"Show me!"
Julie pushed her chair away from the table and started heading downstairs.
I swirled my coffee and smiled, surprised at my daughter's reaction.
"C'mon, show me!"
I got up from my Sunday morning breakfast and followed her down the stairs, a little proud of myself.
For the first time since we got our new computer, Julie seemed interested in learning something new. Most of her experience on our computer has involved instant messaging her ninth-grade friends and typing junior high reports.
So I was really surprised at her reaction when I told her I had figured out how to burn a music CD earlier in the morning.
Late to the party
I've been a little slow at getting around to using the CD burner built into my new Macintosh G4.
I'd played around with iTunes, a program that catalogs your MP3 music files into a nice, neat library and lets you play them. But I'd never taken the time to get some blank CDs to actually use the burner that came with the G4.
The reason? I remembered it as being fairly complicated. I had watched others doing it over the last few years, including my son, who got a CD burner last Christmas.
You had to get the music to the computer with one program, then convert it from an MP3 to a CD format with another program, then use your CD burner's software to arrange the tracks and finally "burn," or record, your music onto a blank CD.
As I remembered it, CDs could easily be ruined in the process if something went wrong as the laser did its work. Everybody always joked about their extensive metal coaster collections.
What spurred me to finally join the CD-burning party was the oddly shaped package I found underneath the Christmas tree. Another daughter, Bonnie, had actually listened to me one afternoon as I talked about wanting to try out the new CD burner. She bought me 20 blank audio CDs, plus some skins.
So I had set aside much of Sunday to teach myself the ins and outs of burning CDs with my new computer.
Simple is good
I got an early start, about 8 a.m. I opened up the iTunes program and looked over the music I had been putting on it from various sources.
I went to the "Help" menu and followed the iTunes directions, which essentially were: Make a playlist folder, drag in the songs, click the "Burn CD" button, insert a CD into the disk holder and click the "Burn CD" button again.
That was it.
I sat back, waiting for something bad to happen. It couldn't be that easy, could it? But the small window on the iTunes screen showed it going through each song.
About 20 minutes later, there was a loud "ding," signaling the CD was done. The G4 popped out my first new CD, titled "A Dave Christmas."
I went upstairs and tried it out in one of the boomboxes. Bing, Nat, Frank, Elvis and the Walrus sounded great.
And because it was so easy, I had to figure out what to do with the rest of my day. I decided to make bacon, eggs and biscuits for the girls.
That also took about 20 minutes but was a lot more complicated especially getting the bacon and eggs to be done at the same time the biscuits were finished. Sometimes burning can be a bad thing.
Burning sensation
It seemed that coming late to the CD-burning party was a good thing. The programs are easier to use than in past years.
And there's more documentation available on the Internet to help you if you have a problem.
Just go to your favorite search engine and type in "CD burning." You'll find dozens of tips from those who have gone through the early phases of CD burning.
One site that has a lot of information is homerecording.about.com. It includes a section on CD burning and offers tips on how to record live music.
Here are a few tips my friends have passed on to me from their experiences in using CD burners that work on Macs and Windows 98 computers.
If you're burning a mix of songs from different sources, be aware that sound levels may vary. It's the old "garbage in, garbage out" adage. Your burner's software should help you equalize the sound levels so you're not rushing to turn up the sound on one recording and turn it down on the next.
Into live music? If you record it with an analog tape recorder, you'll have to convert it into the MP3 standard. This can get a bit complicated and involves investing in sound-editing software that converts the music to a digital format.
Some people who are into live music are sticklers for burning in the DAO, or disk-at-once, mode. What that means is there are no silent pauses between the songs which helps preserve the concert experience.
Mixing it up
As Julie sat down at the computer, I stood behind her and walked her through the simple process.
I was surprised at how familiar she already was with iTunes.
She'd been downloading songs off the Internet for a while. And she'd also been putting songs from her CD collection into the iTunes library.
She quickly made her playlist, took the blank CD from me and inserted it into the G4. We sat back and watched iTunes cook up a new CD, titled "Julie's Mix."
"Thanks, Dad."
I had no idea who the artists were that she was putting on her CD, except for Nat King Cole.
We might not have the same tastes. But every once in awhile, I can still be her hero.
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