Hi to all,
I was wondering how others get their downloaded tracks to CD - do you convert to wav and then burn a CD or do it all in one step, i.e. mp3 to CD. Which software do you use?

Once a track has downloaded, I use tagscanner to edit the tag and rename the track. I then convert from 320 mp3 to wav file using CDex. This uses the Lame MP3 Encoder (version 1.30, engine 3.92 MMX). I then burn to CD using Nero. I keep the original mp3 and the created wav files in separate folders.

When converting a CD to 320 mp3 CBR I think I can hear a difference between software using the Lame encoder, and say Musicmatch (as was) which used the Fraunhofer encoder. Does it matter which encoder (decoder) is used when converting mp3 to wav / CD?
Cheers,
Amalgam.

I prefer to get my stuff in WAV and burn direct (plus convert a copy to 320k MP3 for software use), but if I have an MP3 download, I don't convert it to WAV first because that's just an extra step and all CD burning apps can convert from MP3 to CDAudio formats without needing the extra work.

ditto : pulse.

it makes zero difference converting from mp3 to wav to cd. wav to cd is transparent. so you might as well go from mp3 to cd.

also step up to LAME version 3.97 if you're encoding. decoding from mp3 to whatever will make no difference on the decoder you use.

There is no need to convert mp3 back to wav, software will do it for you, I use NERO and it works just fine.

You can also save a space on your disc by converting to mp3. Plenty people use 320kbps but I spent a while with my headphones on my head comparing, and can say use 256kbps you save space and you cant hear a difference in quality, its shame many encoders doesnt support this rate. Usualy its 128,160,192,224,256,320.