# Question: How do I make a copy of a music cd?



## mc3251 (Sep 28, 2007)

I'm almost too embarrassed to ask this. I can burn cds from iTunes that I previously ripped, but all I want to do is make a back up copy of a music cd. I'm sure it's really obvious, but burning a disk image to the disk doesn't create something that plays, for whatever reason.
help??

Intel 2.4 ghz 24" iMac
tiger


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

Can you use Disc Utility to make an image of the disc and then burn that image to a new disc?

Alternatively, rip it to iTunes using lossless compression or uncompressed and then make a new disc.


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## psxp (May 23, 2006)

mc3251 said:


> I'm almost too embarrassed to ask this. I can burn cds from iTunes that I previously ripped, but all I want to do is make a back up copy of a music cd. I'm sure it's really obvious, but burning a disk image to the disk doesn't create something that plays, for whatever reason.
> help??
> 
> Intel 2.4 ghz 24" iMac
> tiger



or buy a package such as "Toast" that has a copy feature


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

Buy Toast. Its an awesome software package that isn't too pricey and will come in handy for burning data and DVD etc.


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## jamesB (Jan 28, 2007)

mc3251 said:


> I'm almost too embarrassed to ask this. I can burn cds from iTunes that I previously ripped, but all I want to do is make a back up copy of a music cd. I'm sure it's really obvious, but burning a disk image to the disk doesn't create something that plays, for whatever reason.
> help??
> Intel 2.4 ghz 24" iMac
> tiger


Try LiquidCD, it's free and it works well.

jb.


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## EvanPitts (Mar 9, 2007)

It is easy with iTunes! Just make sure the tracks that you import are in AIFF format. If you have MP3s, just use the Convert To AIFF menu selection. Some newer players support MP3 format, but in order to play on the vast majority of players that exist, you are best to use the uncompressed (and native) AIFF format.

Once you have converted said files, the easiest way is to make a new Playlist, pulling over the AIFF files. Make sure you do not have anything larger than 700 MB / 75 Minutes showing, or for even more compatibility with players, try to keep it to 640 MB / 72 Minutes; and less than 49 tracks total (though many players can actually handle 99 tracks).

Burn the disk using iTunes, and it should work. It is best to burn onto CD-R media, CD-RW is not as reflective and many players (especially older players) have troubles reading them.

If you are using an external non-Apple CD or DVD burner, be sure to snag a copy of Patchburn. This will set up the profiles for the drive so that it will work correctly with many aftermarket drives, like Pioneer, Sony, LG, etc...

If it is for backup use, you can also burn the files to DVD, but they will only work on a Mac, unless you use an external utility to burn the disk into a more standard data format.

You can use something like Toast - but iTunes is fully capable of doing this. If yopu have DRM protected music, there are a number of DRM removal tools available for OSX, and you can find these by Googling...


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## TripleX (Nov 6, 2002)

Very simple:
OS 10.4’s Disk Utility makes it easy to make an exact copy of a CD or DVD that can be stored on a hard drive as a disk image, or burned to a CD or DVD for future use. First, insert the CD or DVD you want to backup into your Mac. Next, drag the icon of the CD or DVD to the Disc Utility application (which is usually stored in the Applications Folder > Utilities Folder.) In other words, drag and drop the CD or DVD icon on top of the Disk Utility icon.

Disk Utility will launch, and then it will immediately open a window asking you to name the new disk image, and where to save it. Go ahead and save the image to your desktop.

In the Image Format drop-down menu, choose DVD/CD master. This is especially important if you want to burn a copy of the disk, and have it function as an exact clone of original CD or DVD you hope to backup.

Now click “Save.”
A new disk image will be created on your Desktop, with the extension ”.cdr,” It may take a few minutes to create this file.

If you click on the disk image, you’ll see it works just like a CD or DVD. You can store this new disk image on a hard drive. If you want to burn it to CD or DVD, you should again use Disk Utility. Otherwise, you’ll only be burning a copy of the disk image, and not an actual CD or DVD master.

To burn a CD or DVD master, open Disk Utility and look for the disk image of your CD or DVD, on the left side of the window. Usually it’s at the bottom of the list of drives. Now, simply select the image, and then click “Burn.” Follow the directions to burn the disk.

This is a great way to back up expensive software titles and game titles. Many games that require a disk to run will run off of the disk image – great for traveling.


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## madgunde (Mar 10, 2006)

EvanPitts said:


> It is easy with iTunes! Just make sure the tracks that you import are in AIFF format. If you have MP3s, just use the Convert To AIFF menu selection. Some newer players support MP3 format, but in order to play on the vast majority of players that exist, you are best to use the uncompressed (and native) AIFF format.


Why would you add the manual step of converting to AIFF when iTunes will automatically convert your mp3's and AAC's when burning an audio CD??? This step is completely unnecessary.

If you are importing a CD for the sole purposes of copying it, THEN it makes sense to import as AIFF so as not to lose any quality, as Macified suggested.


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## matriculated (Jan 2, 2008)

Burn is a great open source burning program. It has a simple copy feature where you just drop the CD on the program window and away it goes.


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## EvanPitts (Mar 9, 2007)

madgunde said:


> Why would you add the manual step of converting to AIFF when iTunes will automatically convert your mp3's and AAC's when burning an audio CD??? This step is completely unnecessary.


Mostly because keep all of my music on my machine in AIFF format. It is a personal preference, as I do not like anything subtracted from my music. As well, converting on the fly can lead to dropouts on the CD, especially if something occurs that beachballs the system. Since AIFF is an image of the original CD audio track, it is best to work with the native format. Of course, if someone is happy with the lossy compression of MP3s, then they can buy an MP3 CD player, and just burn MP3s onto a disk. But, as I stated, for _maximum compatibility with CD players_, one should only deal with AIFF files and CD-Rs that have no more than 640 MB / 72 Minutes / 49 tracks...


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## madgunde (Mar 10, 2006)

EvanPitts said:


> Mostly because keep all of my music on my machine in AIFF format. It is a personal preference, as I do not like anything subtracted from my music. As well, converting on the fly can lead to dropouts on the CD, especially if something occurs that beachballs the system. Since AIFF is an image of the original CD audio track, it is best to work with the native format. Of course, if someone is happy with the lossy compression of MP3s, then they can buy an MP3 CD player, and just burn MP3s onto a disk. But, as I stated, for _maximum compatibility with CD players_, one should only deal with AIFF files and CD-Rs that have no more than 640 MB / 72 Minutes / 49 tracks...


OK, I can see this if you have a very old machine or have experienced problems in the past. I've never had a music CD burn incorrectly in iTunes myself and I haven't burned music CDs in years, so that was on much older hardware (PowerMac G4 and iBook G3).

But if you have any half decent Mac, say 500MHz G3 or faster with 512MB RAM or more, there's really no point. Especially since converting from MP3 to AIFF manually isn't going to make the quality any better. The end result is going to sound the exact same since when you burn MP3s to an audio CD, iTunes converts to AIFF on the fly.

For most people this extra step just unnecessarily complicates things.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

EvanPitts said:


> But, as I stated, for _maximum compatibility with CD players_, one should only deal with AIFF files and CD-Rs that have no more than 640 MB / 72 Minutes / 49 tracks...


This is just plain wrong. If I burn an Audio CD from material stored in iTunes, no matter what format the files in iTunes are in, the resulting CD will be 100% as compatible as one I burn from AIFF files. Period.

If you prefer AIFF, that's fine and I understand that. Furthermore, if you want to create audio CDs the way you do, that's again your business. But claiming there's a compatibility issue with non-AIFF files when there simply isn't is misinformation. iTunes burns Audio CDs (that's a specific type of CD) from a wide variety of formats, and once burned the files on that burned CD are IDENTICAL in format, regardless of what format they exist within iTunes.


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## mc3251 (Sep 28, 2007)

thanks every one. TripleX, especially thanks to you as this was what I was looking for. I missed the step of setting the image file attribute to CD/DVD master.

For others, I know how to rip the cd and then burn a disk, but what I wanted to do occasionally was create a copy directly from the cd itself. The extra step seemed pointless to me. I knew I could do it easily in the PC world, and was sure there had to be a way in MacLand.
thanks again
michael


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