[zesty]

Right. Some of you seem to be into music, and some of you will be wanting to know how to rip your own music. I have spent a bit of time learning about this stuff, enough to know that others know much more about it than me.

There is a guy at misticriver.net called DreamTactix291, he knows heaps about this stuff, so I am just going to direct you to some of his easy to understand writings.

But first a bit of a synopsis.

Most players will run .mp3 files, so these are very popular. Geeks get into .ogg because it is open source, is smaller than .mp3 for the same quailty, but does require more processing power so chews battery faster and isnt supported by that many players.

The best ripping program is Exact Audio Copy (EAC). It will rip badly scratched CD's very well, will handle most codecs and is free and I think open source. EAC will also connect to FreeDB to get all the mp3 tags for each song from most albums.

So the links.

This link is about codecs, what is out there, how they compare, ect.

This link is about using EAC, where to get it, where to get the codecs from and how to use it.

Big thanks to DreamTactix291

a

[Blakey]

Top job, zesty-yo-yo.

I used to use CD->MP3 converter before i realized how crap it was and got EAC.

And mp3tag is a wicked program for tagging. Saves hours of time.

Heres a link:

mp3tag - greatest thing ever

[Blakey]

Hey zesty, are iRivers better than ipods?

I'm gonna get an mp3 player soon and i got no idea about this stuff. From what i've read about iRivers they are damned xpensive. Do they make mini iRivers too?

Thanx in advance.

[zesty]

A better one, IMO is The Godfather, harder to use, but way more powerful than anything else out there.

In fact here is a bunch of links to all things audio.

a

[Flippy]

u can just use the new windows media player to rip music. nothing easier

[zesty]

Or more sure to produce shitty rips. Now if you are using poor speakers or headphones, then who cares what it sounds like. A good rip will still sound crappy through poor gear. But one of the nice things about digital music is you can keep it forever. So when you are older and have more money and think $125 is a good price for a pair of Sennheiser PX 200 your old rips will still sound good.

a

[Kiwi]

sure u can keep it forever, but y wld u? just get better copies when the software for ripping gets better. i mean, is it really likely that we will keep songs we ripped now for 10-20 years? stick with whats good enough now, update it when its not good enough any more.

[DeejAy]

does any1 no of some software that will convert WMA's to MP3's?

[zesty]

EAC will do it, but you will lose quality....

Going from one lossy format to another will result in lower quailty files. If you want to try it go back and forth a few times, after three or four times it is almost not worth listening to.

a

[DeejAy]

is EAC free?? i just have about 50 odd wma files that wont play on an mp3(only) player but mot really worried about the quality much as they arent very good anyways as they have been leeched...

[zesty]

Yep, free as the birds. I think it is open source. See link above, the EAC tutorial has a link to it.

a

[DeejAy]

i tried EAC but i dont think it does wot i want it to do, so i might go look 4 sumpin else.

[Ratbob]

what the???????

please explain

[DeejAy]

please explain wot???

[Flippy]

now i use 'easy cd ripper' it works quite well and i rip music at 256k so it is acceptable quality rather than the crappy 56k from 'audiograbber' i used to have

[The King]

asiif i jus use windows media player 10...
you can change the quality to the best or really crap...
personally the best is beta but yu might think otherwise...
and then jus burn usin nero...

[Acoustic]

what does "rip" mean

[AMD]

^....um....."steal"?

[zesty]

As important as the number (like 256k) is the codec you use. mp3 comes in two forms, Blade, which is old and crappy, and LAME which is much better and still getting better. The programs like WMP, EAC and Easy CD Ripper just run these codecs, so make sure your codecs are up to date.

a

[DeejAy]

ohh, i am learning....

[Fabian]

Quote

are iRivers better than ipods?

Yes and No.

Okay -- ipods are evil cause everyone has them, because they aren't geek friendly (no advanced options), because you are stuck with iTunes and because they cost a lot of money.

Unfortunatly, iRivers aren't a hell of a lot better than ipods, they are expensive, don't do much, use proprietry software.

At the end of the day, I would want you to have a look on ebay. You can get a Dell 20gb MP3 player (brand new) for the same price as a 1gb ipod nano.

But remember, big brand mp3 players (especially hard disk models) have a really awesome sound quality, a rich and deep acoustic sound emulation, whilst cheap shit things will have a tinny sound.

All a bit of a trade off really, but at the end of the day, I would call it personal preference.

I own a 2GB Ipod Nano... and I fucking hate it.

[sm1DDy]

erm i got my iriver pmc that plays video and its 20gb if i remeber rightly and was the same price as a shitty ipod mini when I brought it.....

All depends were you buy your shit I guess mine does all I need portable hdrive music video etc built in speaker tis nice.

[Firewater]

i got an N-Gage free, from Nikki (LOVE U LOTS), and it's frikn awesome for an mp3 player.

[Kortex]

I have a 1gb iPod Nano and I am blown away at how good the sound quality is. Especially since I used to own a shitty no name brand mp3 player that used to sound like absolute crap.

However, iPods are pretty bloody expensive for what they are. Still....I got mine as a gift so I'm not complaining.

[sm1DDy]

Yer I was put off ipod by itunes and all that other junk so I went iRiver cause I was able to buy cheap from America.

I got the iRiver portable media centre 20gb plays movies, music , pictures, has tv out, speaker, acts as a portable drive via usb carry all my data round also has removable batterys. The file formats are a bit restrtictive but you can port via win media player which converts them if you wish to make it work.

I reccomend buying somethin like a iRiver h320 and modding the firmware thats pretty cool jeanz runs it and it looks nice.

The dell looks good for a mp3 player but its got no proper screen and missing some other features and the price I saw was $279 when I originally only payed about $300 for mine a while back and the extra features like video are well worth the pennys.

Dell mp3 Player:



iRiver Portable Media Center:

This post has been edited by sm1DDy: 31 August 2006 - 10:45 PM