Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music:  Burning CDs

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Burning Audio and Data CDs with Toast

An audio CD stores sound files as tracks in a format that CD players — whether in your computer, your home stereo system or your car — can play.

A data CD stores folders and files (of any type) in a format that computers can read. You use them like hard disks, USB flash drives or server disks, except that a data CD is read-only after you've written it once. CD-RW discs let you write many times to the disc, but this is not as easy and straight-forward as writing to a hard disk.

When backing up your server folder, make a data CD, not an audio CD!

Burning an Audio CD

IMPORTANT: Don't load your blank disc into the computer until you've opened the Toast program and have it in the foreground. Otherwise, the Mac's built-in CD-burning mechanism will kick in and ask you to format your blank CD.

  1. Choose Toast Titanium from the Accessories/Utilities pop-up menu in the Dock. This launches the CD-burning program.
  2. Close the Media Browser window that opens when you launch the program.
  3. Click the Audio button on the left side of the Toast window.
  4. Drag your audio file from the Finder (e.g., Desktop) into the space in the Toast window.
  5. Press the big red Record button in the lower right corner of the window. Load your blank CD-R into the CD drive, which is on the right side of the iMac. Make sure the top of the CD is facing toward you.

    CAUTION: Not all CD audio players can read CD-RW. Use a CD-R for maximum compatibility.

  6. Press the Record button.
  7. Once you're done burning, you can quit Toast. (No need to save the file that lists the audio tracks you burned.)
  8. Test your CD. Insert it into the drive, and double-click the icon for the first track. This launches iTunes and starts playing the CD.

Burning a Data CD

IMPORTANT: Don't load your blank disc into the computer until you've opened the Toast program and have it in the foreground. Otherwise, the Mac's built-in cd-burning mechanism will kick in and ask you to format your blank CD.

  1. Choose Toast Titanium from the Accessories/Utilities pop-up menu in the Dock. This launches the CD-burning program.
  2. Close the Media Browser window that opens when you launch the program.
  3. Click the Data button on the left side of the Toast window.
  4. Drag files and/or folders into the space in the Toast window.
  5. Press the big red Record button in the lower right corner of the window. Load your blank CD-R into the CD drive, which is on the right side of the iMac. Make sure the top of the CD is facing toward you.

  6. Press the Record button.
  7. Once you're done burning, you can quit Toast. (No need to save the file that lists the data you burned.)

©2003, John Gibson