This section of the FAQ answers questions about playing MP3s downloaded from Usenet on players and on CD.

I've got all these great MP3s and a CD burner. Is there any way that can play these songs on my home CD player?

Yes and No. You can't play MP3s (in MP3 format) on just any old regular CD player. What you can do, however, is to change the MP3s back into .wav files and burn them as an audio CD (redbook) format. You, of course, lose the size compression that you get with the MP3 format and will only be able to burn 73 to 74 minutes of music. You can easily get portable CD players and car units that play MP3 CDs, and many home DVD players also play MP3 CDs.

How do I make a normal music CD from these MP3 files?

Some older burner software will want you to first decompress your MP3 files into .wav files before creating an audio CD with your burner. With newer software you can burn an audio CD without the intermediate step of creating a .wav file. Software packages that do direct MP3 to CD-R are very common. Some swear that using the Winamp MAD plug-in or some high-quality decoder to first convert MP3 to .wav is the best way to go. Try it yourself:
http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/mpeg/mad-plugin/

How do I decompress my MP3s into .wav files for burning a CD?

A number of software packages will do this, and are often referred to as "decoders". A good free one can be found at http://www.dbpoweramp.com/. You can look for "players" or "all in one packages" at http://www.audio-now.com/. Click the links at the left for your operating system or platform. They also highlight only a few, so click the "complete list of..." for a more detailed listing.
(NOTE: Not all players will decode MP3s into .wav files; read the individual descriptions for more details).

I've got my .wav files; how do I burn a CD?

A detailed answer to that question is a bit beyond the scope and relevancy of this FAQ. The dBpoweramp burning software is free to try for 90 days. There are many, many software packages to choose from. You can also try the newsgroups: comp.publish.cdrom.hardware, alt.comp.periphs.cdr or alt.cdrom.

There is also some information available on the WWW. There is a good CD-R FAQ at: http://www.cdrfaq.org/and the comp.publish.cdrom FAQ is available at: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/cd-recordable/index.html.

I burned a CD and there are pops between each track. What gives?

Some option must have gotten changed in your burning software. You should burn your music CDs disk-at-once (DAO), not track-at-once. Take a look under preferences or options or consult the help file for your particular software package.

I was trying to record a live music CD, but there are pauses between each track. What can I do?

Your burner software is putting 2 seconds of silence between tracks. Look for an option in your burner software to stop that from happening, and be sure to burn disk-at-once. Alternatively, you can join all the tracks together with Wavmerge (http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/files/wavmerge.zip) and just burn one big track.

I was trying to record a live music CD, but there are pauses between each track. What can I do?

Your burner software is putting 2 seconds of silence between tracks. Look for an option in your burner software to stop that from happening, and be sure to burn disk-at-once. Alternatively, you can join all the tracks together with Wavmerge (http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/files/wavmerge.zip) and just burn one big track. If there is still a gap in there created by the MP3 to .wav conversion process, trim the .wav with Goldwave (http://www.goldwave.com/). Goldwave is no longer free, but you can find a previous free version at http://www.oldversion.com/. This, by the way, is a great site to find older versions of software that used to be free (but no longer is).

What about portable MP3 players?

These are now a dime a dozen. You can get a player that stores over 1 GB of MP3s for a song. Sorry about the pun. Seriously, these players are dirt cheap. Some are too cheap. The cheapest play well enough, once you figure out the controls, IF you figure out the controls. If possible, test drive a player before you buy. The "manuals" on the cheaper players consist of a single piece of paper all folded up, and many could qualify for an entry on Engrish.com. Definitely get one, but buyer beware.