E. Burning the Final Audio CD

At this point, you should have a folder containing .wav files of all the audio tracks you want to burn onto the audio CD of your project -- and containing only these files. Ideally, each of the tracks will be in a file named something like this:
  • 01nameoftrack01.wav
  • 02descriptionoftrack02.wav
  • 03descriptionoftrack03.wav
  • etc. etc
The name of the file folder containing the tracks should be the same as the name of your CD.  How do we go about burning the CD?


Burning the CD on a computer running Windows XP:
  1. Place a blank CD in the tray of the CD burner and close the tray
  2. Open the file folder contaiining your final CD tracks and select all tracks in the CD folder (shift-click)
  3. Right-click on the tracks --> Copy to CD
  4. Windows Media Player program (WMP) opens with the tracks listed in the left pane
  5. Make sure the tracks are listed in the same order you want on the CD by dragging them into position; this will be easier if you use a numberical track-number prefix on  the name of each track
  6. Click the red Copy button in the upper-right corner; this initiates
    • a hands-off processes of converting the file formats for burning onto an audio CD, and
    • copying and burning the tracks onto the CD;
    • this process takes several/many minutes;
    • the total number of minutes of audio is shown at the bottom of the WMP window;
    • if the total number of minutes exceeds the capacity of the CD, a warning will appear and the process will abort.
  7. Rename the untitled playlist to the name of your CD
  8. Drag all of the track files you want on your CD from the main Library window of iTunes into the new playlist folder you just created and named for your CD
  9. With your CD playlist selected in the left column, make sure your tracks are in the same order you want on the CD by dragging them into position; this will be easier if you use a numberical track-number prefix on  the name of each track
  10. That's it !

Burning the CD on a Macintosh with OS X:
  1. Open iTunes
  2. File menu --> Add to Library
  3. Navigate to the folder containing your CD tracks, select them all, and click the Choose button to add them to the iTunes Library
  4. Click the + button at the lower left corner of the iTunes window to create a new playlist or album named "untitled"
  5. Rename the untitled playlist to the name of your CD
  6. Drag all of the track files you want on your CD from the main Library window of iTunes into the new playlist folder you just created and named for your CD
  7. With your CD playlist selected in the left sidebar, make sure your tracks are in the same order you want on the CD by dragging them into position; this will be easier if you use a numberical track-number prefix on  the name of each track.
Now, copying from the iTunes Help instructions for burning a CD,
  1. Choose iTunes > Preferences, then click the Burning button at the top of the window.
  2. Choose Audio CD as the Disc Format.
  3. To have all the songs on the CD play at the same volume level, select the Sound Check checkbox.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Select the playlist you want to burn to the CD, then click the Burn Disc button.
  6.  You can only burn a CD from the songs in a playlist. For instructions on creating a playlist, click "Tell me more.
  7. Insert a blank CD-R disc and click Burn Disc again.
  8. If you plan to play the CD on a consumer CD player, you need to use a blank CD-R disc, not a CD-RW disc.
  9. If the playlist contains more songs than will fit on the CD, iTunes will burn as many songs as will fit on one disc, and then ask you to insert another disc to continue burning the remaining songs. (You can see the size of the selected playlist at the bottom of the iTunes window.)
  10.  If the playlist contains any songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store, you can only burn the playlist seven times.
  11. If the playlist includes Audible spoken word content with chapter markers, the chapters are burned as separate tracks.
To abbreviate these instructions for the Mac and iTunes, leaving out the details:
  1. Add your CD tracks to the iTunes Library
  2. Place these CD tracks in a new Playlist folder, and arrange them in order
  3. Check the iTunes Preferences for burning a CD and set them as needed
  4. Insert a blank CD-R disk in the CD burner (not a CD-RW!)
  5. Select your Playlist and click the black & yellow Burn Disk button
  6. Remove the CD when it pops out of the burner, and test it in a regular audio CD player unit (not a computer CD-ROM drive).
  7. That's it !
NOTE: These same instructions should work the same way on a Windows computer equipped with iTunes!