The information in this article applies to:

• pyro Audio Creator
• pyro Audio Creator LE
• TDK Life on Record Vinyl Recorder

To Rip CD Tracks

1. Place a CD into your CD drive.
2. Click the Ripper button on the Audio Creator Toolbar.

The Audio Ripper module appears, displaying the files on your CD. If your computer is connected to the Internet, the module also populates the CD info columns (Track Name, Album, etc.).

If the module does not display the files on your CD, make sure that the Source Drive field is set to the correct letter name of your CD drive. If the CD info columns are not populated, try clicking the Get CD Info button. Not all CDs have their information stored on the Internet.

1. Click the Options button to open the Audio Ripper Options dialog.
2. Set Naming Options:
   • Always Try to Download CD Information from the Internet--enable this option if you want Audio Creator to automatically look up the CD's information on the Internet.
   • Music Library Folder--this field displays the name of the folder where the ripped tracks will be stored. You can edit the field directly, or click the browse button that's at the end of the field to browse to a new folder.
   • Make Folder Names Using--if you choose Album, a sub-folder named after the album is created inside your Music Library Folder; if you choose Artist, a sub-folder named after the artist is created inside your Music Library Folder; if you enable both choices, a sub-folder named after the album is created inside your Music Library Folder, and a sub-folder inside the album sub-folder named after the artist is create inside the album sub-folder.
   • Naming Choices--if you want to rename each track according to any of the choices in the Naming Choices list, choose the items from the list one at a time, and click the top arrow button to move the selected item into the Make File Names Using list. Use the bottom arrow button to remove items from the list. Then choose a separator character in the Separated By menu. The list order is determined by the order in which you add items to the right-side window.
3. Click the Encoding tab to set Encoding options:
   • Encode Format--choose the file format that you want your ripped tracks to become
   • Channel Format--choose Stereo, Mono, or Split Mono. Split Mono creates two mono files for every stereo track that you rip.
   • Sample Rate--choose Auto to preserve the original sample rate of the files; otherwise, choose the sample rate that you want.
   • If you chose WAV in the Encode Format field, choose a Subformat option such as IMA ADPCM, which is the usual format.
   • Variable Bit Rate--this checkbox is available if you choose MP3 or WMA in the Encode Format field. This option produces higher-quality files, but the file size is unpredictable.
   • Quality (under MP3 Options)--if you enabled the Variable Bit Rate checkbox, the Quality field appears. Choose a number from 0 to 9, with 0 being the best quality. Keep in mind that better quality means a larger file size. For example, choosing 5 results in a file that averages 132 kbps; choosing 2 results in 200 kbps (average).
   • Bit Rate (under MP3 Options)--if you did not enable the Variable Bit Rate checkbox, the Bit Rate field appears. Choose a bit rate: 128 is a popular choice, but you can choose higher or lower rates to get either better quality or smaller file size.
   • If you chose WMA in the Encode Format field, you can choose Windows Media options. The default values are frequently the most practical.
4. Click OK to close the Audio Ripper Options dialog.
5. In the # column, enable the checkboxes of the tracks you want to rip. You can select all or select none by right-clicking the track list and choosing options from the context menu.
6. You can audition a track by selecting it and then clicking the Play Track button.
7. You can edit a track's metadata by right-clicking the track, and choosing Change Info from the context menu.
8. You can change the Music Library folder (where the ripped tracks are stored) by clicking the Browse button and browsing to a new folder.
9. Click the Rip Disc button to begin ripping your selected tracks.

A progress bar appears at the top of the dialog to show each track's rip status. After a track has been ripped, its checkbox in the # column becomes unchecked. You can stop ripping at any time by clicking the Stop Rip button.

To Burn an Audio CD

1. Insert a blank CD-R disc in the destination drive.
2. Open the Burner module by clicking the Burner button in the Audio Creator Toolbar:
3. Click the Audio CD Burner tab of the module.
4. Select a destination CD-writing drive by using the Target Drive dropdown list.
5. Click Add Track to locate and import the audio files you wish to burn to CD. When the Open dialog appears, you can select multiple files by holding down the Ctrl key while you click files.

If the files are not in CD format (16-bit, 44.1 kHz .wav files), copies of the files are automatically created and converted to this format for burning purposes (you don't have to do a thing--just continue on!).

1. Place the tracks in the desired order by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
2. You can delete tracks by selecting them (use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple files), and clicking the Delete Track button.
3. Check the disc capacity fields at the bottom of the Burner module or the capacity graph on the right side of the module to make sure you have not exceeded the capacity of your blank disc.
4. Click Burn CD.

Audio Creator verifies the tracks, performs a layout of the tracks, and writes the current track list to CD medium in the selected drive. After the disk is completed, the disk is ejected from the drive.