How To Burn A Karaoke Disc (CDG) Introduction
In this tutorial, we show you how to burn a karaoke disc. A karaoke disc can also go by the name of CDG or CD+G. That stands for Compact Disc plus Graphics.
You may need to burn a CDG for several reasons. For example, you may want to back up your valuable collection of karaoke discs and use those backup discs instead of your originals.
That will preserve your original CDGs, of course. After all, we should not touch CDs with our grubby fingers, because that is bad practice.
Preserving The Original Karaoke Discs
Indeed, after paying a lot of money for a karaoke collection, the last thing we need is to damage them. After burning your copy, store the original in a safe place. Of course, that way, you can take it out of storage as and when you want it. At least the original is preserved.
In the tutorial ‘How To Rip A Karaoke Disc,‘ we explained that karaoke discs look the same as ordinary music CDs. However, CDGs also have text files on the tracks. Because of that, you need a suitable machine to read them. These, of course, show up as on-screen graphics (lyrics).
If you have previously ripped a CDG, you will have many named MP3+G files. It is those files that you will burn to the CD.
If you buy some karaoke songs online (downloadable tracks), you may want to burn them to disc. You can download karaoke tracks from current manufacturers and burn your own CDG to play at a karaoke gig. Likewise, if you have a portable player at home, you can burn your downloaded karaoke songs to a CD for that reason.
Best CD Drives For Burning Karaoke Discs
As previously noted, ripping a karaoke disc on most CD drives will probably not work correctly. Indeed, you may get all sorts of blotchy on-screen graphics. But, using the right gear, you can get a perfect burn every time.
To begin with, we would always recommend a CD drive suitable for karaoke use. Indeed, you will fail if you think you can burn a karaoke disc using any CD drive. Choosing the best CD drives for ripping CDGs can be hit and miss, but we have a list of the recommended karaoke burners here.
In effect, using a non-compatible CD drive may result in on-screen graphics that are messy and illegible. You should now see why we recommend compatible CD drives for those who rip or burn karaoke discs.
Best Karaoke Burning Software
The software we will use to burn the karaoke disc for this tutorial is Power CD+G Burner 2 (or the older version if you have it). Also, the Compact Disc (CD) medium we will use is Verbatim because of its reputation. You will get decent results with all modern blank CDs. But we believe it’s better to get the best.
There are other karaoke-burning software programs you can use, of course. But, whatever karaoke software you use, always burn the disc at the lowest speed to be sure of a good burn.
How To Burn A Karaoke Disc (CDG) (CD+G)
To begin with, place a Verbatim CD (or the brand you chose) in the disc tray of the recommended CD drive. Then, start the Power Burner program. Now, click Burn at the top left and add the files you wish to use. Once you have loaded all the tracks, press the burn button in the bottom left corner. This operation will take over 20 minutes, so go and get a cuppa.
If you only wish to copy a karaoke disc directly, you can do this with Power Burner. Should you only have one CD drive, the software will copy the files to the computer first, then burn them when prompted. Of course, make sure your drive is one of the recommended ones.
Using the proper gear, you should get a perfect burn each time. When you consider that burning a karaoke CDG could take up to 20 minutes, it stands to reason that you want to be efficient.
If your burns give you blotchy, on-screen graphics, the likely suspect will be the CD drive. In this case, try one of those CD drives that we recommend.
You might also find that the burning process “hangs” or produces nothing but coasters (dead discs only suitable for your cup of tea to stand on). Again, the likely suspect is the CD drive.
How To Burn A Karaoke Disc: In Summary
All in all, we hope you have a better understanding of how to burn a karaoke disc. Indeed, it is easy once you have the correct gear.
Also, the CD drives are cheap, and the Power Burner 2 program has a reasonable price tag. Even the Verbatim CDs are only slightly more expensive than shop-branded ones. The aim, of course, is to burn a perfect karaoke disc every time, quickly and without any problems.
Finally, if you get excellent results from burning your CDGs, let us know in the comments below. Also, what other combinations of discs, drives, and software have you used?