Help with what file type to use to burn to a CD

Doodlegame

Hi, hope you're having a good day!
Not sure if this is the right place to post but I have some 700Mb CDs that I brought to put some music onto.
I can get the music in mp3 or FLAC format but I'm not sure which I should get.....
Will the FLAC files be way too big for it? Will I have to change the file type anyway??

Also while I'm asking, would you use media player to burn to a CD or is there something better....?
I'm clueless 

I'd love any help if anyone has any suggestions,
Cheers!

Winny_Pooh

If you burn as an audio cd for a cd player or car the files size only affects the cd quality and the limit is based on the running time of the tracks. (Same regardless of format)

If you are reading them as data discs then you will fit on way more mp3s than FLAC

andy_k

I usually just import wav / mp3 files at best quality available into Itunes, and then create a playlist which I then burn as audio CD, 70-80 mins is the limit for audio cd. Flac is around 10 times bigger than mp3, so your 700mb cd could fit a lot of 10mb mp3 files, @ 320, er 70, or maybe 7 as Flac or wav, you will find that mp3 @320 is probably not noticibly different to any uncompressed file--when listening from audio CD, in a Daw or software there may be advantages-depending on DAC and monitors.

TheBigDipper

I burn audio CDs from Bandcamp downloads I've bought, so I have something I can play on a normal CD player.  

As said above, the time limit on audio CDs is based on the running time of the music. It's about 80 minutes. The CD standard for music is 16 bit samples at a sample frequency of 44.1kHz. The best quality you'll get from the music you have is to use lossless files. FLAC is lossless (with some compression of data that can be retrieved without loss), as is ALAC (The Apple version) and WAV (which is uncompressed lossless). I download WAV files from my Bandcamp purchases.

So, if you can get the source files in FLAC, ALAC or WAV, do it. 44.1kHz/16bit WAV is best, because it's ready to be burnt to the CD without any conversion. FLAC or ALAC will need to be converted as part of the burn, so you'll need software that does it. 

I can't help you with the software, because I use a Mac, not a PC. Media Player is a Windows tool, isn't it?

You can take MP3 files and turn them into CDs, but it won't sound as good if you have the choice of both. You'll need software to convert the files from the lower sample frequency (320k is common) to 44.1kHz for the WAV file.