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Creating a CD with your PC is commonly referred to as "burning" because you're literally using a laser beam to record data onto a blank compact disc (CD). To burn your own music CDs, you'll need a specific piece of hardware called a CD writer or drive -- look for the abbreviation CD-RW, for recordable-rewritable. The latest systems come with these drives built in, but if your system doesn't have one, you easily can buy one separately. If you want to make duplicate CDs, or record from your own CD collection, your PC must have a CD-ROM drive (standard on nearly all PCs). Once you've decided what songs you want to record, you load a blank CD into the drive the same way you put one into your car stereo. Finding the songs is easy (and legal) with an online subscription service like Gateway's partner, eMusic. When you start recording, the computer feeds data to a laser inside the drive, which heats the CD in a specific pattern and changes its structure. To "play" CDs, your computer analyzes this pattern with the laser. There are two kinds of blank CDs: CD-R, which you can burn only once, and CD-RW, which you can record on, erase and reuse. While your PC may be able to read both formats, your home or car audio system will only work with CD-R discs. To learn more about the following, please visit the Gateway eSupport site for additional tutorial information. Learn about: Digital Sound Quality Storing Music on Your PC Storing Music on Your Player

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