Review: Burn - CD burner for OS X

Burn - CD burner for OS X

Feb 10, 2008 by Steveproduct

Burn

3 out of 5 stars

Due to my Linux system having problems seeing a blank CD, I decided to install Burn, a free and open source CD burner for Mac OS X (version 10.3.9 or later) to create an audio CD.

Adding tracks was a bit painful here - all of my files were in the proper order, but in different folders. Burn wanted to organize those in alphabetical order, as my file names start with a number. I had to drag and drop the tracks to get them in the order I want. I have no problem with dragging and dropping, but I would have preferred the K3b method of dragging and dropping to add files as opposed to having to press the plus button, select the files, then open them.

Burn took the MP3 files and converted them to an audio CD with no problem. My Linux system plays the CD just fine.

Burn can also create data CDs in a Mac, PC, DVD, Mac and PC, and DVD-Video format. Burn creates regular audio CDs or an MP3 CD. Video CD formats include VCD, SVCD, DVD, and DivX. It can also copy CDs (not audio CDs, due to an audio CD's file system, according to the help file), which is where burning images also takes place, which may not be obvious to people until they go to the Copy menu and see the instructions to "drop disks and images here."

Burn will definitely stay on my OS X system and be used for future burnings that need to be accomplished.

K3b not seeing blank CD

K3b is complaining about no media being present, even though I put a blank CD into the drive. Permissions look fine. I tried switching out cdrtools for cdrkit, but it made no difference. A recompile of K3b also made no difference. The Gnome CD Master application also appears to not see it, but that program is not the most user friendly, so I really do not want to try using it. It could also possibly explain why I was not able to burn a label on a Lightscribe CD (a completely different CD than what I am trying now).

Mac OS X sees the blank CD just fine, so I am going to try installing Burn and see how that works, since the normal ways of burning a CD in OS X is not as easy as I would like it.

I'm having these problems in Gentoo and believe it is something going on with the system as opposed to K3b or cdrtools. I have burned CDs in this drive before with no problem (two months ago was the last time, I believe) and it reads audio CDs just fine. I have not tried burned CDs with audio or data on them yet to see if it reads them, though. If anyone finds a solution, let me know.

Update: Burn created an audio CD just fine with the CD. Linux saw the CD and it is now playing in Amarok just fine.