Maximum size for burning music CD?

If you are burning an audio CD, the limit is 80 minutes. An audio CD is the kind that plays in a normal CD player.

If the file is under 700 MB, you can burn it as a data CD, and it will fit. However, a data CD cannot be played in a normal CD player.

Jill Gardner wrote:
Thank you. That is a very useful and clear distinction.

You are welcome.

Now do you know how I could compress the file so the full 90 minutes could be burned onto a cd that would play in a regular cd player?

Split it into Part 1 and Part 2. Personally, this is what I would recommend.

Also, if I burned it as a data cd 1) would I use the same kind of disk

Yes, the same blank CD-R can be used for data.

and 2) could everyone play it on their computer, whether they had a cd or mac?

If you burn it in MP3 format, it can be played on any computer, and also in certain car players that handle MP3 CDs. But, alas, not on a regular CD player.

The problem is your file is in mp3 format which is not the format used with audio CDs which are the kind of CD that can be played by almost anything. You have 90 minutes of audio in one file. That has to be converted to CD audio format for a conventional CD and that format is pretty rigid. There is no compression available for audio CDs and 80 minutes is the maximum. The only way to make 90 minutes fit on a conventional CD is to split it into multiple parts of less than 80 minutes each and make multiple CDs.

As for splitting, I haven't tried this but I have read about this method on this forum. Get info in itunes on the file you wish to split. The options tab lets you specify a start play time and stop play time. Select a stop play time less than 80 minutes. Close the get info window. Now in the preferences window select a conversion format as AIFF. Close the preferences window, select your file and convert the format to AIFF. A new file will be created which only has the duration you selected. Go back and do a second conversion on the remaining time. Now you can select each of these AIFF files or burning to a CD.

Jill Gardner wrote:
Thank you again. If it is one file, how do I split it into part 1 and part 2?

First, figure out where you want the break to be. Right-click the file, Get Info, go to the Options tab, and select the Start and Stop times for Part 1, then save it. In the library, highlight the track then choose Advanced > Create MP3 version. That will create a new individual file of just Part 1, which you can burn to audio CD in the normal fashion.

Back to the original file, right-click, set the Start and Stop for Part 2, and save. In the library, highlight the track then choose Advanced > Create MP3 version. That will create a new individual file of just Part 2, which you can burn to audio CD in the normal fashion.

The above assumes you want to create audio CDs that can play in any player. If your audience will be happy with an MP3 CD, which can be used in a computer but not in a regular player, then you can fit it all on one disc. That is up to you.

Note added: Forgot you were on a Mac. Where I said right-click, use option-click.

Message was edited by: ed2345

First, figure out where you want the break to be. Right-click the file, Get Info, go to the Options tab, and select the Start and Stop times for Part 1, then save it. In the library, highlight the track then choose Advanced > Create MP3 version. That will create a new individual file of just Part 1, which you can burn to audio CD in the normal fashion.

ed2345 gives you basically the same instructions I gave you so it looks like I got it right. However, ed2345 has you create another mp3 files from the original mp3 file instead of making an AIFF file. I cannot say for certain but I believe when you do this with itunes, itunes will re-encode the file, not just trim it (use mp3Trimmer if you want to do that). Whenever you mp3 encode a file you lose quality. If your ultimate goal was to have two mp3 files then you'd need to accept quality loss by creating a new mp3 file. Since your ultimate goal is an audio CD, by creating an AIFF file you don't have any quality loss (but do end up with a large file which you might delete afterward).

Note added: Forgot you were on a Mac. Where I said right-click, use option-click.

If you're using a two button mouse on a Mac, right-click also works. 🙂

Limnos, you indeed got it right. However, since the file in question is spoken word, not music, there is no need to worry about the slight degradation of re-encoding. The AIFF you would get from 45 minutes of sound would be large, and is not really necessary. But it will work.

To clarify...
An audio CD can be played on a "regular" CD/DVD player and a computer.
Amount of info on an audio CDs is determined by the length of the audio, not the size of the files.
A data CD/DVD can be whatever will fit on the CD/DVD. These can be played on computers and CD/DVD players that will play the type if files you pu on it.
These can be (with iTunes) MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF and Apple Lossless. Amount of info on a data CD/DVD is determined by the size of the files, not the length.

if I decide to just make a cd that has to be played on a computer rather than a regular cd player, is my only concern that the file be under 700 MG?

Your only convern is that the file size is smaller than the CD.
700MB of MP3/AAC files (as in audiobooks) would be about 70 hours.

If I go for the regular cd, I think I understand that I will need two disks and your instructions seem pretty clear for how to split the file. If I tried to do it on one without splitting it, would it simply lop off the last 10 minutes or would the whole thing not work?

It would tell you that the playlist will not fit and you need to make ist smaller.

If I tried to do it on one without splitting it, would it simply lop off the last 10 minutes or would the whole thing not work?

It would warn you that the selection will not fit on one CD. Since it is one track it might just refuse to proceed at that stage (I'm not sure without having tried it). If were more than one track exceeding a single CD length it would fit what it could onto one CD and then put the rest onto the second one. This happened to me recently and I ended up with a full first CD and about 10 minutes on a second CD.

can I just drag it to a blank cd, burn it and it will play on any compuer?

Yes, assuming the application you use can play MP3 files (most will).

Or do I need to put the mp3 file in iTunes,

No.

If I am making the cd for computer playing, after converting it with Switch to an mp3 file

Since it is already in iTunes and already an MP3 file, just select MP3/Data CD when you select Burn in iTunes.