Burn hours of music to a single CD Using WMP 11
MP3 CDs make it easy to listen to hours of music without having to carry around a stack of standard audio CDs – you can usually store 8 to 10 albums on one MP3 disc! To learn how to create your own custom MP3 CDs for use at home and in the car (if your stereo system supports MP3 playback), start Windows Media Player 11 now and follow the simple guide below.
Set up Windows Media Player to create CD data
The first task is to make sure that WMP 11 is going to burn the right kind of CD. You should check that the data disc option is set – not the audio CD!
If it’s not already showing, go to the full-featured view. This can be achieved by clicking the View menu tab at the top of the screen and selecting the Full Mode option – If you don’t see the main menu tab, hold down [CTRL] and press [M] to activate the classic menu system . You can also do the same thing with the keyboard if you prefer by holding down the [CTRL] key and pressing 1 .
Then click the Burn menu tab at the top of the screen to go to the CD Burn screen. Look in the right part of the window to see what burn mode is configured for WMP. If not already set up to create a data disc, click the small arrow under the Burn menu tab and select the Data CD option from the list.
Close the MP3 files in the Burn List
To make an MP3 CD compression, you will need to select the songs in the WMP library to burn. To see all the music currently in it, click the Music folder (under Library ) in the left pane.
There are several ways you can drag and drop files into the recording list (right column). You can transfer individual files one after the other, click and drag entire albums, or highlight a selection of songs to enter the recording list. To select multiple tracks at once to drag between them, hold down the [ CTRL] key and click on the songs you want. To save time, you can also drag and drop all your previously created playlists into WMP’s Burnlist section.
If you’re new to Windows Media Player 11 and need to learn how to create a music library, our tutorial on adding digital music to Windows Media Player will show you how.
Burn your edit to an MP3 CD
Insert a blank disc (CD-R or rewritable disc (eg CD-RW)) into the CD / DVD drive. When using a CD-RW that already has information on it, you can use Windows Media Player to erase the data – but make sure there’s nothing there to keep first! To erase a rewritable disc, right-click the drive letter associated with your optical disc (in the left pane) and select the Erase Disc option. A warning message will appear on the screen informing you that all information on the disc will be deleted. To continue, click the Yes button.
To burn your own MP3 CD, click the Start Burn button in the right pane. Wait until the file burning process is complete – the disc should be ejected automatically if you haven’t disabled this option in WMP’s settings.
