This MP3 lark
 

Right - this new fangled CD-less MP3 music thing all you young dudes are into. So I have a CD <looks at CD> and I have an imaginary (haven't bought one yet) little pod thing. How do I get the song off the CD onto the little doofer? My experiments at doing this in the past have led to the sort of quality sounds you hear in the supermarket. Also, are they all the same, apart from size and manufacturer - does it have to be made by Apple? Anything or any company to avoid? I'm thinking it would be nice to have all my CDs accessible in one go - no changing CD mid-Requiem, say.

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Use one of the many CD reading tools (or even itunes) to copy the track from the CD and save it as an MP3 fle.

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I've been putting songs onto my son's MP3 player tonight. It was easy.

First of all, ripping songs from CDs into MP3 format is legal in the USA, but not here in the UK - copyright and all that. Yes, I know it's stupid, but the law is an ass and all that.

Assuming that these are all non-copyright songs... :)

Use Windows Media Player on XP and select the RIP fucntion. You can then rip the tracks into your My Music folder. Plug your MP3 player in, right click on the track(s) and use the SEND TO option to send them to your MP3 player.

It was easy really.

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AFAIK law is that you are allowed to rip 1 copy of the track to MP3 format for personal usage.

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if you buy a pod thingy then you load the itunes software on the pc.

Put the cd thingy into the pc and it asks if you want to convert the files

Say yes

Plug the pod thingy in

it asks if you want to transfer them

Your done.

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Most people who use Ipods use a free piece of software called ITunes that lets you put in a CD into your computer, choose the tracks you want, and then press a button and it converts them to mp3.
You then transfer them to the Ipod.

Any CD program / MP3 ripping program should let you do this.
There are many around on the web.

As for getting rid of that supermarket sound, you have to observe the compression settings that you set in the program you use to transfer your CD's to mp3's.

The bigger the storage capacity on the device itself, the less compression needed and the higher the bit rate you can select to encode your tracks to mp3.
These options will probably be in the programs settings screen.
I personally wouldnt encode any Mp3's under 160kbps, favouring more the 360kbps for a good sound quality.

You certainly dont have to go for Apple. There are many out there now.
Two things I'd consider when looking are 1) battery life, and 2) Portability / features.

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You mean the Verdi? :sick:

Anyway, I've found Audiograbber to be pretty decent. Uses the free LAME encoder, full CDDB access, relatively quick.

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Paul M - you'd never make it in IT support :p: :D

There's no "rip" option in my Media Player, but I'm on ye olde Windows 98.

SMHarman - nice and simple, huh :D

Exactly - all those options though. I didn't know what to choose :spin:

Actually very good, heathen! :D Mozart and Faure are the other two requiem writers. I like them all. I'm going through a dark music phase.


Young un's today grow up with all this. Different world.

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I have to ask even though it's :notopic: but have you decided on an advanced age and are just waiting for your chronological age to catch up? Cos the only peeps I have heard talk about young un's the way you do are in their 70's. :hugs: :D

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:D I do feel old. In many ways it just seems that life is better and enriched for kids these days :shrug:

So, I buy the pod and it comes with software that lets me put the CDs on it. Do all pods have this software with them? I can see I'm just going to have to fiddle with settings and hope.

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I ain't a heathen, though I do prefer the Mozart. Currently listening to this though it didn't cost me that much... rather good.

Now I feel old.

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Verdi is a bit more brash and dramatic.

I've got this sat waiting to be listened to.

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Yeah, I prefer the slightly less dramatic, more calculated and introverted style of the earlier works... but anyway, that's off topic.

I know the Verdi, Mozart and Faure but just can't get on with the former, the other two are more introverted.

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This is why I'm thinking MP3 - can get a whole opera on, no changing CD at the dramatic bit.

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You'll get more than that- at 192 Kb/s (a decent bitrate and manageable size), a CD is about 100 MB...

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Oh that's good. Smashing :D

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To answer your question about ITunes.
Yes, most Ipods come with it on the CD.
But you are probably best to download it and get the most up to date version.

NOTE: I dont know if it has been sorted out in the latest Ipods, but older ones will pause briefly between tracks to rebuffer the memory.
This is annoying if you listen to DJ mix CD's or a CD that goes from one track to another without a pause. The Ipod will put a small tiny half second pause between tracks.

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My CD-R reading MP3/WMA/ATRAC/everyf*ckerelse walkman does, I ended up editing tracks together that were supposed to run together with Audacity...

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When you install the version off the CD it checks with the interwotsit whether there is a newer one to download and asks if you want to do so.No and it is not likely to be, it is the machine reading the header information from the file so it can decode it properly.

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One thing, iTunes will not run on Windows 98. It requires Windows 2000 or XP. IIRC, this is due to the requirement for Unicode support, which the 9x versions of Windows don't have.

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Ta for the input so far - informative and useful. Reps will follow as usual.

I'm debating whether to go with Creative or Sony :scratch:

I'm pretty certain there's a conspiracy. You want a pod thing, but no - need USB 2. So you have to buy a upgrade. Or, as in my case, you have to buy a whole new PC. It doesn't seem that long ago that things lasted and just worked - no complex compatability issues.

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Just get one like mine- it reads CDs with MP3s on them, it also reads normal CDs so if I nip to buy a CD I can play it on my walkman without needing two.

And in all fairness, you'll get about 7 CDs on one blank CDR at 192 kb/s so that should be enough for any manageable visit, all your PC needs is a CD Writer, and no faffing around with iTunes/USB/owt else.

Mine also has a radio... it's a Sony so it takes ATRAC as well.

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Which Sony? My Sony's (the 1GB flash player from about a year ago) gorgeous but the software's rubbish. It will work on Win 98se though, according to the blurb.

Don't know if they've recognised the existence of mp3s yet .. they try to make you use their ATRAC format (which of course, no-one else on the planet does :erm:)

;)

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This one - I like the shape: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...085415-2234274

The Creative ones have a radio though.

I'd probably only use it around the house and at work at the weekends, when it's quiet. I don't want anything bulky I have to lug round with me.

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You can usually get a PCI card with USB2 sockets on reasonably cheaply these days. I don't know whether the iPod will just not function on USB1, or whether it will just complain but work slowly.

Last time I know someone tried plugging in their iPod to a computer that has USB1 they kept on getting messages on screen saying that they needed Hi-Speed USB or something similar.

ATRAC is the proprietary compression scheme they use on Minidiscs. I believe the Minidisc was a Sony invention, but they've obviously licensed the technology out to other companies to make Minidisc products - i.e. Denon.

I suppose they feel that it's in some way superior to other compression technologies such as MP4 (AAC) and MP3. Betamax, anyone? ;)

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Well Apples AAC encoding is also proprietary, so Sony is not exactly acting any different to Apple in this regard.
Sony have provided the ATRAC licences far more widely than Apple have the AAC licence. So far only Dell (who have since given up I belive) have created a AAC decoding player.

IMHO ATRAC is a superior compression technology, it is at least equal to AAC.

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I like that one too; very cute :) And the Sony website implies it works directly with mp3s (my 1 year old NW-E99 can, sort of, using a really crappy file manager (imagine the one on windows 3.1 but less easy to use and with only a tenth of the features) though it turns up its nose to some mp3s so I have to convert them to ATRAC instead :mad:)
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Yes, ATRAC is good if you rip directly from CD to ATRAC, but no-one does this. What people actually do is convert mp3s. And when you convert from mp3 you lose some of the quality, and you end up with an mp3 version and an ATRAC version of the same track clogging up HD space.
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And it's what you get if you download from Sony's Connect site - DRM and all :td:

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But it (and the apple play MP3s so why (apart from the problem you mention).
So converting MP3 (a poorer relation to ATRAC) to ATRAC highlights faults in the resampling process or highlights that you have converted a lossy sound into a less lossy sound and can hear the difference, same as converting an MP3 to a AAC.

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The sony NW-HD5 (don't know about the other Sonys) does handle MP3s directly. Still has to convert WMAs though :( .

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As does an iPod.

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The newer Sonys do now support MP3s as well as ATRAC.

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Just my 2 cents.

To rip the audio of the cd's I use a nice free little proggy called Cdex, then use the Creative software supplied with my Zen Micro to upload the mp3's to the player. :D

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The bean shaped one I gave a link to says "Supports all popular digital audio compression formats: ATRAC / MP3 / WMA (non-encrypted) / WAV" and isn't available until October, so must be the latest model. Having said all that, Amazon describes it as "512MB" but as featuring "1 GB flash memory". Hmmm :scratch: Would help if they new what they were selling :D

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I hadn't noticed until I checked the Sony website - they do 1GB beans and even pink ones. Possibly pink might suit me better :D Interestingly, the 1GB black is described as having "512 MB flash memory" :erm: Bit of a mix up methinks.