itunes

How to use iTunes to make a custom mix CD
iTunes is Apple’s program for storing music and video, and putting it on your iPod. However, if you don’t use it for that, you can still use it to make a custom mix CD.

Download and install iTunes from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Go to the Preferences in one of the pull-down menus (it’s in the iTunes menu on the Macintosh), select “Advanced” from the list on the top, then underneath Advanced will be three choices. Go to Importing and change the “Import Using” setting to “WAV encoder” - this will result in a direct copy of the CD’s tracks with no sound quality loss. Then go to “Burning” (next to “Import Preferences”) and select “Audio CD” as your desired output format. You can also specify how long of a pause between the songs on your mix CD.

Put your CD in the drive. If you are connected to the internet, iTunes will look up the CD’s information from an online database, and all tracks should be identified properly. To import the whole CD, click the Import button on the bottom right. To import selected tracks only, either click to remove the check-mark next to the tracks you don’t want and then hit the import button, or select the tracks you do want and then go to the “Advanced” pull-down menu and select “Convert Selection To WAV”.

Once you have all the tracks for your disc imported, you will next make a playlist for your new CD. Pull down the File menu and select “New Playlist”. On the left of the screen a new playlist will be created. Return to “Music”, the top selection on the list, and drag the songs you want on the mix into your new playlist. You can pull down the Edit menu and use “Select All” to highlight every track and drag them all at once. You can then select the playlist and re-arrange the tracks. If you decide you don’t want a track in the mix after all, select it and hit the <- or “Delete” key. This will not remove it from the main “Music” menu. A CD can hold up to 80 minutes of music - at the bottom of the screen iTunes will tell you how much time is used by your current playlist.

When you’re ready, insert a blank CD into your drive and, with your custom playlist screen visible, click “Burn Disc” on the bottom right corner. This process will take a few minutes - iTunes will keep you posted on approximately how much time is left. When it is done, eject your disc, and try it in a separate CD player before going on to the next step, to make sure it has worked.

Once you’ve made as many copies as you like, click on “Music” on the top left to show your entire iTunes library. Since these WAV files are not small, you want to remove them to save space on your hard disk. Go to the Edit pull-down menu and “Select All”, then hit the delete key. iTunes will ask if you want to keep the files and just remove it from iTunes, or move the file to the trash. Move them to the trash. When your library is empty, go to the recycle bin on your desktop, right click on that, and select “Empty Recycle Bin”.