[bannor11]

Hi I've been a Windows user for quiet a while and now I'm using the Mac. I don't burn CD's very frequently and I usually do data/audio mastering and cd copying. I probably only burn cd's once or twice a week and can't really afford to spend $70-$90 on Toast because I don't need all the extra functionality they offer.
My question for you guys is to suggest an alternative, cheaper but reliable, product out for the Mac, regardless if it's on OS9 or OSX. Thanks for your inputs.

[[email protected]]

how about the built-in disc copy? or just insert a disc, prepare it, copy to it, unmount it and burn it?

all built in to os x, and all free.

unless your burner is not supported?

[ 03-30-2002: Message edited by: [email protected] ]

[PowerMatt]

I am a big fan of CD-RWs which are not supported by the disk burner feature in OSX. Any other suggestions.

[Evan Evanson]

Originally posted by PowerMatt:
<STRONG>I am a big fan of CD-RWs which are not supported by the disk burner feature in OSX. Any other suggestions.</STRONG>

Possibly not on your drive, but I just burned a CD-RW of Acrobat files w/ Disk Burner yesterday and took it to Kinko's. As it turned out, it was readable on both Macs and Windows machines (I was surprised at the latter).

3 alternatives:

CharisMac's Discribe, $69.95. Not much savings there, but I hear it's a pretty reliable, if less full featured, alternative to Toast. Downloadable demo available.


NTI's Dragon Burn CD Copy, $19.99. This is a brand new product - it's cheap, but you'll be helping them work out the kinks in the software. Haven't heard anything about it (it's really new). Downloadable demo available.

emagic's WaveBurner Pro, can't find a price. This is professional software, really more an alternative to Roxio's Jam.

So, as far as I know, your only cheaper alternatives to Toast are DragonBurn & Discribe. Keep in mind, though that iTunes (for audio) and Disk Burner (for data) will suit most people's needs*, and are free w/ Mac OS 9 & X. If you really want to go geeky, you can use shareware audio editors to edit music (check out Sound Studio or Amadeus at VersionTracker; use AIFF files, not MP3s), then drag the files into iTunes and burn your CDs that way.

Evan Evanson

*if your burner is supported, but that's true of all CD Burning programs.

[ianxwin]

Which OS?
NTI Dragon is currently only OS9.
The latest X update 10.1.4 apparently covered some more writers, which one are you looking at?
Ian

[PowerMatt]

Originally posted by ianxwin:
<STRONG>Which OS?
NTI Dragon is currently only OS9.
The latest X update 10.1.4 apparently covered some more writers, which one are you looking at?
Ian</STRONG>

My drive is internal, what i meant was that the burn feature in OSX only supports a single write to the CD-RW. I would like to beable to use it similarly to a zip disk. I was able to do this in XP, with only minor difficulty. I guess i will try to convince the wife to let me purchase Toast Ti

[v8q]

I have never heard talk of this for OSX - but under linux you can use cdrecord and mkisofs. They are command line apps - and a little hard to get used to but once you do they work great.

You might look for a OSX version.

[garetjax]

I'm rather new to the Mac and CD burning. How do you delete and add individual files to a CDRW using Toast? I can't yet figure out a way to delete a single or multiple files on my CDRW without erasing the entire disk. Would appreciate some enlightenment. Thanks.

[garetjax]

I'm rather new to the Mac and CD burning. How do you delete and add individual files to a CDRW using Toast? I can't yet figure out a way to delete a single or multiple files on my CDRW without erasing the entire disk. Would appreciate some enlightenment. Thanks.

[surfacto]

Originally posted by garetjax:
<STRONG>I'm rather new to the Mac and CD burning. How do you delete and add individual files to a CDRW using Toast? I can't yet figure out a way to delete a single or multiple files on my CDRW without erasing the entire disk. Would appreciate some enlightenment. Thanks.</STRONG>

As far as I know, you can't do that. Toast will allow you to add multiple "sessions", then each session shows up on your desktop as a separate volume. You may be able to erase individual sessions, but not individual files within said sessions. Using the built in OS X software, you must erase the whole disk before burning to it again.

[vmarks]

Charismac's Discribe works great in OS 9 and OS X, and came included with a superdrive I bought for my powermac.

It's N I C E.