Situation: Girlfriends B-Day and I'm recording some stuff for her to listen to on CD.

Question: What the hell do I need?

Ok, so I have a mic that works and I'm good there.  I'm more concerned about what programs I need and how I should go about recording and burning so that it will work in a CD player.  Is there a recording program that I should use? What about a CD burning program? Is there a CD burning/recording program?  Should I just use the sound recorder and convert my .WAV files? To what format should I convert them for most CD players to work?  What kind of CDs should I get? Basically I want to record some stuff, burn them to a CD, and let her listen to them in most CD players. All help is appreciated! Thanks!

Asssuming you're not willing to fork out some cash, you'd be best with Audacity. That's the free programme most would go with.

As for burning, just use Itunes or Media Player or whatever you use. I've never understood why people need to be more complex than that. CDs, i dont think it really matters as long as you dont get like, 10p shitty ones.

when burning to an audio CD, usually the software will convert the files to the format that a CD player reads (cda or something) so no need to manually convert your wavs. Get Nero or RecordNow! and you should be sorted.

CD-R or CD-RW? Which works in CD players?

well, CD-R work in all CD player, some work with CD-RW,  but it's not a standard thing. Just go with CD-R

what are you trying to record?  are you recording songs for her that you are playing?  or do you just want to make her a mix cd?

It's not a mix, when I say record I do mean record.  Yes some songs, but also other funny things she'll enjoy.  Anyway, recording...yes.

you dont need to convert your WAVs at all to burn them to a cd.  just save em and burn em with something like Nero.  You can use sound recorder, sure.  Depends how in depth you are trying to get here.

Basically I wanted whatever music or sounds I record to be able to be played in a CD.  I just wasn't sure what I needed to use to get everything to be compatible.  I have my answers and thanks to all that replied.  This topic can be left alone now.