WAV Onward
The WAV file is, however, an intermediary. It takes up a large amount of space on your hard disc because it is totally uncompressed, and its main purposes are to allow you to edit the sound and to provide a source for conversion to MP3 or CD-R. Conversion to CD-R is a critical process because the recording will be ruined if digital data are not available when the CD writer software needs it. By using the WAV intermediate you are assured of this, because this is a file that is already in digital form, and there is no need to wait for audio signals to be converted at the risk of not keeping up with the demand from the CD writer.
To record the WAV files in CD form, place a blank CD-R disc into the recorder and use a good piece of software such as Adaptek’s Easy CD Creator. This allows you to choose to make a Data or a Music CD, to select WAV files to record, and put them into the order you want. Once you have files ready, the software will test the files and then make the recording. The disc will be ejected once the recording has been made. You can use another option of the software to print front and back covers for the CD jewel case. A CD made in this way will play in any reasonably modern CD player. On test, a CD I prepared in this way worked even on a very old Philips CD deck (the first model sold in the United Kingdom) with no problems.
If you are preparing MP3 files you need no hardware, only software. All MP3 software is not equal, and some are concerned much more with tricks than with quality or speed of conversion. The software will usually allow a choice of bit rate, and the usual rates are 128 Kbits/s for files sent over the Internet and 198 Kbits/s for files to be stored on CD-R. At 128 Kbits/s, a 4-min piece of sound will need 3.8 Mbytes of storage space, as distinct from closer to 40 Mbytes for an uncompressed CD-quality file.
Recommended software includes Music Match Juke Box 4.1, Audio Soft Virtuosa Gold 3.1, and XingMP3.