downloading / burning to disc

[Foojoy]

I have a few questions :

1. Are we allowed to burn copies of lifeflow to a disc??

2. If so how do you do this?

I have downloaded most of my Lifeflow onto my computer and from there to my ipod. What about taking it from Itunes to a blank disc. I notice that Itunes has 3 different options for burning to disc, those being Audio CD, MP3 CD and Data CD. My plan is to play the tracks on my home theater system which is a Pioneer and pretty spanking new. Which of those 3 choices should I take for best quality? I hope this makes sense. Can anyone assist me with this?

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Foojoy

I notice that Itunes has 3 different options for burning to disc, those being Audio CD, MP3 CD and Data CD. My plan is to play the tracks on my home theater system which is a Pioneer and pretty spanking new. Which of those 3 choices should I take for best quality?

Hey, Foo,

Here's a quick and dirty lesson in audio burning. "Audio CD" format takes up more space than the mp3. The Audio CD option takes whatever format your original file is in and converts it to the .cda format but it has the advantage that it can be played on your computer, your home stereo, most DVD players, your car stereo, a compact disk player or any standard CD playback equipment.

Mp3 is compressed so in that format you can fit a million tunes on your storage device. For instance, if you burn an "Audio CD" of a LifeFlow track you're only going to be able to get 2 tracks burned to a standard CD and that's if you don't allow any silent space to separate each track. Even then you may find that without a little wizardry the final minute or so of the second track sometimes won't burn properly. On the other hand if you burn to mp3 format you're probably going to be able to get all 10 tracks of the LifeFlow series on a single CD. The drawback is that not all playback equipment, i.e., home and car stereos, are compatible with the mp3 format so you stick that mp3 encoded disk on one of those and you get no playback at all. If you've got newer equipment that most likely won't be an issue since the state of the art stuff is more often than not mp3 compatible, but you'd want to check first to make certain.

Burning a "Data CD" means your burning program takes whatever your source file is and copies it in that exact same format to the CD. So if your source file is an mp3 then the burn process will leave it as an mp3. If the source is a .wav file it will be burned to the CD as a .wav file. Normally people only use the "Data CD" file if they are burning disks that have files other than audio files, like pictures or slide shows, spreadsheets, text documents, and so forth.

So for the most part you'll want either an "Audio CD" or an "MP3" burn. If you're certain all your playback equipment is mp3 compatible that's an option. But if you're not sure, or if you know for certain that some of your equipment is not mp3 compatible, play it safe and just stick to the Audio CD burn format. It simplifies your life that way.

~R~

[Foojoy]

Raven,

Thank you for the info. You laid it out pretty clearly and I now feel I have a pretty good idea of the basics. I have one last question concerning the differance in quality between Audio CD and MP3. Is there a differance? I read a previous article by you concerning the high quality of Michaels recordings. Would either of the above formats compromise that quality? I hope these questions arent to reduntant. Thanks for your patience Raven.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Foojoy

I have one last question concerning the differance in quality between Audio CD and MP3. Is there a differance? I read a previous article by you concerning the high quality of Michaels recordings. Would either of the above formats compromise that quality?

Foojoy,

Short answer, yes, whenever you involve mp3 format you are doing so at the loss of some sound quality. It's the nature of the beast and there's just no way around it. You can always burn an mp3 formatted CD and an Audio formatted CD and make your own comparisons. You may find the difference is insignificant enough that you want to go with the mp3 format. Personally, I don't make any of my own CDs as mp3 formats. I'd rather use more CDs with better sound quality than a single CD with 5 or 6 hours of audio files on on it of inferior playback quality.

One suggestion I'd like to offer you that will improve the quality of any audio tracks you burn to CD. The burning ROM drives now can burn at ridiculously high speeds. 52x is common. If you use burning software like Roxio or Nero, they give you the choice of slowing down the speed of the burning process. Even though the physical burning drive can handle 52x speed, set your burning software to burn at a slower rate. This reduces glitches, blurps and skips in the reproduction process. Yes, it means the burn takes a little longer, but select a slower burn setting on your burning software you end up with a more precise burn and fewer glitches on playback. Just something to keep in mind as you experiment with the process.

~R~

[Ras]

Also remember that burning an MP3 to an Audio CD wont increase the quality at all... so if you downloaded lifeflow from this site and burn it as an audio cd the quality will be that of the MP3