Burn Your Own CDs From MP3s
Microboards' PlayWrite MP3 puts everything you need in one package.
by Jon L. Jacobi, special to PC World
May 17, 1999, 4:11 p.m. PT
MP3 is all the rage: This audio compression scheme allows close to CD-quality audio but requires only a small percentage of the storage space. Because of their small size, free MP3 audio files are now available all over the Internet. One result of this free-music frenzy is a proliferation of MP3-related hardware.
Microboards has just come out with its own MP3 solution: the $399 (list price) PlayWrite MP3. In a nutshell, the PlayWrite MP3 package is a Ricoh RW7040A CD-Rewritable drive (4X write, 4X rewrite, 20X read speeds) bundled with CD-writing software that can also convert MP3 files to .wav files, clean them up, and write them to CD.
Nothing Really New ...
While this might seem like magic to the uninitiated, it's nothing that can't be done with other existing programs. The extremely popular Winamp MP3 player (see link at right) will convert MP3 files to .wav files--as will Samsung's Jet Audio (see "Jet Audio: Stereo on Screen," link at right). And all CD-writing programs can burn audio CDs. In addition, programs like Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge and Dartech's Dart Pro 32 allow you to remove clicks, hiss, and other audio defects from recorded material. But no one had brought all these features under one roof until PlayWrite MP3.
My first test was to see how well the program converted MP3 files to .wav. The results were flawless: I couldn't tell the difference between the original MP3 and the resulting .wav files.
Next I used PlayWrite MP3's DirectX plug-ins to clean up a previously recorded .wav file that was rife with the noise and clicks of an overplayed vinyl LP. I used both the de-click and de-hiss plug-ins with their default settings. The results weren't as sonorous as you get with Dart Pro 32--but with a little tweaking I eventually got close. As an audiophile, I thought the de-hiss plug-in tended to remove too much high-frequency tone along with hiss, but the results will probably be good enough for average users.
Effortless CD Recording
The next step was writing an audio CD. This is where I truly came to appreciate the PlayWrite MP3 software. Creating an audio CD was as simple as dragging a group of MP3 files to the playlist window and clicking the Create icon. The program offered to convert the files to the .wav format needed for audio CD creation, en masse. I accepted the offer and the conversion of 65 minutes of material took approximately 15 minutes on my Pentium MMX-200. After the conversion and one more click of the OK button, the Ricoh mechanism wrote the CD in 17 minutes---the amount of time a good 4X writer should take to write 65 minutes of music.
The PlayWrite MP3 also includes PowerQuest's Drive Image to back up your hard drive to CD-R or CD-RW. The software will span disks so you can use it to back up a hard drive of any size. Unfortunately, Microboards included no software for creating data CDs; the company says it will be shipping the drive with Adpatec's Easy CD Creator in selected retail channels--so make sure it's included before you buy.
The documentation that came with the PlayWrite MP3 was limited to a two-page quick-setup guide. The online help files were useful but less than I'd hoped for, with no wizards or handholding for beginners. The drive carries a one-year warranty.
If you want to make your own mixes from MP3 downloads, the PlayWrite MP3 is really handy. Since Microboards has no plans to sell the software separately, this package is currently the only alternative to processing files individually with several other programs. If you find it at a competitive price, go for it--as long as it includes Easy CD Creator.
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