Good software for making a mix CD

Iolo

Old guy question: I'm making a batch of mix CD's for my wife's birthday (which I recognize as somewhat archaic in this, the age of the playlist. Still...) and I'd like to do as nice as job as possible.

Is there particularly good software for assembling and burning the mix? If possible it would be nice to have:

• sound leveling across tracks
• the ability to adjust delays between tracks
• track and artist information associated with the tracks
• CD's that will reliably play in cars and stereos and other non-PC players

Free is a bonus, but I'm willing to pay for the right tool if needed.

Opinions on good software for making jewel case inserts and/or Lightscribe images are also welcome.

Thanks!

Esh

iTunes. :P

Chanus

iTunes or Windows Media Player are pretty much all you need.

In Windows, you could even just put a blank CD in the drive and drag and drop the files to burn and just choose "Audio CD".

No need to spend any money on software.

Iolo

Thanks. I've been using Windows Media Player. It does level sound but doesn't seem to let me adjust time between tracks, creates CDs that work inconsistently in car CD players, and has no track info:



Will iTunes let me make CD's with music from outside the iStore universe? I had iTunes on a work laptop for a while and it kept checking for updates and refused to be uninstalled. I'm loath to let it back into my life, but I will if it's really what I need.

Esh

Iolo wrote: »

Thanks. I've been using Windows Media Player. It does level sound but doesn't seem to let me adjust time between tracks, creates CDs that work inconsistently in car CD players, and has no track info:

Will iTunes let me make CD's with music from outside the iStore universe? I had iTunes on a work laptop for a while and it kept checking for updates and refused to be uninstalled. I'm loath to let it back into my life, but I will if it's really what I need.

Of course it will. You just look under My -> iTunes -> iTunes Media -> Automatically Add To iTunes.

Drag any music you want to add to iTunes into that folder and then start up iTunes. Poof.

Also, I have no idea why you couldn't uninstall it and I'm not sure why you're against it updating itself. But those aren't issues I've ever had with it. It's a great media player and burner. I think you went into it VERY uninformed of how to use it. Though it's pretty basic...

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Alternatively, about any free burning software will get it done for you. I use Imgburn, and it has options for normalizing audio and track delay. For a standalone cd player to read the name and artist of a song it's usually just the id3 tag of the mp3 before it got burned, but imgburn also allows for changing any track title as well.

Iolo

Thanks, Folks. I'll give those a shot.