Hey guys so im trying to make a playlist of some of my music and wanna burn a cd. I have a DVD rw disc drive and was wondering if i could burn a mp3 file to a dvd or a cd to be able to play it in mp3 or cd players. Or would it only work in dvd players? Im confused lol please help!!
You can play a CD in a DVD drive but not the other way round, at least that’s what mine does.
When I’m doing that sort of thing I use a pen drive, it’s easier and more flexible as regards where it can be used.
Chances are your DVD RW drive can burn an audio CD. You’ll need to make sure you use a CD disc (not a DVD disc) and select the proper option in the software. For example, the software I’d use for this (Brasero) calls it an “Audio Project” to “create a traditional audio CD.” You probably aren’t going to be using Brasero, but other programs should have something similar.
Note that there’s a difference between burning a traditional audio CD and a data CD. If you burn a traditional audio CD it will act like any other audio CD when you put it into an audio CD player. If you burn a data CD the disc is just acting like storage containing the files.
Just out of interest is Brasero Linux?
If so what Linux are you using, I’m looking at changing my Laptop over fully to Linux rather than a dual boot now - I’m fed up of Win11 nagging!
I used an older version of Mint xfce but have lost touch a bit!
My laptop is an i5 with 64Gb ram and a 128Gb ssd, if that helps any.
Yes. It’s an open-source graphic front-end for other open source tools/libraries relating to disc-burning. I believe it runs on other Unixy operating systems, too (i.e., not just Linux).
I’m running Arch Linux.
Thanks jwc!! So what kinda blank disc should I purchase? A cd-r or a cd-rw? I guess it don’t matter. Oh and so I gotta find a program that can do it from a dvd drive?
Oh yeah I have the mp3 files already downloaded will that work?
You can burn mp3 as wav and make a music CD for CD players.
Just be aware not all CD players can read all writable cds
If you have a dvd or blueray player it can likely play mp3 direct
Generally you would use a CD-R which is a “write once” CD. Once you have written the audio to it, you cannot change it and it’s just like a normal CD.
The app you use should translate the MP3 into the audio format used by CDs (CD-DA) as part of the writing process. If it writes the files as MP3 then most normal CD players will not be able to read it.
Cheers,
Keith
I’d use a CD-R when creating a traditional audio CD.
I’d be very surprised if your DVD RW drive cannot burn CDs as well as DVDs, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
If you burn MP3s, the software should convert the encoded audio when it writes to the CD. Note, however, that MP3 is a lossy encoding, and even though CD-DA allows for higher quality (16 bit PCM at 41.1kHz), you won’t “get the quality back” when you burn MP3s (or any other lossy encoding format) to the CD-DA format. If you can, I’d recommend starting from WAV/PCM originals instead of MP3s. Don’t get me wrong, the MP3s should work, but I think you’d get the best possible results if you start with high quality WAV/PCM files (at least 16-bit/41.1kHz). If you need to start from MP3s don’t sweat it, though.
Thanks guys I’ll have to give it a shot! Hopefully your right jwc lol. I’m wanting to hand out cds where I work and it’s kinda like my portfolio if I ever do lessons
Yes, this is a good point. I would always aim to create a lossless master (typically WAV) of all of your work for best quality, especially if you are looking at burning to CD. As @J.W.C point out, you can reduce the quality to get an MP3, but the degradation on that MP3 file is irreversible.
Equally, if you are creating files for someone else to mix/master, always use a lossless format.
Cheers,
Keith