports digital audio extraction - you can use it as your source drive to record songs from an existing CD. This means that you would not have to swap CDs in and out for each song you want to record from a single music CD. Not all CD-ROM drives support digital audio extraction. To determine if your CD-ROM does, see Testing Your System Configuration in the Troubleshooting section.

Leaving the Session Open

If you want to record a few tracks at a time, you can choose to Leave the Session Open. When you have recorded all the tracks you want on the CD, you can then close the session to listen to the CD on a home or car CD player. See Closing an Audio CD.

Listing Title and Tracks in CD Player

The information you entered in the CD layout is used by CD Player to automatically list the CD's title and tracks after the CD has been recorded.

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