Create a Party CD on Your PC

Want to use your PC to create your own custom music mixes with your fave CDs? Follow our simple steps, and you'll be whipping up party CDs in no time.

Michael Gowan

In my youth, the mix tape was a symbol of true friendship or even, gulp, love. These were not items to be swapped carelessly. Not only did you take the time to put together a handpicked batch of mix-and-match songs from separate artists, you sat patiently beside the dual cassette machine manually starting and stopping each recording. Unfortunately, that also accounted for innumerable misrecordings and unpleasant clicks every time you pressed 'stop.' There were other annoyances too, like all those times when the tape ran out, and you had to start over (and over).

Welcome to the digital age of mix tapes--we now call it "burning a CD." The process is much easier these days, and the sound quality is so much better too. Whether you want to make a CD for someone special or just slap together a killer party mix, we'll walk you through the process step by step.

First, here's some jargon to understand and the lowdown on what you'll need to get rolling.

Two definitions:

Burning: The lingo for putting data (audio, in this case) onto a recordable disc. This can include a CD-R, a CD-RW disc, or a DVD disc.

Ripping: The process of making a digital copy of a music track from a CD.

What you'll need:
• PC with at least 700MB of free space
• Recordable CD drive (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW drive)
• Recordable CD media (CD-R disc for CD-R drive; CD-R or CD-RW disc for other drives)
• Music CDs (with the tracks you want copy)
• Software to do the job. Not every application that can play music can burn a music CD. Favorites like Nullsoft's Winamp and Microsoft's Windows Media Player won't help you here, for instance. Try the software package that came bundled with your recordable drive, such as Roxio's Easy CD Creator, or one of the free (and basic) programs like RealNetworks' RealOne Player or Musicmatch's Musicmatch Jukebox.

In this story, we look at four different ways to burn multiple tracks from separate CDs onto one disc. The different scenarios: using RealOne Player, Musicmatch Jukebox, and Easy CD Creator 5.1 with one drive, and using Easy CD Creator 5.1 with two optical drives. (Drives that read CD and/or DVD media are called "optical" because laser light is used to read them.)

With the freebie programs, be prepared to register at the vendors' sites by providing your name, password, zip code, and so on; you won't be able to download the player until you sign up. Plus, expect to get lots of reminders from RealNetworks and Musicmatch about upgrading to the paid versions of their programs. And if you haven't already downloaded Musicmatch, expect it to prompt you to try out Burner Plus, its paid version, five times for free before it will let you use its free basic burning feature.

But before you get started, here's a tip: Turn off all other applications before burning a CD. Burning is a CPU-intensive operation; if the process gets interrupted, it can result in an unplayable CD, known as a "coaster" (because that's all it's good for). Also realize that not all home stereos can read CD-Rs or CD-RWs. Check your stereo's CD player to find out what media it can play.

A Free Way to Burn: RealOne Player

If you don't have a CD burning software package you like, try the free RealOne Player program. It is a multimedia player that you can use to watch video, surf the Web, listen to music, and--most importantly here--burn audio CDs. You'll need to download the software from RealNetworks. Click the Our Free Player link. You don't have to pay the monthly $9.95 fee for RealOne Player Plus, the premium package, to be able to burns CDs. After installation, follow these steps to make a perfect mix CD.

1. First, open RealOne Player and insert one of your music CDs into your PC's CD recordable drive. The program will automatically display the number of tracks on the CD. If you are connected to the Internet, it will list the song names as well. If the CD starts to play automatically, stop it.
2. Second, click the CD tab, then Preferences (near the bottom of the window). You'll want to select a format for the digital copy of the song. If you want the best quality and don't care how much space it takes on your hard drive, select Wave Audio. If you are willing to sacrifice some sound fidelity to use less disk space, select RealAudio 8 with ATRAC3. Click OK to exit Preferences.
3. Click Save Tracks (next to the Preferences button), check None, then individually select the box next to each song you'd like. Click OK. RealOne will rip, or make a digital copy, of each track and place it on your hard drive in C:\My Music. As the ripping progresses, each selected track will be marked 'Saved' when it has been copied completely. After they're all saved, remove your first music CD.
4. Insert your next music CD. Click Save Tracks, and go through the same set of steps to rip those tracks. Repeat this process for all the CDs that have songs you want to copy.
5. Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW into your PC's CD-recordable drive. (Note that CD-R drives can write only to CD-R discs.)
6. At the bottom of the program window, click My Library, then click the Burn CD button. Wait a moment for the application to generate the CD burning tool.
7. Select Add Clips to bring up a small window. In the right pane of the window, scroll through the tracks you've ripped and select the ones you'd like to put on the blank disc (hold down Ctrl as you select them to add multiple tracks at once). Click Add Clips. When your desired tracks appear in the window below, click Close. Here you can drag and drop the tracks to move them into the order you like.
8. Look at the Status bar in the application. If you have added more tracks than you have space for on the CD, the Status bar will show you which ones won't fit. If this happens, delete tracks until all of the remaining songs are labeled Ready to Burn.
9. Click Burn CD. RealOne will burn the tracks onto the CD.
10. You'll be asked to enter information about the CD you're creating--artist, title, and so on. After you've typed that information, click OK.
11. RealOne will ask if you want to finalize the CD. If you don't want to add any more tracks, click Yes. This allows the CD to be read by most stereos. Finalizing the CD, however, means that you will not be able to add any more tracks to it later.

Another Free Way to Burn: Musicmatch Jukebox

While RealOne has a slick look and works well for burning CDs, you may want to try Musicmatch Jukebox 7.0 as an alternative. The basic version is available for free at Musicmatch. Click get 7.0 now, then click get basic. Alternately, you can pay a one-time $19.99 charge to get the Jukebox Plus version, which includes faster ripping and burning (a worthwhile purchase). If you stick with the freebie program, though, be prepared for a slew of message screens encouraging you to upgrade to the paid version when you initiate the burning process. Follow our steps to burn the Musicmatch way.

1. First, open the Musicmatch program and insert one of your music CDs into your PC's CD-recordable drive. The program will show you the number of tracks on the CD. If you are connected to the Internet, it will list the song names as well. Stop the CD if it starts to play automatically. All three Musicmatch components--player, library, and recorder--must be open. The player opens by default, but you need to click View, My Library and View, Recorder to open the other two.
2. Next, click Options at the top of the player and scroll to Recorder. In the menu that appears, chose Settings.
3. Select the format you want to use for the digital copy of the song. If you want the best quality and don't care how much space it takes on your hard drive, select WAV Format. If you are willing to sacrifice some sound fidelity to use less disk space, click the button next to MP3 CBR (under Custom Quality) and push the bar all the way to the right, until it reads '320 kbps.' Click OK.
4. The Recorder window will display the songs on the source disc. Click None to remove all the check marks next to the songs, then select the tracks you'd like to copy. Click the red record button. When the copying is done, remove your first CD and go through the same process with the rest of your CDs, one by one. In the Player window, you can rearrange the tracks into the order you want.
5. In the Player window, click File, then click the Burn button. At this point, don't be surprised to see a message pop up advising you to upgrade to Jukebox Plus, the paid version. You may be offered five free trials of Burner Plus, which will still let you burn your music tracks. After you use up those five free trials, you can go back to basic burning. To get the burning process started, from the Library, select the songs you want to burn to CD-R or CD-RW. Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW into your PC's CD-recordable drive. Click Create CD. While it's burning your CD, Musicmatch Jukebox will display its progress, track by track, until '100%' appears beside each track.
6. When the process is finished, a window will pop up saying CD Creation Successfully Completed. Click OK. Warning: Musicmatch automatically finalizes the CD-R disc after burning, so make sure you burn all the tracks you want at once.

The Easiest Way to Burn: Easy CD Creator

Most recordable CD drives come with Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5.1, a popular CD burning program. While its main use is for archiving data, it also has great music CD burning abilities. If you have the program, consider using it instead of RealOne Player or Musicmatch Jukebox--it takes fewer steps to make a music CD, and the process goes a little faster.

1. First, open the Project Selector portion of Easy CD Creator 5.1. Select Make a music CD. Then click Music CD Project.
2. Second, place the source CD into the recordable drive. If you are connected to the Internet, the application will list the song titles of each track. Select a track you want (press Ctrl as you click if you want to add multiple tracks at once), then drag the songs into the lower portion of the window, identified as 'Add tracks and audio files here.' When you're done, remove your first CD.
3. Repeat the same process to copy songs from any other CDs. Keep all the discs you use handy, because you will need them again, but leave one of the source CDs in the drive before continuing.
4. When you have loaded all the tracks you want, you can rearrange them by dragging them into the order you like.
5. Click the red Record button. In the Record CD Setup window that opens, choose how fast you want to burn the CD in the Write Speed drop-down menu--but the faster the speed, the greater the risk you'll end up with a coaster. Select a speed in the middle of your options to be safe. Click Start Recording.
6. For tracks that were copied from a different CD, the application will prompt you to insert the source CD. Do so, click OK, then repeat as indicated by the program.
7. After it has ripped all the tracks, Easy CD Creator will ask you to insert a blank CD. Place your CD-R or CD-RW disc into your PC's recordable drive, and the program will begin burning the tracks onto the disc. You can watch how things are progressing in the Record CD Progress window.
8. When finished, the application will ask if you want to finalize the CD. If you don't want to add any other tracks, click Finalize. If you want to add more, click Do Not Finalize. Click OK. Note: You should finalize a disc before trying to play it on a home stereo.
9. You'll be prompted to 'Save CD Project Changes.' Click Save and choose the location if you want to save the tracks on your hard drive, or Cancel to exit the program.

Save Time With Two Drives

If you have two separate optical drives, like a CD-RW and a DVD-ROM drive, you can save a bit more time by using one for ripping discs and the other to burn the CD. That way you can rip and burn simultaneously, shaving precious moments off your burning time. We recommend using Easy CD Creator 5.1 to make the process as easy and fast as possible.

1. First, open the Project Selector application of Easy CD Creator 5.1. Select Make a music CD, then click Music CD Project.
2. Second, place a blank CD-R or CD-RW into your PC's CD-recordable drive and the source CD into the other optical drive. If you are connected to the Internet, the application will list the song titles of each track. Select a track you want (press Ctrl as you click if you want to add multiple tracks at once), then drag the songs into the lower portion of the window.
3. Repeat the process for songs you want to copy from any other CDs, but leave the CD-R or CD-RW in the CD-recordable drive. Keep all the discs you use handy, because you will need them again, and leave one of the source CDs loaded.
4. When you have loaded all the tracks you want, you can rearrange them by dragging them into the order you like.
5. Click the red Record button. In the window that opens, choose how fast you want to burn the CD. The faster you choose, the greater the risk for a coaster, so select something in the middle of the range. Click Start Recording.
6. For tracks from a different source CD, Easy CD Creator will prompt you to insert the necessary CD. Do so, then repeat as indicated by the program. As you rip the tracks, it will burn them onto the CD at the same time. You can monitor the progress in the Record CD Progress window.
7. When finished, the application will ask if you want to finalize the CD. If you don't want to add any other tracks, click Finalize. If you want to add more, click Do Not Finalize. Note: You should finalize a disc before trying to play it on a home stereo.
8. You'll be prompted to 'Save CD Project Changes.' Click Save and choose the location if you want to save the tracks on your hard drive, or Cancel to exit the program.