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Click on any image for a larger view *
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 1.
Gather
a bunch of MP3s for your ultimate 12-15 hours of non-stop music. This is
a great idea for parties, BBQ's and entertaining during the holidays. In
this example I downloaded 215 songs over the internet from Limewire.
To learn how grab free MP3s off the internet, check out this page
on our site. Once you have 700 MB of songs, you are ready to burn a CD.
Don't go over 700 MB, try to stay a few MB short or you will have to delete
a few songs. I use Roxio
Toast on my Macintosh to burn CDs but you can use Easy CD Creator on
your PC as well. The rest of this tutorial revolves around Apple's iTunes
and requires you to have it installed on your computer. iTunes can be downloaded
for free for Mac or PC. |
2.
Open iTunes. Before we add
all our songs to iTunes, we need to fix a few Preferences. Select your
Preferences from the menu bar. Here's a screen
shot if you get confused. |
 3.
In Effects you can make your songs Crossfade
into each other so there's never a break in the music. I like to set mine
at the 12 second maximum. The Sound Enhancer is similar
to the effects some stereo systems have. In iTunes you can set your music
to be played through an Equalizer with with settings like Bass Booster,
Jazz, Vocal Reducer, etc. Try experimenting with this when you have some
free time. The Sound Check feature is very cool. CDs are
recorded at many different sound levels. When you start mixing music from
several different CDs, some songs will be louder than others. The Sound
Check makes all the songs play at the same volume level. |
 4.
This next step is very important. The whole reason
for burning MP3 CDs is so the songs don't use up all your hard drive space.
For example, I don't want Christmas MP3s taking up 700 MB all year when
I only listen to them for a couple weeks every year. In the Importing window
is an option that says "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when
adding to library", make sure this is NOT checked. If it is, all the
music on the CD will copy onto your hard drive. Click on the image to the
right for a larger view. |
 5.
If you haven't already done so, put the MP3
CD you burned into your computer.  In
the iTunes window is a big + symbol in the bottom left. Click on
this to make a new playlist. I named mine "xmas 2002".
Now double click on the little music icon to the left of the playlist
name you just typed in and a new blank window of just the songs
in your playlist will open up. It should be empty right now. Let's
change that. Drag your MP3 CD from your desktop into your new playlist
window. |
| 6.
It
will take a few minutes for iTunes to add all your songs to the new
playlist and run the Sound Check. You'll see each song get added
one at a time in the Adding Files window. |
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 7.
When iTunes is done cataloging your songs
it will tell you exactly how many hours of music you have. My Christmas
MP3 CD has 215 songs and over 11 hours of non-stop music. It's a
good idea to hit the  shuffle
button otherwise all the songs will playback alphabetically. I usually
turn on the repeat option too and wait for someone to notice that
the music is repeating. But after a few spiked Christmas egg noggs,
I doubt anyone will say a word. Stupid drunks. |
 8.
The final step is hooking your computer up
to either your stereo system or buying good computer speakers. I have
a old laptop and just just walk it over to the stereo and hook it
up with a RCA to Stereo Mini cable. These are really cheap and can
be bought here
or at Radio Shack. If you are looking for some really good computer
speakers, check out the JBL
Creature. |
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