For God's sake, somebody please help me burn a CD with my Mac

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Nick: don't let this deter you from buying a Mac. This is seriously the first thing I've had any trouble with.

Disclaimer: yes, I googled and looked at Mac help and other things, and still could not find it.

Other disclaimer: I was torn between starting a new thread or posting on another one. Out of frustration I wanted to put it on the "I HATE APPLE" thread, but then I figured that people who don't hate people, like, people who actually own a Mac, probably won't click on that thread and help me out.

How in God's name do you fucking copy a CD 1:1 with the latest version of Mac OS X Tiger? I'm trying to make a copy of a music album. I thought I got it, but when I put it in my car to listen to on the way to work, the entire CD was 1 track of pure silence.

Could somebody please walk me through this?

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 16 January 2006 06:03 (twenty years ago)

people who don't hate people should obviously be "people who don't hate Apple"... I am in such a blinding rage, I can't even type coherently.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 16 January 2006 06:20 (twenty years ago)

Get Toast, or import it into iTunes (as wav or aiff if you want no loss) and burn it.

― superultramega (superultramarinated), Monday, 16 January 2006 06:49 (twenty years ago)

what superultramega said. import CD to itunes. select those songs, put in a blank cd and then click the button that's magically appeared in itunes in the right hand corner-- looks like a nuclear power symbol thingy.

to burn a data CD, put the blank CD in, select what you want to copy in the finder, and either control-click it or there's suddenly a menu item in the top that had been greyed out that says something like 'copy this to CD'.

for DVDs or anything complicated, get toast.

― colette (a2lette), Monday, 16 January 2006 09:54 (twenty years ago)

I'd have done the iTunes thing myself.

I'm totally set on an Intel iMac, btw - Emma's ordering it today.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 16 January 2006 10:39 (twenty years ago)

OH NO YOU IDIOT I AM THE SMARTEST MAN ON EARTH AND MY MAC HAS REDUCED ME TO THIS

― TOMBOT, Monday, 16 January 2006 11:04 (twenty years ago)

We need a mac expert in here to show Tombot how to turn caps locked off!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:35 (twenty years ago)

The iMac is ordered.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:36 (twenty years ago)

Nick, congrats. Let me know about how you like it when it arrives.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:33 (twenty years ago)

Mickey, if your problem continues to occur take it to Apple pronto--a friend of mine had similar and had a bum drive, and I had similar and it turned out to be a different internal problem.

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:19 (twenty years ago)

Ally, it's not a problem with the hardware, it's a problem with me being too stupid to figure out how to use Disk Utility to make a 1:1 copy of a CD. I'd prefer to do that to ripping MP3's in iTunes and then burning them back to an audio CD, but if that's all I can figure out how to do for now, that'll suffice.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 16 January 2006 17:21 (twenty years ago)

Remember to not rip them as MP3s. Use .wav, AIFF or Apple Lossless.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Monday, 16 January 2006 17:25 (twenty years ago)

Don't use iTunes (or any ripping program) if you want bit-for-bit. Even if you rip to AIFF it won't be bit-for-bit.

Disk Utility is a kitchen sink filesystem manipulator (and may even refuse to duplicate audio CDs). Toast is the standard way of doing this, but costs money (nudge, wink, etc.)

There are several scuzzy free alternatives:

http://www.projectomega.org/subcat.php?lg=en&php=products_firestarter
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16799

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 16 January 2006 17:57 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty sure AIFF is bit for bit dude

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:11 (twenty years ago)

Even though the file format is lossless, would iTunes jam the minimum gap between tracks that originally segued?

― truck-patch pixel farmer (my crop froze in the field) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:14 (twenty years ago)

There's also Dragon Burn, a CD-burning utility that lets you copy CDs 1:1. The demo version allows you 10 free goes.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:28 (twenty years ago)

Hm, Rock Hardy... good point
You can also open the cd in the finder and drag and drop the aiff files to yr disk

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:33 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure I tried that once and it didn't work.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Cause that doesn't make it an audio CD, does it? Just a data CD with AIFF files on it.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:37 (twenty years ago)

AIFF is a bit-for-bit copy of the individual track, but iTunes in particular is incapable of burning in DOA mode with 0 seconds between tracks (despite its claims to the contrary).

Anyway, the encoding adds another, wholly unnecessary step to the process. Life's too short.

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:44 (twenty years ago)

Alba, yea, then you add them to itunes as a playlist and burn that. Anyway, Mike W otm

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:47 (twenty years ago)

So, what's the difference between AIFF and WAV? I thought WAV was an exact copy of an audio track.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:51 (twenty years ago)

They are both exact copies, just different flavours. AIFF is like the Apple version of Windows's WAV.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:57 (twenty years ago)

AIFF and WAV are two different ways of wrapping the 1s and 0s on an audio CD in other 1s and 0s so a computer can play them. In terms of sound quality they're indistinguishable.

Really, Toast is all you need. It should be easy to, ahem, find. If you're feeling honest you're local Apple Store will sell it.

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Mike W, thanks a lot for the information. I downloaded that Firestarter program, which looks simple to me. It reminds me of uh. CDRWIN? Was that the name of it? Some CD burning program I used to use a lot back in my warezering days since it was the preferred flavor for bin/cue. So, the interface and functionality is similar.

I'm sure I tried that once and it didn't work.
-- Alba (albab...) (webmail), January 16th, 2006. (Alba)

Cause that doesn't make it an audio CD, does it? Just a data CD with AIFF files on it.
-- Alba (albab...) (webmail), January 16th, 2006. (Alba)

So, before I waste a CD testing this, is this true or not? Will that burn an audio CD, or just a data CD with AIFF files?

― Mickey (modestmickey), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Read Jon's post:

Alba, yea, then you add them to itunes as a playlist and burn that.

Unless you use iTunes, it will just make a data CD. I'm not sure what the point of Jon's thing was, actually. You might as well just import the CD direct into iTunes (But make sure you go to Preferences->Advanced->Importing) and change that from AAC or MP3 to AIFF. Then burn the playlist in iTunes. That will make a lossless copy BUT as people have said, you won't keep the same inter-track gap lengths as the original CD. If you want an exact copy of the whole shebang you'll have to get Toast or similar.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:22 (twenty years ago)

The point is, you don't have to mess with iTunes settings for one disc.

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

damned macs

― gear (gear), Friday, 14 April 2006 21:39 (twenty years ago)

BRB FBI

― nervous.gif (eman), Friday, 14 April 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

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