How To Make A CD From A Download

[Shannon]

We at Indigo Mind Labs believe in fair use and we prefer to treat our customers with expectations of trust, instead of as criminals. Basically, we want to treat you as we want to be treated ourselves.

It seems reasonable, then, that if you purchase a title as a download that you might want to use it on a CD. Here is how to make yourself a CD from your download.

In general, there are two types of audio CD. There is the standard audio CD, and the mp3 CD. Mp3 CDs must be played on players that can play mp3 files, and are basically nothing more than a data disc with some mp3 files on it. If you have a player that can play mp3 files, all you need to do is create such a disc. Just open your CD burning software and select "Data Disc project". Then select the files you wish to include, and burn the disc.

If you want to create a standard audio CD that will play in virtually any modern CD player, you have to do things a little differently. For this, you will need to unpack the mp3 file to either WAV or AIFF format. WAV seems to be more commonly used in Windows, and AIFF seems to be more commonly used in OS-X.

I am not familiar with Mac or Windows CD burning programs. I use PCLinuxOS and K3b to burn my CDs. However, I know that you can unpack an mp3 file with an open source audio editor which runs on all three platforms, that is named Audacity. Audacity can be downloaded for free from here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Once you have downloaded and installed Audacity, you will want to import the mp3 file, not open it. Select File>Import Audio and then locate the file you wish to work with and select it.

To unpack it, simply export it as a WAV or AIFF file.

From there, open your CD burning program and select "Create Audio CD". The specific software may have slightly different names for the job, but they'll all be similar. Once you have selected the option for making an audio CD, just select the files you want to add, and then burn the disc. You may also want to include some additional information.

Please remember that you should NEVER attempt to re-encode a subliminal audio file in any lossy compression format.

About Fair Use

Please understand, however, that fair use has limits. It means you have paid us for the right to use the program for personal use, and make backups and create CDs and copies for yourself and your private personal use only. It doesn't mean you're allowed to give away copies while keeping it for yourself, share the title, sell it, etc.

When you pay for your copy, you are paying for the right to personal use. That includes making a reasonable number of backups, putting a copy on your mp3 player, and generally making use of your purchase as most benefits you reasonably.

Giving it away as a gift is fine, but if you do that you can only give it as a gift to one person, and you can't keep a copy for yourself too. If you want to give away a copy and keep a copy, then personal use has been breached and someone has a copy that wasn't paid for.

Please remember that these programs require years of training and skill to learn to make. I have to make them safe and effective, and I have to constantly work to try to find ways to improve them, while adding new titles too. These programs are intended as a way to exchange my specialized skills (and those of my business partner Andrew) for a way to make a living, while helping people. Please honor and respect that.

[Andrew]

Most CD burner software will do all the above steps automatically, if you just make sure to select "Audio CD" (Not MP3 CD) and drag/drop the MP3 files in. It would be very rare and probably a very old piece of software that would require you to convert manually to AIFF or WAV.

Just be careful if creating a MP3 CD, as some CD burning software re-encodes or modifies MP3's.

[Andrew]

(03-16-2010 04:23 AM)Shannon Wrote:  If you have a player that can play mp3 files, all you need to do is create such a disc. Just open your CD burning software and select "Data Disc project". Then select the files you wish to include, and burn the disc.

Be very careful if you are going to attempt to make an MP3 cd with subliminals. Many burner programs, including iTunes unless set otherwise, will re-encode the files in order save space and fit as many mp3's on as possible. This will render your audio useless.