Burning CDs

A brief look at the craft of homemade CDs

If you are considering the DIY solution to the absence of CD versions of new volumes of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal, here is a brief rundown of what’s involved in burning your own CDs. If you have questions about this procedure, e-mail us at support@marshillaudio.org.

These instructions assume that you have a CD burner, either within the body of your computer or as an external accessory. You will also need a standard blank recordable CD (CDR) for each volume of the Journal you wish to burn.

You’ll need to download the MP3 files for the volume you wish to put onto CDs. Sign into our website, then navigate to the My Library page and find the volume (or other audio product) you wish to download, and click on the DOWNLOAD button.

1. Open iTunes/Music. From the File menu, select Library->Import Playlist… Navigate to the folder containing the MP3 files and select the playlist file, named MHAJ-XXX_Playlist.m3u. Make sure the playlist file is still in the same folder that contains all of the MP3 files.

2. The audio will begin playing once the playlist is loaded, so hit the spacebar to stop the playback before continuing.

3. With the playlist still selected and highlighted in the sidebar list of playlists, click on File at the top of the screen, and select “Burn Playlist to Disc” from the dropdown menu.

4. A dialogue box will appear displaying 3 options for the Disc Format. You need to select either Audio CD or MP3 CD.

5. When prompted, insert a blank CD into the disc burner’s tray and close it. The program (i.e., iTunes or Music) will begin to copy the audio files on to the CD and notify you when the procedure is complete. If you selected standard audio CDs, you will be prompted to insert a second blank disc when the first one is finished. Label the finished CD(s) so you can identify the contents later.