For freeware I used InfraRecorder.
Can’t remember last time I burnt an audio CD but pretty sure it does. Have a niggling memory that it doesn’t have codecs for FLAC but is good with most other stuff. May be easiest to go wav before burning CD if you’re not sure.
EDIT: Although if you want to do professional CDs, rather than just demos and such, then you want to follow proper Red Book guidelines and use a software that does so properly. EG Sound Forge.
If you are doing proper CD pressing run, then they will ask some special format CD master files or at least 3 copies of a CD-R.
And remember to always burn using the lowest speed available. This should make your record last longer.
Not true! Burning too slow damages the disk more than most fast burns.
To wander in a different direction with this thread for a moment…it’s more important to protect your integrity and reputation as an artist than it is to protect individual songs or albums.
In other words:
Someone finally on my page 
Yeah, well as a visual artist I have already designed my album cover and back lol… I’m working on the booklet after I finish the music and the same applies to the CD cover. My friend’s dad is a printer person, (no one quite knows his occupation o_0) but bottom line, they have an awesome CD printer thing so yeah. Got my connections lmao!
Red Book remaster? Pretty sure it’s exactly what I began this thread for lol, an above post did mention it, so kudos to them too. This is brilliant.
in germany … there’s a tricky but good way to protect your stuff from thievery/rippery.
finish the song. burn the project wav files onto a dvd. put it into an envelope, go to a notary and let him
put a seal onto the envelope to ensure that it really is from you. then send this envelope to yourself.
this way nobody can rip your music and claim that they have written it because you have the original project
and wav files, burned on dvd and sealed by a notary in an envelope. you will win any case with this!
Wow! Interesting point. Have you got some research to point towards to support this idea? I’ve always operated under the advice of slower burns are better due decreased risk in buffer under-runs. I still burn CDs so it would be interesting to know if this debate has been re-opened up.
Now that sounds totally RAD! I love it though. No surprises about Germany there anyhow, been living there for a while. surely the undisputed masters of bureaucracy! 
I doubt the mailing of package has much legal value on any developed country. The signature of solicitor or notary on the printout of the hash of the zip file containing your project files will probably be decent evidence in all of these countries.
If I could find my old university notes I might have a chance but I’m having problems even finding the exact CD physical specifications on the internet. This is from memory and as such may be a few incorrect figures on it…
A typical CD is 1.2mm thick with a reflective layer 0.8mm from the read side. Under the surface there are Pits and Lands used to store data, with the depth being 1/4 of the wavelength of the laser light used to read it. With a speed to high you may not get adequate depth to get correct wave alignment/cancellation on the pits but the same is true for too slow, where you may burn too deep. Especially on cheaper disks where the quality of the substrate may be questionable…
Pit Depth for a CD is ~200nM (1/4 of 780nM wavelength of a red laser, although it’s actually a fair bit smaller as should use the wavelength through the plastic substrate and due to its refractive index this will be a fair bit shorter than in air. 120-150nM is possibly more correct.)
Don’t forget these Pits and Lands (bumps and dips) are being burnt into the metal (aluminium?) layer towards the top of the CD/DVD. Not only can too deep not give correct cancellation (interference) but it can damage the metal layer itself, create a real hole.
If I remember recommended speed for DVD was 2-4 and CD was 4-16 times speed.
As far as I knew Buffer Underrruns were usually caught by most burning software these days and you should never really get a disk that fails due to this without being warned at the end of burning the disk. Maybe not true for bulk copiers though…
Not directly related but thought I’d include it here for people who might be interested:
I can’t remember the name of the data representation but it’s not your normal Return To Zero Logic, where a high might be a 1 and a low 0, neither is is Non-Return To Zero such as Manchester Logic, where you need a clock of twice your data rate but get a waveform which averages in the middle, thus more immune to jitter and other transmission problem. On a CD a steady state, whether a Pit or a Land, represents a 0, a change in state represent a 1. On any flat the waveforms from current and last point will be in phase with each other at the sensor, at a change they will travel 1/4 waveform down, 1/4 waveform up (either extra or less) giving a full half waveform, of 180 degrees, thus arriving out of phase at the sensor and cancelling each other out.
You should visit Italy
I sort of scratched my head at first, also. But when you consider that DRM does, in a sense, deprive the consumer of his property rights, it makes sense. It is so hard to argue politics though, because while theories/philosophies might look quite discrete on paper in the real world they are just marks on a spiral. What i mean to say is, what if in a free and fair democratic election a people vote in a dictatorship because that is what they truly want? Are they or are they not then living in ‘freedom’? Who knows, and really i don’t even care. What it boils down to concerning DRM is… uhm… now i’m too confused to know what my opinion is. But i do have a gut feeling that it sucks eggs.
Yeah man, totally agree. DRM isn’t what I began this forum to discuss. What do you guys mean when you say ‘notary’? (Concerning mailing it to yourself) I live in the UK.
Get back to me on this Red Book Guidelines business. I checked it out but I was reading gobbledegook and then other forums talking about the best red book software, I trust Renoise poeople more if I’m honest 
Thanks for your fascinating reply kazakore! I tended to go 4x anyway, so this is affirming news.
Interesting information, but the ideal speed for a burn completely depends on (1) the drive make and model, (2) the drive’s firmware, (3) the brand and speed rating of the media. It’s certainly true that with modern drives and fast media, significant under-speed writing can cause problems, but it’s not because of the wavelength of the laser or other fundamentals of CD technology because this would have been the same back when only 1x CD-Rs were available. My understanding is that it is more to do with the lack of (decent) firmware write strategies for lower speeds in the modern drives, which are optimised for high speed writing (and maybe the increased laser powers too).
It also applies to significant under-speed writing too; you can write a 16x DVD at 8x but you really don’t want to write it at 1x.
Good points mmrm.
Although I wasn’t trying to say it’s due to the wavelength of light or similar but using it to explain how small the tolerances are before your writing will fail. Power control to the laser for difference speeds isn’t usually implemented well, if at all, although I must admit I didn’t think about the different speed rating disks are sold as being. Still doesn’t change the fact that burning slow is as likely to give a defunkt disk as burning as fast as possible, if not more so as most disks are designed to be burnt at the highest speeds possible these days. Already mentioned them being different in their substrate, which is probably one of the main things that gives them a different speed rating, plus probably different qualities on aluminium layer.
yeah, good idea with md5 or other hash of your files. this on paper or so, a signature/seal from a notary etc pp. should work anywhere.
That made me laugh so much
A true pedant at work Thanks lol, I will in future look up words before asking lmao