The Top 1/0 (or how to digitize your music), Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Burning your music to CD:

You can use any CD burning software, but I use iTunes.

1.            Open iTunes.

2.            Add the folder that contains your .WAV files to your library.  (File|Add Folder to Library)

3.            Fill in the additional information, such as Artist and Album, if desired. Click the desired row and column in the table twice to make it editable. (You could do this after converting to an iTunes format, if you prefer.)

4.            Create a playlist that contains all the tracks you just recorded in the order you want them.

5.            Put a blank CD into your CD burner and click the Burn Disc button.

Hint: You can often fit two LPs on to one CD.  The maximum amount that will fit is about 80 minutes of music.

I recommend burning the CDs from the .WAV files, instead of converting them to a smaller format first.  This way, you don't lose as much sound quality.

Converting your files to another format:

If you use an iPod or MP3 player, you probably want your files in a format that takes up less space.

You can use iTunes to convert your files to your preferred audio format.  To do this, choose the files you want to convert, right-click on them, and select "Convert Selection to AAC" from the context menu.  If you prefer another file format, such as MP3, you can change the default format on the Advanced|Importing tab of the Preferences dialog box in iTunes.

Hint: If you first burn a CD, then convert the files from the CD, the order is preserved so that the tracks retain the associated track numbers. This means you can play the album in order from iTunes without making a new playlist using the converted files.

Unless you want very large files in your iTunes library that may possibly get copied to your iPod, you should remove the .WAV files from your library after you're done with them.

What's next?

Congratulations!  If you've done all of the above several hundred times, your teenager probably has a good portion of your record collection in his or her hip pocket by now.  Aren't you glad you did all that just so they would have another excuse not to listen to you?

If you just can't get enough of tedium, why not follow up the successful conversion of your record collection with the conversion of your tape collection? 

My tape collection consists of hundreds of hours of the Grateful Dead.  By the time I get that converted, I expect to be zipping around in my flying car that runs on water.

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