#i probably wouldnt have done this if i didnt have access to a disc drive

[gachadiy]

DIY CD - Part 1

CD Tutorial directory // Part 1 (burning the CD) - here // Part 2 (designing booklet & back cover) // Part 3 (printing & assembly)

Supplies:

CD disc drive. If your computer (or one you have access to, I borrow my grandma’s when I visit lol) has a CD disc drive, great! If not, this project will be a bigger investment for you. Search around to find an external disc drive you can plug into your computer via USB - cheap ones look to be around $20 on EBay, NewEgg, what have you.

Blank CD(s). Easiest way is to buy them online, or see if you have some packed away at home (either blank ones that were never used, or any that say CD-RW or “rewritable”). I don’t think there’s any way to rewrite commercial CDs (like an old unwanted album you have lying around) but I’m not 100% sure.

Jewel case - not slim jewel case. Ideally you find your CD(s) in a jewel case already, but if you don’t, you can buy them online or grab one from the thrift store. In the Album Series set, the official has a “standard double” case (with a third pane of plastic between the front and back, with the music CD on the front and the bonus CD on the back), but I didn’t bother with that since I didn’t think I’d be able to find those bonus interviews to rip and I wouldn’t understand them anyway.

Playlist. Here’s the official discography page which has all the CDs that exist and which songs are on them, and the wiki discography page which isn’t always updated but has more info (higher-res album covers, translated lyrics, etc). If you’re making your lyric booklet with English lyrics, you’ll have room for an odd number of songs (unless you glue pages together or something).

Step 0: If your CD isn’t blank, either erase it - here’s a WikiHow (for Mac and Windows) - or move the files somewhere else (I moved my family photos to a flash drive).

Step 1: Download songs - tutorial for downloading MP3s from SoundCloud here. You might not always be able to find the ones you want - SoundCloud is the best place for finding EnStars songs, but things get taken down for copyright. Karaoke (カラオケ) versions are a little hard to find, audio dramas are harder, but I’ve seen both around. Try searching the English and Japanese versions of song titles, and looking through EnStars/Unit playlists for tracks that have purposefully misspelled or random names. Also make sure you’re downloading the long versions (~3-5 minutes) instead of the game-length versions (~1-3 minutes) if possible. I had to go back and burn the CD again because one of my songs was the short version on accident…

Step 2 (Optional): Edit ID3 tags. To make the song titles and such display when you play the CD, you need to edit the ID3 tags. Tutorials:

Mac (album art & text tags)

Windows (album art)

Windows (text tags)

You can find this info on the wiki page for the album that song is in, from here. For the album covers, make sure you click the image and then “Open original” to get the highest res possible. I don’t know how the official CDs organize their ID3s, but I listed the lyricist & unit as the artist, and the composer & arranger as composer.

If your song album isn’t on the wiki, you can find these credits by searching the official page for 作詞 (lyricist), 作曲 (composer), and 編曲 (arrangement). If one person did multiple jobs the titles might be listed together (ex. 作曲·編曲). You can search their name on the wiki to see how it’s romanized in credits for another CD they worked on, if you want that.

Step 3: Burn the CD • Windows version • Mac version (you’ll only need the next minute or so of this, it goes on to talk about recording multiple at a time for artists producing their own CDs but we don’t need that)

Next part is customizing your CD case!