[tritonus]

Hello community

I would like to make identical copies of audio CDs with my 17" PowerBook. Is there a freeware solution for OS X to do this?

I know that:

a) Toast can do this -- not freeware though and I don't need the rest of its functions

b) iTunes cannot do this -- disc-at-once is not possible, track-at-once results in little "spaces" between tracks (example: live recordings, concept albums with interweaving tracks)

c) Disk Burner in Finder cannot do this -- for data CDs only (AIFF formatted files). I need a audio CD readable by every standard CD player (car, home stereo...)

Thanks for your suggestions!

Many thanks,
tritonus

[Graymalkin]

Try Disk Utility. You can use it to make an image from a device (your CD) then make as many copies of it as you'd like. It's technically freeware since DU comes with OSX. As far as I know the copy of the device is exactly like device being copied. If you want to use Terminal there's some command line magic you can work with dd to make exact block for block copies from a device.

To use dd you'd type something like:

Code:
dd if=/dev/disk1 of=/Users/Shared/cd-copy.iso bs=1M

The "if" argument means the input file and the "of" argument means output file while "bs" means block size. In my example "disk1" is just an example using the mounted volume on my Neverwinter Nights Play disc. To find the device name of the CD open Terminal and type "mount" without the quotes. This will tell you what directories are mounted on what disks.

Code:
/dev/disk1s1s2 on /Volumes/NWN - Disk 2 (local, nodev, nosuid, read-only)

The "s1s2" parts on the device describe the slices or partitions of the disc. Just saying "disk1" tells the dd program to make a copy of the entire disc, not just the mountable volume.

[tritonus]

Thanks, Graymalkin.

I've tried this with DU a while ago (with an image) and ended up with a data CD containing AIFF files, not readable by my home stereo. Maybe I have to try again in OS X 10.3.

About the Terminal commands, I'll try that. However, I would prefer an easy little GUI freeware "one-button-copy" app.

[CharlesS]

I tried using dd once, and it didn't work for some reason.

Can xcdroast duplicate CDs? I think so, but I'm not certain...

[tritonus]

Originally posted by Graymalkin:
Try Disk Utility. You can use it to make an image from a device (your CD) then make as many copies of it as you'd like. It's technically freeware since DU comes with OSX. As far as I know the copy of the device is exactly like device being copied.

Sorry, this is a no-go. Burning the image results in a data CD containing AIFF files. I can't play it on my home stereo (no audio CD).

[tritonus]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
I tried using dd once, and it didn't work for some reason.

Can xcdroast duplicate CDs? I think so, but I'm not certain...

Looks promising. Someone know the answer before I try? Also, non-X11 apps would be preferred.

[Sven G]

According to Versiontracker, X-CD-Roast indeed copies audio CDs on the fly; also, it seems to do according to the manual...

[GeeYouEye]

Try setting the gap in iTunes to 0 seconds, or rip it in AIFF and use the join tracks feature before burning.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by GeeYouEye:
Try setting the gap in iTunes to 0 seconds, or rip it in AIFF and use the join tracks feature before burning.

If you do this you can't use CDDB anymore to look up tracknames.

[tritonus]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
If you do this you can't use CDDB anymore to look up tracknames.

Exactly, this is not an exact copy of the source CD. Until now, X-CD-Roast is the only suggested freeware solution to my question. Correct?

[tritonus]

Any other solutions out there?