Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
To create a mix in iTunes, you'll want to go to File->New Playlist. On the left panel you'll see a new playlist under the playlist section. You can name it whatever you want. Then, drag the songs from your library over to the playlist. Arrange the songs however you want. When you're done, select the playlist and go to File->Burn Playlist to Disc.
It's a container for the PCM audio that you get on a CD, for a CD to play in a normal CD player it has to coded in PCM. AIFF is the native uncompressed apple format (the windows standard is WAV) the two are completely inter-changable these days but itunes converts WAVs to AIFFs before it burns the disc so its best to just use AIFF.
There are really only 6 formats you need to concern yourself with:
WAV/AIFF = uncompressed PCM audio the same as is on a regular CD. Provides the best sound quality but results in a big file size (a typical CD is 700MB) Its not an issue with modern hard drives being so cheap though.
Apple Lossless (ALAC)/FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Compression - not supported by itunes at the moment) = Lossless compression systems, essentially a zip file for PCM audio. They allow a reduction in file size of about a third but when 'unzipped' allow an exact bit for bit copy of the original PCM file. They compress without degrading sound quality by essentially using mathematical shorthand. I buy almost all of my music uncompressed (or on CD) and store it as Apple lossless (ALAC) as it gives me the best quality 'master' and allows me to convert to whatever I wish.
Mp3/AAC (aka mp4) = lossy compression systems, these reduce file size by removing most of the data so the file size ends up around one fifth to one tenth that of the original CD. These degrade sound quality and frankly are not comparable to CD audio. Whether you can hear it or not depends on the rate of compression used (320 kbps is best - though CD is 1411 kbps!) and the quality of your equipment.
Upconverting your files to AIFF wont improve the sound quality of your music btw, it is just to ensure it plays in a regular CD player. btw back up your music!
Last edited by archineer; 12-15-2011 at 07:14 PM..
Actually i've a feeling that if you select 'audio cd' in the burn options window itunes automatically transcodes up to AIFF regardless of what format your music is in. I know it does it with WAV but i've never tried it with anything else.
I wouldn't worry about any of the PCM/AIFF/FLAC stuff. It's unlikely that you will notice any difference in sound quality between mp3 @ 320kbit and PCM without comparing them one after another. And it will add more space requirements and time requirements to your entire process. Stick with mp3s for simplicity.
Yawn she wants to burn a CD so it has to be in pcm!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
