Just a few years ago, burning CDs was more mad science than routine procedure. Hardware components and software programs were difficult to set up, and often enough, incompatible. So sometimes you got a quality disc, other times an expensive drink coaster. Recently though, CD recording technology has become more stable while recorder and media prices have dropped to affordable levels.

I use CDs to hold my music and important data, and they've become my favorite method of archiving. I transfer home video from my camcorder to my computer, and then burn to CD. I also archive my favorite software and games. Remember, you are allowed to legally make one backup of your data CDs as long as it's for your own personal use. (This can be really handy if you have kids who like to play with your CDs.)

Another great way to put a CD recorder to work is encoding and burning music in the MP3 format. With a single software program, you can encode 10-12 hours of music into MP3 files and burn them on a 650 MB disc. In the next year, combo CD/MP3 car decks will hit the market, and you'll be able to take these tunes on the road. Philips is already selling a portable CD player that will play MP3 files burned on CD.

But before you run out and buy the first burner you find, there are a few pitfalls to avoid, a few choices to make. Roll up your sleeves, put your geek hat on, and we'll help you decide which recorder and CD burning software is right for you.

A quick disclosure: I work for Adaptec, whose CDR program, Easy CD Creator, is bundled with most CD recorders sold today. Toast is Adaptec's CDR program for Mac users. I will talk about both of these programs and others, including a free program that will burn audio CD's and encode MP3s as well.

There are two basic types of discs that you can buy for CD burners, CDR and CDRW. CDR is the cheapest and most widespread. These discs can be bought for under a buck, and can only be burned one time. CDRW -- or CD-ReWriteable -- is a relatively new standard that allows you to erase discs and reuse them, a la a cassette tape or minidisc. Most of the new recorders support both CDR and CDRW. CDRW is economical if you need to routinely save and delete large chunks of data. But in practice, if the data is important enough to back up, you probably want to keep it for a while. Also remember that older CD-ROM readers will not recognize CDRW discs. So, in general, CDR is the best bet.

A word of caution: There are some CDR discs designed exclusively for use in home stereo-style CD burners (which don't require a computer), such as the Philips unit sold at retail chains like Best Buy and Circuit City. The discs are called "CDR Music" or "Music only", and are generally more expensive because the recording industry gets a cut of each one sold. These discs may not work with some CD burners and burner software. So best to steer clear.

In any case, a blank CD will cost you anywhere between 50 cents and two bucks depending on the brand, and you can store 650 MB of data, 74 minutes of music, or a combination of the two. If you pack a CD with MP3 files, you can burn about 12 hours worth of music. Or you could burn about 30 minutes of good quality MPEG video. And if you need a little extra space, 80-minute CDs are also available.

The CDs you will create are different from the CDs you buy, but they will work with most any CD player. Retail CDs are pressed in a factory, which is a completely different process from CD burning. When you burn a CD, you are shooting a laser and writing the data. A CD has many layers, and the laser heats the bottom layer, which results in a pit. The pit has less reflectivity than a non-pit, or "land." When a CD player reads the information, it shoots a light at the disc and analyzes the reflection.

CDRW discs look the same as CDR's, but have different physical properties -- three bottom layers, where a CDR has one. The middle layer is heated to change its structure, after which it can be written again. Pressed CDs offer the greatest reflection, followed by the CDR. The CDRW is the least reflective. The more reflective a CD, the easier it can be read by a wide range of decks, players, etc.

If you have had problems burning CDs in the past, you may have encountered the dreaded "buffer underrun" error message. Remember that burning a CD is a sustained process: The laser turns on, writes data, and turns off. During the writing portion, the computer must supply data to the laser at a consistent, steady pace. This data is held in a memory buffer and fed to the laser. If the computer gets interrupted and has no data for the laser, the process fails and a buffer underrun occurs. This means your blank CD is now useless -- or, a trendy mirror for your cubicle. Your choice.

Adding system memory and a few other tricks should help eliminate this problem. Later, we will discuss these tips as well the memory buffer built into your CD Recorder.

One quick note on longevity. CDs have a life expectancy of 50 years or more. You can spill coffee on CDs and wipe it off. The main enemies of CDs are scratches, humidity and extreme heat, so keep them away from cats in hot greenhouses.

Another potential danger is the ball-point pen, which can damage the top layer of the disc. If you want to label a disk, be sure to use only a smudgeless, felt-tip pen, like a Sharpie.

Before you run out and buy the best CD burner money can buy, let's make sure your system is ready for one. One of the most important variables in CD burning are the system memory (RAM), which will help send audio data to your recorder. Your processor can be as slow as a Pentium 133 and should perform well as long as you have anywhere from 64 MB to 128 MB of RAM. If your system can't keep up with the data flow, it will cause write failures. The overall condition of your machine will affect its CD-burning ability. If the hard drive is slow, or needs to be defragmented, that can also cause problems.

Recorders are touted for certain speeds -- 4x, 8x, 12x -- which is the maximum speed at which they can burn a CD. A mid-range CDRW (almost all new recorders are capable of CDRW) these days is advertised at 8x/4x/24x, for example. This means it writes CDR at 8 times normal speed, re-writes CDRW at 4 times speed, and reads CD's like your CD-ROM reader, at 24 times speed. At 8x, a recorder will finish burning a disc in about 12 minutes, and at 4x it will take about 20 minutes.

Your natural inclination might be to scoop up the fastest drive you can find. But remember, CD burning is a sustained operation, and is more often successful at slower write speeds. So unless you have an ultra-fast computer with lots of RAM, a 12x burner may not be worth the extra money. Generally speaking, setting a recorder at 4x or 6x will yield the most consistent results.

Aside from write speed, there are four main considerations when shopping for a recorder: Does your computer support SCSI or IDE? How big a memory buffer do you need? Does your CD recorder support your favorite CDR software? Does the recorder support both single session and multiple session burning formats, also called disc-at-once and track-at-once?

To answer the IDE vs. SCSI question, the easiest option is to buy a recorder that supports the interface in your computer. So if you have a Mac and a SCSI interface, get a burner with a SCSI connection. Likewise for PC owners with IDE. Until recently, these two options were your only choices: CD writers were internal and had to be connected and configured with SCSI and IDE connectors. But now a variety of external CD drives have cropped up using FireWire and USB connections, which are even simpler to set up and offer an alternative. In general, however, SCSI and IDE write at much faster speeds than USB-ready external drives.

When picking your beast, make sure it has a 2-4 MB buffer, which will hold information fed to the laser. The buffer will cover up system interruptions and fragmentation as much as it's size will allow. So the bigger the better here. This is especially important at higher burn speeds, when there is less time to send data to the laser.

If you have a favorite CD mastering program, make sure it is supported by the recorder you buy. CD recorders are commonly bundled with "lite" versions of popular programs. These programs will give you the basics, but you'll have to pay to get the full-featured version. Information about supported hardware can be found at the software company's website.

Also be sure to check to make sure the recorder supports single and multiple session burning formats. Single session is my favorite method for writing because the laser writes without having to turn on and off for different tracks. This process prevents the CD from being written to again and offers the greatest degree of compatibility with different types of CD players. Multiple session burning turns the laser off and on between tracks, and the disc can be left open for a future data-writing session. Once you "close" a disc, it is ready for prime time, and should be readable in any CD player.

In order to read CDRW discs, you will need a multi-read CD-ROM reader. Most new CD-ROMs support CDRW, and all new CD recorders support multi-read. But you probably don't want to use your recorder to read CDs -- save that mundane chore for your less expensive, CD-ROM reader.

Some DVD players are multi-read as well. If you are shopping for one of these devices, take a CDR or CDRW disc to the store and test the product.

If you buy a CD recorder in the United States, Adaptec's Easy CD Creator will most likely be bundled with the unit. There are several other software options, however (see below), and programs like Ahead Software's Nero may be more appealing in some respects. For Mac users, Adaptec's Toast is the most popular choice, but again, other programs are available.

To give you an idea of what CD burner software can do, let's have a quick look at Nero and CD Creator, and compare feature sets.

Both programs offer wizards for the newbie, which take you step by step through the CD creation process. Both packages also offer single and multiple session burning formats, MP3 ripping, jewel case creators, hard disc backup, video disc creation (VCD), and CDDB support, which allows you to download song titles from the Internet when you insert a disc.

Creator comes with several job-specific applications: DirectCD is a packet-writing program that allows you to use a CD as a giant floppy. By dragging and dropping files using Windows Explorer, you can burn them onto a CD. The Spin Doctor application helps clean up data from older tapes and records so you can remove noise from that favorite old Frank Sinatra album. It will also encode standard music CDs to MP3, but it tops out at 56 Kbps, which results in pretty lousy sound quality (but super small files). For more information on encoding, converting audio to wav files, and all things MP3, check out the Webmonkey MP3 Overview.

You can also use Creator to convert home movies to a Video CD (VCD), which can be played on a computer and some DVD players. This is one format used to save video to CD. MPEG is a video standard like VCD, and both programs will record MPEG files as a data CD. To do this, you need a video capture card and software that can deliver video in specified formats to use this feature. Another feature allows you to create a CD that plays photo slideshows of your digital pictures.

For Mac users, Adaptec's Toast software offers virtually the same feature set as CD Creator.

Note: Unfortunately, DirectCD must be uninstalled before you can install Nero and other CDR programs.

Nero requires a bit more user savvy, but has some excellent CD burning and MP3 encoding features. For starters, it encodes MP3 files up to 320 Kbps (although you must pay extra for this after a 30-song trial), which yields true CD-quality sound. Nero also boasts variable bit rate encoding, which is a method for creating MP3 files that find the perfect balance between sound quality and file size.

Nero also includes some funky features such as a Karaoke filter, which cancels the voice track of music so you can insert your own lyrics when playing Eminem tracks for the toddlers. The program has another filter for blending songs into each other for those freaky-fresh party mixes.

Nero also supports Super Video CD, which offers higher resolution than standard VCD format.

If you are a Windows user, both of these programs are good for beginners. Review the feature sets to decide which are important to you. If price is the most important consideration, you may want to check out Media Jukebox, a free program that burns audio CDs and encodes to MP3. It offers MP3 encoding at 320 Kbps and organizes and plays a wide variety of audio files.

If you plan on using your recorder to backup discs, you may want to look at CDRWin or WinOnCD.

For a PC, there are many other good programs, including CD-Maker, GearPro for Windows, and yet more choices at CD Recording Software.com.

Mac users should check out the audio section of Versiontracker to find an extensive list of audio software.

While setting up CDR hardware and software, there are a few tweaks that will help the recorder make the most of your machine's processing power.

When you install your recorder, try to isolate it on its own bus. When it's isolated, the recorder doesn't have to share the IDE channel or SCSI bus with other devices that can slow the flow of data.

If you are using an IDE interface, set up the recorder as the master on the secondary IDE channel. There are usually two IDE controllers on your motherboard. Just follow the data cable from your IDE hard drive (this will be the primary IDE controller) or consult your manual to locate them. There will be a jumper to set Master/Slave on your IDE CD recorder. If SCSI, you can try to place the device on it's own SCSI bus. This is only possible if you have a dual channel host adapter, or it is your only SCSI device. Consult your SCSI host adapter documentation. At minimum, try to isolate the source drive from the CD Recorder. The source drive contains the files you will burn to CD.

Windows users, find the Control Panel/System/Device Manager/CDROM/Device Name/Properties window, under the Settings Tab. Enable DMA (direct memory access) if your IDE drive supports it. This allows your burner to access the memory directly, without going through the CPU. Enable disconnect. Disable auto-insert notification, which can slow things down by periodically polling the recorder for the possibility of a new disc.

Before burning, close all unnecessary programs. Then check for any resident programs like a virus scanner, and other programs that run in the background. Screensavers can be a big problem, so be sure to disable those flying toasters before you start to burn. And close any other programs you don't need at the time. Windows users check the Task Manager or System Tray.

One of the biggest factors for success with CD recorders is the amount of RAM on your machine. While most drives suggest at least 32 MB of RAM, it's better to have 64 MB or more. Also, the type of software and discs you use can make a difference. Buy several brands of discs and see which ones your drive likes the best. For music, a good test is the car stereo: If you can skip through the tracks easily, you've got a good burn.

Blank CDs come rated at certain speeds -- just like a CD recorder -- and this represents the top recommended burn speed. There is some debate about which color CDs work the best -- green, gold, blue or silver. This CD-R FAQ discusses this issue, and has an extensive FAQ on CD burning.

When burning a disc, leave your system alone. Don't write email or play Tetris. If you have family members who try to get on your computer, leash up your pit bull and put some whipped cream on his mouth.

Finally, it is always smart to get hardware that can learn, so look for flash upgradeable firmware in a recorder. If there is a conflict or compatibility issue down the road, this can be a toy-saver. A CD recorder manufacturer can update its hardware to comply with software programs, new operating systems, and other changes in environment. No guarantees, but it helps. Check the manufacturer's website for firmware updates.