Overview

This document covers the step-by-step process for creating an audio CD with Toast 11 Titanium on Mac OS X. Toast supports AAC, AC3, AIFF, MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, and FLAC audio formats. When in GroundWorks, it’s best to burn an audio CD using this method rather than loading your audio tracks into iTunes and burning with that program.

Note: AAC, AC3, MP3, M4A, OGG, and FLAC are compressed audio formats and may not sound as good as uncompressed AIFF or WAV files.

Before you get started

Remember to bring your own blank discs, as we do not provide them here in GroundWorks. Within the building, you can purchase blank discs at the circulation desk on the second floor of the Duderstadt Center or at the bookstore in Pierpont Commons.

We recommend that you use CD-R. They are far preferable to CD+R or rewritable (RW) discs.

CDs typically hold up to 80 minutes of audio. The exact capacity for your disc is usually located on the CD case or the CD itself.

It’s best to copy all the files you’re archiving onto the hard drive of the computer you’re using to burn the disc. Otherwise there’s a slight chance that your disc will fail if you’re burning files located on a networked drive or external drive (such as a USB stick or SD card).

Learn more about Toast 11 Titanium by using the tutorials at Roxio.com.

Setting up your disc

1. Open Toast 11 Titanium.
2. In the Toast window, click the Audio tab and select “Audio CD.”
   
   
3. A burn window will open. Locate the files you want to burn, and drag them into the burn queue (the main part of the burn window).
   You can also click the “Add” button (the little folder with a plus sign, toward the bottom of the window) and select files you wish to add.To remove files, select the files you don’t want, and click the “Remove” button (the little folder with a minus sign).
4. To name your CD, single click where it says “Audio CD” toward the top of the window, and type in the name of your disc.
   
5. Toast will automatically order your files in the order they were in Finder (usually alphanumerically). To rearrange the tracks so they play in a different order, simply click and drag a file to a different spot in the burn queue.
6. Make sure you’re not exceeding the maximum capacity of your CD. The status bar at the bottom of the burn window will show you how much space you have remaining.

Burning your CD

1. Click the little gear button toward the bottom of the window to open up the burn settings.
2. Make sure the “Enable Buffer Underrun Prevention” box is checked.
3. Make sure the “Use Simulation Mode” box is unchecked.
4. Click OK.
5. Click the red “Burn” button at the bottom right of the burn window. Toast will automatically open the disc tray and prompt you to put in a blank disc. Place the blank CD in the tray (recordable side down) and close the tray.
6. Your disc will start burning. Toast will show the burn progress of your CD. When the disc is complete, verification starts automatically. The program will let you know when your disc is finished and automatically eject your CD.
   
7. When you quit Toast, a dialog box may appear asking if you want to save your CD project. Click “Don’t Save.”

Summary and last steps

You now have an audio CD which is playable on any CD player or computer! Be sure to write a label on the top of your disc with a soft-tip pen or permanent marker. It is recommended that you test your disc by playing it on a CD player or another computer. If you copied files to the computer in order to burn them to the disc, move them to the Trash on the dock, right click the Trash icon, and select Empty Trash.

Need to make a quick copy of your disc? Check out How to Use the Disc Duplicators.

 

This tutorial was written by GroundWorks Consultant Nora Stone.