CD Burning software

Roxio's Toast Titanium is the go-to for-pay CD burning app on the Mac. There are a couple freeware ones, but none I've had a tremendous amount of luck with. Toast is a great app to have around for those more advanced burning needs.

Of course, if iTunes supports the audio files you want to burn, you can burn audio CDs right in iTunes.

 

iTunes would likely do what you need. Make a playlist and then select burd the disk. You can choos either audio format or MP3 format disks.

 

You could also try Disco.

 

I would try out iTunes first and see if it does everything you need. After all, you already own it. It burns audio disks, mp3 disks, and data disks. And the OS will burn all your other files.

 

Toast is the way to go... does way more than the basic burning in iTunes...

gapless recording (great for live music)
music DVDs as well as audio CDs
disc labeling and case covers
make backup copies of your audio CDs originals

 

Toast and Smoke

Dude.....Toast Titanium....every Mac user uses it. Incredible....despite being made by Roxio, who makes horrible Windows apps.

Another one is called Disco, i've never tried it. Its new, and corny, but it's alot cheaper, and its based off of Toast.

http://macheist.com/

 

Gee...I don't use it.

 

It all depends on what you want to burn... as others have pointed out, you can use iTunes and the burner that comes with your utilities already on your MBP.

As for Toast, indeed, it is a premium product for mac users (there is a new version - 8 - coming out in January according to a thread here on macrumors)... but even so, I don't think Toast is the best at everything... for example, if you want to create your own DVDs, then DVDSP from Apple is better IMHO as far as burning DVDs (gives you better control over bitrate).

Otherwise, in addition to Disco, you can try out a few free ones such as Burn, or Liquid CD, or Brand. Go to versiontracker and you'll find a ton.

 

Toast is great, especially for certain tasks, but if you need a basic drop/burn/done application, and the internal OSX solution/iTunes won't work, than you could probably look into Disco. It's a nice mid-level option for low cost.

 

Gapless recording

I read the posts on this topic in hopes of finding a solution to my problem. When I burned a CD using Toast or Burn and setting the pause to 0 seconds, I always got a microsecond's break between tracks. Pissed me off, because to me, 0 seconds means gapless. There's no other way to do it in Toast or Burn. Then I decided to try iTunes although I didn't have much hope for it. I converted the MP3 files to Apple lossless and created a playlist with the CD's name. Then I used the Burn Playlist to Disc option in the File menu, and it worked perfectly. One point for iTunes, zero points for Toast and Burn. I use Toast and Popcorn for almost all my burning, but when I want to burn another gapless CD, it'll be iTunes for me.

 

if your just going to be burning data, films and music there is no need to buy any 3rd party products, as it all comes with the mac. you can use burn folders for data and films idvd and music itunes.

 

I would recommend using iTunes. Its free and already on your machine. I doubt if it makes sense spending the money on Toast. Btw - Toast 8 will appear soon. So in the case you still want Toast - wait a little.

 

I too would recommend Roxio Toast.

I know that Roxio made some sh*t software for PC's, but Toast for Mac's is awesome



FJ

 

stopped using Toast

lol, ok, so i made the post above saying how Toast was so great. And it is....except that it costs money.

I found a burning app called "Burn": does all the same things Toast does (to my knowledge), and it uses much less ram and HD space.

Give it a try.

chad

p.s. I decided Disco isn't corny. it's actually kinda cool to blow into your MIC and see the smoke/fire/haze/etc react accordingly.

 

Yeah, no kidding. My worst windows experiences has been with Roxio products. Avoid it like the plague.

In any case, I have not come across a "burning" issue that required Toast, yet. iTunes for music, Finder for data. The only thing OSX lacks for me is multi session burning through Finder. Disk Utility can do it, but Windows cannot read it then. Fortunately, almost all of my data burning is for backups, where I don't leave much room on the disks for additional burns, anyways.