is this the best way to create universal CD's?

I use a Tascam DR-1 digital recorder to record my band and my self. Here is the link for the device TASCAM .

I need to know if I my method of creating CD's from the recorded music is the best way. My goal is to create CD's that will play on anything including computers, home stereo systems, and car stereo systems. This is needed because I distribute the recorded sessions to all the members and singers. Some of them use Windows, some use Macs, some don't have a computer but listen using their stereo systems.

The Tascam will record using wave or mp3. I always select mp3. I then download the tracks to my MacBook Pro and open in GarageBand to edit. After editing I export to iTunes as a AAC file. Then finally after collected several songs I burn to a CD. Am I going about this the best way? So far no one has complained that they can not play the CD's.

To get the best sound I'd think using Wave files from beginning to end would be advisable. MP3 and ACC are both lossy formats that degrade the quality. Yes, I know there have been tests where people can't tell the difference, but you want to keep the quality high through as much of the process as possible.

Since you are creating "Audio CDs", you are making discs in the same format as the music you buy in the store. Since the ability to create your own burnable CDs has been around a long time now, most players will handle those discs just fine.

Hopefully an audio engineer will pipe up with a good formula for your tool set.

Thanks for the very useful information. If wave is better quality then that's what I want. I just want to be sure that a CD made up of wave files can be played in any device. I remember one of the singers told me the CD would not play in his car. I think I used wave and that's why I switched to ACC. I could be wrong as I don't remember. Will wave CD's play in car stereos? I know wave files are larger and that's OK since the CD's usually have just the few songs we are currently working on.

I just took a look at iTunes I don't see where I can select wave format for burning. I also looked closer at GarageBand and noticed that I can burn directly from there without first sending to iTunes. However, the only choices are AAC and mp3. It looks like burning in GarageBand and then saving might be a good idea since that would allow me to have the song ready for future editing. Geesh I really don't know the best method and would like to know what experienced musicians do.

I am using iTunes 8.2.1 (6), GarageBand 5.1 (398), and OS X 10.5.8

When my brothers, professional mixers, want to listen to a mix in the car, they create Audio CDs.

There are three CD types you can create via iTunes; Audio, MP3, and Data. The Audio CD is what you want for most likely success. iTunes will convert the input file, ACC, Wave, AIFF, etc, to the appropriate format for the Audio CD.

Homemade CDs and DVDs are physically different than store bought versions. As time has passed, many players have been built to read homemade versions. Still, you may come across players that don't handle them. My older DVD player can't handle homemade CDs and DVDs.

To export in CD quality from GB, deselect the 'Compress' selection on the export window. That will create an 16bit AIFF file at 44.100kHz. Same as is placed onto a CD. AIFF is a lossless format similar to a WAV file. Lossless is the key here because you don't have your work being interpreted by a lossy algorithm that will introduce it's own characteristics.

It sounds like this is for your band members to practice against and memorize, so over thinking the quality issue here maybe going over board.

A pro would record in an appropriate high quality lossless format, WAV in your DR-1's case, edit that, then output in a high quality lossless format for mastering. So, record in WAV, edit in GB, export as CD quality to iTunes, set up your list, and burn to CD. Experiment with some very short recordings to see what GB can handle.

Thanks!!! Thanks!!! Thanks!!!! This is what I needed to know.

Yes I am over thinking the quality issue. As a new user I want to learn the best techniques from the start because I plan to do bigger and better things. I plan in the near future to buy maybe Apple Logic and set up the spare bedroom room as my home music studio. Right now I want to start getting a feel of sharing high quality music from the computer. Thanks again and will be coming back often.