Easy MP3 PLayer

Hmmmm Your new Motto is VERY sinister LOL

Sorry for the typo, 980gb should have read 980mb

Uhhhmmmmm? hahahahahaha

I see most songs are around 6Mb and up to 10Mb. Could only download in MP3 format. Now I did this from my computer copy and paste music saved in My Music. Maybe it would be different if I saved them direct from a CD? Dunno, I am but a novice when it comes to puter stuff!!!! It was exilliarating enough just be able to download on to the flashcard lol

are they still MP3 (on your fashcard?) format or have you some how converted them to audio or wave?

All MP3....Nudie

still I fit more songs on 1 CD than that, they only hold 700mb...
Then again, most operas are big.. :P

PS. I got thousands of MP3s here..

Just some info on mp3 file sizes for those interested. I'm sure a lot of you will already know this stuff, but some won't.

Wave files (.WAV) are totally uncompressed, in the exact same format as an audio CD, and a single song is usually around 50mb. MP3s and WMAs are both compressed WAV files. Both MP3s and WMAs can be compressed to different levels. The further you compress an MP3 or WMA, the smaller the file size will be. Generally speaking, MP3s are compressed to either 128kbps (kilo-bits per second) or 192kbps (a WAV file is around 900kbps from memory). At this level of compression a single song is usually around 4 to 6mb.

WMAs (Windows Media Audio) are generally compressed further than MP3s. WMAs are usually compressed to 64 or 92 kbps and therefore have smaller file sizes. It is generally assumed that WMAs can be compressed futher than MP3 but still retain the same sound quality, due to a different compression algorithm. So in theory a 92kbps WMA would sound about the same sound quality as a 128kbps MP3. So WMAs are generally between 2.5 and 4.5 mb.

Now, when WAV files or CD audio tracks are compressed to either MP3 or WMA, there is loss. That's why you hear people describing MP3 as *near* CD quality sound. Now I've compressed and listened to many MP3s in my time and can confidently say that I can not tell the difference in sound quality between a 128kbps MP3 and a WAV or CD track. Some people reckon they can tell the difference even between 320kbps MP3s and WAV files / CD tracks, but I say they're either pulling themselves or have superman style supersonic hearing. Or maybe I'm going deaf at 24, who knows?

So, when using the smaller capacity MP3 players (up to 2gb), space is obviously at a premium, and you want to fit as many songs on there as possible. When downloading music off the internet, it's usually already in MP3 or WMA format and therefore you have no control over the compression rate. There are ways to recompress files but I won't go into it right now. But, when you're ripping your own audio CDs to MP3 or WMA format to stick on your MP3 player or to burn to an MP3 CD-R, you can choose which format (WMA or MP3) and compression rate (kbps) you would like to use. You can do all this using Windows Media Player and a normal CD-ROM drive, I can post the details if people are interested.

So, I say, use the WMA format if your MP3 player supports it and compress to 64 or 92 kbps. If it only supports MP3, compress to 128 kbps.

And then there's ID3 tags..... Another story.

Geez, that turned out a bit longer than I expected. Any questions?

matt

G'day mattlobie,

only that mb is a "millibyte"

a Mb is a megabyte :)

and a Gb is a gigabyte

pedantic corner, as the Coodabeens would call it, but a pet hate of mine.

I'm nowhere near MP3 but find this very interesting. Still got the 'ol tapes and CDs in the car, prefer my vinyl at home though.

am very interested in those details you have offered to post.

pretty cool to be able to have my whole Hendrix collection and more packaged like that in the car.

you prefer viynal and tapes....geeesus you are ancient........but thats whats got me buggerd....if ya that old how do you know the difference between bewteen mb/Mb

mattlobie

Thanks for the info. Had to print it out to read properly but get the general gist of it. Needless to say it will need more experimentation on my behalf and to get this OLD brain working so that it recognises what it is doing lol

My music I have ripped from CD to the computer in MP3 format and have downloaded to the Flashcard as such. I see however one of the songs is 20Mb in size. I must have downloaded the music at premium clarity or something like that. Anyway its no big deal.. 111 songs is enought to keep me amused. Can always borrow the missus' flashcard if I get sick of my music

yeah, yeah - mb/Mb. That's just my lazy typing. :)

Ok, I assume what you're interested in, Bushfix, is the use of Windows Media Player to rip CDs? Tapes and LPs can be done too, but that's a much more complex process. Again, let me know if you're interested.

Just in case we don't already know, the process of compressing CD tracks to MP3/WMA is referred to as "ripping", just as copying tracks/data to a CD-R is called "burning".

I'll make this quick, cause I've got work to do. Ripping CDs is pretty simple now days. Just stick you're CD in you're CD-ROM, CD burner etc drive. Assuming you're running a recent version of Windows and Windows Media Player (you can download the latest version from the Microsoft site if need be) it should automatically start playing your CD momentarily. If WMP (Windows Media Player) doesn't start playing your CD, just go into My Computer and double click your CD Drive icon. I recommend that you be connected to the internet before you load the CD because if you are, WMP will find the details of you're CD including artist and song titles, along with a bunch of other stuff. That info is really useful and will save you a lot of time typing it in manually and is also important for ID3 tags which I mentioned briefly in the last post.

I'll explain ID3 tags briefly now, but it's not important to know what they are or how they work because WMP will look after it all for you.

ID3 tags are a little part of each MP3 or WMA file wich contain all the info relating to that particular file/song. Some MP3 players, especially the older or cheaper ones, will display only the file name of you're MP3/WMA file, whereas newer MP3 players will display the ID3 tag information. Players which display the ID3 tag instead of the file name are preferrable for a bunch of reasons that I won't go into right now. The ID3 tag contains a whole heap of info including the artist and song title along with album name, genre, year of release and a bunch of other stuff. So the point of this is, if you let WMP find the details of your CD from the internet, all this info will be saved automatically and you won't have to worry about it or get annoyed by nameless MP3 songs down the track.

I sould mention here that WMP can only find data for comercially released CDs, so if you stick in your own mix CD that your mate Cyril burned for you, it won't be able to find the track info.

Ok, so now that WMP has found the CD info, all the track names should be displayed in the play list on the right of the WMP window, and the front cover image from the CD might be displayed in the bottom right. Towards the top of the window there are some selection tabs: "Now Playing", "Library", "Rip", "Burn", "Sync" and "Guide". Click on "Rip". The screen will change and all the tracks from your CD will be listed on the left of the window with a check box beside each. Make sure the tracks that you want to rip are checked, and the tracks you don't want ripped aren't checked. Now go to the "Tools" menu and choose "Options". The Options window will open, choose the "Rip Music" tab at the top.

First, look at the "Rip music to this location" section of the window. Press the "Change" button to choose where you're MP3s/WMAs will be saved to. I think the "My Music" folder is the default. Now press the "File Name" button. This window lets you choose how your MP3/WMA files will be named. You can choose whatever file name format you like but I'd recommend the artist and song title divided by a dash ("-"). This format is preferrable for MP3 players that display the file name of each track as opposed to the ID3 tag. Once you get more experienced you can experiment with folder structures and other things to catalogue your files differently. An example of your file name format will be shown at the bottom of the window. Press OK when you're happy.

Now look at the "Rip Settings" section of the Options window. This is the most important part. Choose a format from the drop down box. Choose Windows Media Audio (WMA) if your MP3 player supports it (the MP3 player documentation will tell you if it does) or MP3 otherwise. Ignore WMA Lossless and WMA Variable Bit Rate, they're irrelevant at this level.

The next thing you need to look at is the Audio Quality scroll bar. Choose your desired kbps quality (look at my previous post for recommendations). Hit OK and we're ready to rip, so to speak.

Ensure you have the check boxes of you're desired tracks selected and press the "Rip Music" button towards the top right of the WMP window. Depending on the speed of your computer, it will take a few seconds to a minute to rip each track. Once it's finished, go and look in the destination folder that you chose and you'll find your new MP3/WMA files which will be ready to copy to your MP3 player or to burn onto a MP3 CD-R.

It might sound a bit tricky at first, but once you've done it a few times, it's straight forward.

K, gotta go do some work. Again, let me know if anyone wants to know more or has questions.

matt

Don't you hate it when you mix your "yours" up? That's a pet hate of mine, and I offended badly in that post.

matt

wow, thanks for the reply matt, very comprehensive. yep, just cds to mp3 right now i guess. windows mp (think i have the latest version from download, #6?) and we are still quite happily running windows 95 on our old dell pc which is 8 yrs old and has not missed a beat.

i have heard and can understand that vinyl is a much more complex process. tapes i only use in the car due to their hardiness, although i do have a few old jazz (django reinhardt/oscar peterson), aust band releases (anyone remember saracen? john meyer from rose tattoo fame played for them, what about allegiance? a great perth metal band from the early 90s) as well as bootleg tapes of gigs i went to on my trips abroad.

your reply is very helpful, I am not too far from a Jaycar so may start investigating. Bruce's reference to otr is inspiring, although i had kazaa on my pc for a while and it gave me the first class bleep s, well i am only on dial up.

g'day nudie, yeah i do prefer my vinyl, have a Rega3/Lux/DCM Timewindow set up at home and there is a lot of my life tied up in my record collection, built up over the years. it is nice to be reflect or be in a particular mood, have a particular song in my head and be able to lower the tonearm down to the plastic and smile. don't like having to turn them over however if i am busy in the kitchen. tapes are a necessary evil with some of my collection as i alluded to above. i like the "ancient" remark, (36 for the record) I like to think of it as "well schooled" perhaps. but as willem is finding out, there are great benefits with new technology, although i would confine it to car use i guess. the technical stuff is from my employment (at the bleeding edge of data comms technology) after i stopped working in the music industry.

thanks for the post willem and thanks for the advice from matt et al.

Version 10 is latest WMP. Not sure whether it runs on Win95 though.

Vinyl and tapes aren't that tricky, it's basically a process of hooking up the line-outs of your turntable/tape deck to the line-in port on your sound card. Then you need to find a program that will allow you to record from the line-in port, usually in WAV format, and then simply convert to MP3/WMA. There are lots of programs around that will do this.

It's the actual editing process that is time consuming. Because LPs and tapes don't have "tracks" as such like CDs do, you need to record each song individually. Or an easier way is to just record the whole side of the LP or tape as a single file and then use a program like CoolEdit to split it up into tracks.

The other issue is that you have to enter the ID3 tag info manually, which can also be time consuming. But there are programs around like ID3-TagIt that can assist you.

So it's not terribly difficult, just a bit time consuming and fiddly. Obviously the sound quality doesn't match up to CD sourced MP3s either.

Yeah, Kazaa isn't great on dialup. There are quite a few legality issues with it at the moment too, especially in the US. So I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of Kazaa users start to dissapear from it. I'd be a little aprehensive downloading music from it too.

matt

Yes that is a good way to while awy the hours

If your into old books/ and Old Time Radio shows from 20's onwards. Search Kazaa etc for OTR (old time radio)..
got 400 of em for the olds, they are radio shows, radio plays etc..

Hi Peter

The interior of my cabin is a mass of wires with fag sockets everywhere. In fact I have disconnected some!. It is an auto-electricians nightmare. Some of the red wires are positive and some are negative...hahahahaha

Yes I have played the device on an independant fag socket but it got a bit hot after a couple of hours( could have been the sub though)

No, if you turn the unit off it goes back to Number One. But that does not worry me all that much. I normally skip 20 to 30 or so songs forwards or backwards and go from there.

Having had the dubious "pleasure" of working under Willie's bonnet, I can honestly confirm that his current tag line is very true......"Dull moments are rare".....hehehehe

With red wires that are NEG and black wires that are POS.....you can't take ANYTHING for granted on Willie's beast. I thought my wiring was a nightmare until I worked on Willie's..... ;-))))

Roachie

is he colour blind?

No Richard

I just have a disctinctly different way of doing things....hahahahahahaha

Yep thats the one

Luckily we live in the Outback and here FM is a rare commodity.

Funnily enough I got good reception in Melbourne. I stick to 87.7 freq. Seems to be the least used

Cheers

If your antenna is a manual one,you could try keeping it pushed in. If it a automatic you could splice a switch into the Power Antenna wire.

Haza - The 4by has a window track antenna.... one of those ones printed on the rear glass. It's very good at what it is desifned to do - pick up radio stations..... :(

Yeah like trailers costing $1000 more than over here.

The free lunch was good though....but maybe my ExplorOz discount card has expired....hahahahahahaha