How do I burn copies of an audio CD with a .cue file on OS 10.4.8 using either Burn or Firestarter?

December 12, 2006 2:26 PM

How do I burn copies of an audio CD with a .cue file on OS 10.4.8 using either Burn or Firestarter?

I've downloaded a losslessly compressed copy of a music CD, and decoded the .flac files to .wav.

Now I want to burn an audio CD using the supplied .cue file. I've got Burn and FireStarter, the only two free applications I could find that seem to support doing this, but neither have any documentation that I could find.

I've tried everything I can think of - my best guess seemed to be using Firestarter to turn my folder of .wav files into a .bin image, then trying to burn a CD using that .bin and the .cue supplied, but it doesn't work, it just says 'error: illegal'. Burn is more cryptic still - it just fails silently if I give it the .cue file.

Does anyone have any idea how to do this? Am I misunderstanding what a .cue file is for?

posted by jack_mo to computers & internet (5 answers total)

Can you add the wav files to iTunes, and then burn from there?

As far as cue files, normally you would only one if you have a single CD-length wav file and you want it broken up into tracks on the CD. It sounds like you already have it split up, so it's not something you neeed.
posted by smackfu at 2:39 PM on December 12, 2006

As far as cue files, normally you would only one if you have a single CD-length wav file and you want it broken up into tracks on the CD. It sounds like you already have it split up, so it's not something you neeed.

From Googling a bit, I was under the impression that I'd get a more accurate copy of the original CD using the .cue than I would using iTunes - ie. it'd maintain the artist/track info on the burned CD. Like I say, I could be misunderstanding the whole business, though - could they just be of use when playing back the .flac files?
posted by jack_mo at 2:55 PM on December 12, 2006

1. You don't need to create a .bin
2. Neither Burn or Firestarter will work, I believe u need a cli tool like CDRDAO. Do you have access to a PC? It will be a lot easier.


Here's a thread on how to do it.
posted by mphuie at 3:01 PM on December 12, 2006

You have way more control burning an audio cd with .cue/.wav than with itunes, as well as an exact copy of the original.

Wikipedia
posted by mphuie at 3:06 PM on December 12, 2006

Cheers mphuie - cdrdao looks like just the ticket.
posted by jack_mo at 4:11 PM on December 12, 2006