Create your own custom-made CD<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): In my small collection of compact discs, which I
\nhave been building for more than a decade, there are some really
\ngreat CDs and CD sets. Some of my favorite sets are the ones from
\nReader's Digest Music and Time Life Music (yes, they produce
\nmusic recordings, too).<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, as you already know, in a lot of CDs great
\npieces like Rodger's and Hammerstein's Some Enchanted Evening and
\nDvorak's Humoresque are placed among the first few tracks while
\nothers that are not so great follow. Another CD may contain
\nMassenet's Meditation and Mendelssohn's Song Without Words, which
\nare superbly played on the violin, but the rest are just not as
\ncaptivating. Sometimes, another great piece such as Albeniz'
\nTango may be buried toward the end of the platter, but before we
\nget to it we would have to put up with some tracks of mediocre
\npieces.<\/p>\n
In the past, the only solution would be to record our own
\nselection on a high grade cassette tape. Of course, we are not
\nsupposed to sell these tapes or even give them away to our
\nfriends and relatives. We may listen to them on our personal
\nbookshelf audio system-or car stereo to soothe our mind as we
\nbattle our way through Jakarta's traffic.<\/p>\n
Now that I have decided to buy the HP Pavilion 9850 that I
\nreviewed some time ago, I could not resist the temptation to try
\nto create my own custom-made CD. The Pavilion came with a CD-RW
\ndrive and a DVD drive. Adaptec's Easy CD Creator was also
\nincluded, making the machine an ideal tool for mixing music in
\none compact disc.<\/p>\n
The whole operation turned out to be surprisingly simple. What
\ntook most of my time and required a lot of mental work was
\nactually choosing the pieces that I liked best from my favorite
\nCDs.<\/p>\n
Easy CD Creator can record tracks from a number of different
\nCDs, copy the entire content of a CD, extract an audio CD and
\nsave it in a WAV file on the hard disk so that the computer can
\nplay it back or we can digitally modify it. It can also extract
\nand create MP3 files from a CD. It can also save an image of the
\nentire CD, so that we can create multiple copies of the same CD
\nwithout having to let the computer read the original again.<\/p>\n
As can be seen in the accompanying picture, the program has
\nthree panes. The left shows all the drives and folders. When we
\nplace a CD in the drive, the tracks would appear in the upper
\nright-hand pane. We can play any of the tracks by double clicking
\non it. A CD player control panel will then appear. If we like the
\ntrack, we click on the Add button on the toolbar, and the track
\nwill appear in the CD Layout pane at the bottom.<\/p>\n
The CD Layout actually lists all the tracks that we want to
\nwrite on the new CD. As we add more tracks, the status bar at the
\nbottom will tell us approximately how much more space we will
\nhave on the CD, indicated by the length of music that can be
\nstored.<\/p>\n
We can also add new tracks in the CD Layout just by dragging
\nand dropping them from the CD track list. We can also change the
\norder in which the tracks appear in the CD Layout by dragging.
\nThis order will be used by the program in writing the audio files
\non the CD platter.<\/p>\n
A track can also be previewed, provided the CD is still in the
\ndriver. A click on the right mouse button will call up a menu,
\nwhich includes Preview.<\/p>\n
Once we have approached the maximum limit of tracks that can
\nbe recorded, we can begin the process.<\/p>\n
Start burning<\/p>\n
First, we need to put each of the source CDs into the drive.
\nThe program is smart enough to know which tracks we want to be
\nrecorded where. If the CD contains a piece that should be placed
\non track No. 1, it will be written right away. If the next track
\non the CD should be placed on track No. 4, while tracks two and
\nthree are still empty, the program will just create an image on
\nthe hard disk. Only when their turn comes the program will burn
\nthem into the blank CD.<\/p>\n
Each time a source CD has been read, the driver's tray will
\ncome out and we will be prompted to insert the next source CD. We
\njust have to swap the source CDs until all the tracks are copied
\neither on to the blank CD or on to the hard disk. In my test,
\nonce all source CDs had been read, it took the program a little
\nmore than 30 minutes to create my custom CD, which contained 23
\ntracks with a duration of around 62 minutes.<\/p>\n
The next step would have been to create a CD cover for the
\njewel case and the CD label. The design program is part of Easy
\nCD Creator. If your PC is connected to the Internet, the program
\ncan also access the CD Database (CDDB) music service
\n(www.cddb.com(, a huge database that contains lists of compact
\ndiscs titles, track names, artists and musicians, composers, etc.
\nWith the help of these databases, we do not have to type in the
\nindividual details of the tracks, provided that the CDs are
\nalready included in the databases.<\/p>\n
Once Easy CD Creator closes the writing session, the CD will
\nbe ready for playback. My newly burned CD played without a glitch
\non my cheap, made-in-Hong Kong VCD player. The sound quality,
\ncontrary to all the theories that you hear in Mangga Dua and
\nGlodok, was the same as the original. I also used a cheap blank
\nCD under the Binn brand, which cost Rp 5,000 including the case.<\/p>\n
However, if you record music on any medium, do keep in mind
\nthat you must never use it for any commercial purpose. Even
\nrecording a copyrighted material for personal use may be
\ncategorized as falling into the gray area. The fact that it has
\nbecome so easy to copy CDs does not mean that it is a legal
\nactivity.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, as I finished this article, Antonin Dvorak's The
\nSong My Mother Taught Me was playing in the background.
\n(zatni@cbn.net.id)<\/p>",
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