MP3 stuf
MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. Does that really mean anything to us? Probably not. We want our music, we want it hot, and we want it to go. Basically, in a really tight nutshell, it is compressed music. How is it compressed? Well, that is a very long discussion that you can check on some other sites, but suffice it to say that programmers and engineers have figured out how to make music sound almost as good as a CD at almost a 90% compression. Pretty cool, eh? That’s how it’s possible for a one gigabyte Ipod™ can hold 240 songs when a 700MB CD that you buy only holds 10-15 songs.
Plus, don’t let anyone tell you that you’re going to have to buy all your music over again to fill up your new audio player (even if Apple would love it if you did), when you can legally copy your own discs to your hard drive, no matter how much Sony™ hates that. So, how can we get our collection of music CD’s all compressed down so that we can listen to them on our brand new MP3 player…
One of the first places most Windows XP™ users will want to look is good old Media Player. While this is a pretty cool little tool, Microsoft only wants you to use their WMA format (Windows Media Audio) or you can buy an encoder to allow you to make MP3’s but do you think I would let you do that? C’mon, you know me better than that by now. The neat little tool I love to use is called CDeX. Now this is a cool utility. It lets you make a copy of any audio CD or any song on the CD into just about any other music format you would wish to use. Also, it will compare your CD to an online database to find the title of your disc, all the songs. Another tool you may also love if your discs have become damaged and have a couple of skips in them is called EAC, or Exact Audio Copy. This tool does pretty much everything CDeX will do, but will even be more paranoid about making sure it is getting the most complete picture of your CD that it can. You could also use this tool to make a new disc, and it could even rescue one that had become unreadable on some of your other players.
As to playback, most of you probably use Media Player to listen to music on your computer, but I like to use another little player called WinAmp. You may have heard of it, you may have not. It’s not the quick and dirty little media player it once was, but rather has become something that is trying to compete with other, larger jukebox style programs, but I still like the functionality it provides, and because it is so customizable. Now that you have all your CD’s on your hard drive, and the jukebox you’ve always wanted is now in your back pocket, I think my work is done for today. Later!
Plus, don’t let anyone tell you that you’re going to have to buy all your music over again to fill up your new audio player (even if Apple would love it if you did), when you can legally copy your own discs to your hard drive, no matter how much Sony™ hates that. So, how can we get our collection of music CD’s all compressed down so that we can listen to them on our brand new MP3 player…
One of the first places most Windows XP™ users will want to look is good old Media Player. While this is a pretty cool little tool, Microsoft only wants you to use their WMA format (Windows Media Audio) or you can buy an encoder to allow you to make MP3’s but do you think I would let you do that? C’mon, you know me better than that by now. The neat little tool I love to use is called CDeX. Now this is a cool utility. It lets you make a copy of any audio CD or any song on the CD into just about any other music format you would wish to use. Also, it will compare your CD to an online database to find the title of your disc, all the songs. Another tool you may also love if your discs have become damaged and have a couple of skips in them is called EAC, or Exact Audio Copy. This tool does pretty much everything CDeX will do, but will even be more paranoid about making sure it is getting the most complete picture of your CD that it can. You could also use this tool to make a new disc, and it could even rescue one that had become unreadable on some of your other players.
As to playback, most of you probably use Media Player to listen to music on your computer, but I like to use another little player called WinAmp. You may have heard of it, you may have not. It’s not the quick and dirty little media player it once was, but rather has become something that is trying to compete with other, larger jukebox style programs, but I still like the functionality it provides, and because it is so customizable. Now that you have all your CD’s on your hard drive, and the jukebox you’ve always wanted is now in your back pocket, I think my work is done for today. Later!
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