Mp3's, Music for the Masses

Or

Grabbing, Ripping and Burning Fundamentals

Honestly, I never thought the music would come back. I thought all the work from the early years was lost forever. Then two remarkable things happened. Talented artists began to reemerge, and the music became accessible. I mean real accessible.

Now, there appears to be some controversy associated with this subject. It is not my intention to start a debate on the ethics of unbridled music file transfer. However there are a few points I have no trouble defending. In the days when vinyl was final, an artist would release an album, a compilation of songs. You would, for your money, get 8 to 10 cuts, of which one or perhaps two were throwaways. Somehow we have ended up at a point where more often than not, you hope when you get a disc, there is at least one other listenable cut besides the advertised one. The way I figure it, the record companies are starting to reap what they sowed. To make the situation more laughable, the few folks who are screaming the loudest about the horrors of music downloads, espouse much different values in their published material.

The point is moot anyway, we have crossed the Rubicon. Fast, efficient file transfer is here. It will only get better. Mp3's provide the ideal format to learn the basics. They are the next logical step in the integration of the net in our daily lives. Mp3's are simply a lot of fun.

I still don't hear folks chatting it up about exe's or dat's. Not so with mp3's, people are interested in this file extension. Mp3's are third generation mpeg's. Mp3 is the file format. It is a much more efficient format than the wav file. Generally, an mp3 will be about one eighth the size of a wav file of the same audio. It is analogous to the jpeg being a compressed version of the bmp for our graphics files. The beauty of this standard is that the compression usually goes unnoticed. Mp3's sound pretty good. Admittedly, they may not suit the audiophiles, but that market segment with dedicated listening rooms and the time to enjoy them, may have to just sit this one out. If you're movin' and listenin', mp3's are a big deal.

It's true mp3's are everywhere on the net. Some folks are happy to give them to you. Some people develop groups to trade files back and forth. Some places would prefer that you pay for them. There are also quite a few slightly different ways to transfer these files. You will probably recognize Napster, Scour, Scour Exchange, Gnutella, Rioport, mp3.com, and maybe even mIRC.

Not only does it work, I have the deepest respect for Shawn Fanning, so Napster will be our Grabber of choice. Mr. Fanning, in a period of months has managed to show us what the future holds. At this point, bandwidth is the only real limitation. The system works very well. Remember we are talking about a Beta release with over two million users. So, if you haven't already, slip over to Napster and download and install a copy. Go ahead and get your screen name options ready because that is going to be the hardest part of the install. You cannot easily change your screen name; so if you worry about those things, pick out a few you can live with. By the way, the screen names are case sensitive.

Since I want to run through the steps involved in locating, transferring and listening, I will focus on one method. I know this works for a lot of people and I personally feel it is the best way for someone to learn the ropes. From there, anyone can change any part of the process to suit his or her needs.

The rest of the decisions you make at the install are configurable, so if you change your mind no big deal. I would suggest you make a folder beforehand in the root of "C:" assuming one hard disk. This folder will be home to the mp3's you download and upload. Otherwise by default Napster will use the folder at "C:\windows\program files\napster\music".

Yeah, you are going to become an uploading client. In theory you are not a server. Napster has the servers, they do not store any mp3 files. The files you receive will come from someone else, through the server to you. It really is a community. The idea is that we should all share. Sometimes that just is not possible, due to connection, time and bandwidth considerations. Under "Preferences" from the "File" menu in Napster, there is a way to only download, by setting the "Maximum simultaneous uploads" to 0. Find it at "File > Preferences > Sharing". Obviously, if no one allowed downloads the system wouldn't work very well.

Some of you are probably starting to think about the security implications. Anytime you are connected to the net, security should be considered, more so when you are tied to one server for an extended length of time. I think it only prudent to have measures in place you are comfortable with. Remember, you want to protect against viruses and Trojans any time you are on line. I can assure you that Napster takes security seriously. I think the Napster server in the middle makes this method inherently more secure than some of the other transfer techniques. That is an underlying reason for my suggestion to try Napster first.

Ok, when the Napster software is up and running, the search tab is the place to start. The two main fields are Artist and Title. As with any search engine, it will take a little experience to achieve the best results. My suggestion here is to fill the Artist field and leave the Title field blank, in the beginning. Some files are better than others. If it is a popular track, the default 100 files will return. The ones nearest the top, with the lowest ping are closest to you net wise. That is a consideration. You will also see that there is a color code on the left hand side. Green is reserved for the members with the best connections; in general the files with the green code will result in the most stable download. Also check the file size and bit rate. You will get a feel for the correct size, by comparing the same songs with the same parameters, primarily the bit rate. Above when I mentioned the relative size of mp3's to wav's, bit rate played a part. The higher the bit rate the better the potential quality, more bits are being used to define the music. The file size is increased accordingly. Again, it is a matter of personal choice, but a lot of us seem to feel 128 bit/sec is a good compromise. It takes a pretty good set of ears to judge the improvement as you move to the higher bit rates. I have made CD's with source files of various bit rates by the same artist on the same CD. No one yet has mentioned it to me. Either they are very kind, or they can't tell.

Go ahead and pick a song, hit the "Get Selected Song" button and watch the transfer screen. If neither of you drop a connection, you should have a song in mp3 on your drive. Since most songs are mixed with radio in mind, they have a three and a half to four minute run time that will translate to a 4 or 5 meg download. Your mileage will vary.

Repeat as necessary. Your borrowed library begins. Napster ships with an mp3 player, so you can listen right away. You can't really listen to the data file itself, it has to be decoded and switched to analog at some point or your eardrum won't move. You may have another player on your system, the new Windows player will support it, Real Player will be more than happy to help. I'm still dancing with the one that brought me. I like WinAmp. Sonique consistently gets high marks. Recently, a few very nice players have been released. Sonic Foundry has one out. Their reputation is very high. I'm sure the MusicMatchBox 5.1 is worth a listen. My experience is far greater with the tried and true WinAmp, I like the ability to customize the way it looks and I like the visualizations. Napster makes it very easy to switch the default player for your mp3 files. In Napster v2.0 BETA 6 go to "File > Preferences". The default option is right there on the Personal tab.

What about all the CD's you already own? What if you want to add those to your mp3 database? You may want to build playlists that incorporate songs you currently have only on CD. You may want to let others upload some of your favorites. To accomplish this you will need a Ripper. This is software that digitally extracts audio from an AudioCD producing an exact copy without loss of quality. The extracted information then must be Encoded into a format, in this case mp3. I use Audio Catalyst. It combines their Audio Grabber software with the Xing Mp3 Encoder engine in one intuitive, well documented, highly configurable package. I think it is well worth the $30. You can down load a trial, to see if you agree.

There are many options here, and new software is constantly in release. Quite a few are shareware or freeware. If you search the usual suspects, you can experiment with the various products. I am staying with Audio Catalyst at this time.

All right, we have a way to bring in mp3's and a way to convert our AudioCD format to mp3. We can listen to them on the machine with a player like WinAmp. If you have a portable mp3 player like the Diamond Rio or a Sony Clip you can upload a selection of songs to the units memory and use it the same way you would a Walkman. Nice, but there is so much more ahead. Currently the hardware technology is catching up. A few mp3 players for the home entertainment center are in release. Diamond has an add-on to allow an mp3 drive to be integrated into your car stereo. There is a portable unit out, about the size of a videocassette that will hold about 1200 songs on its' drive. The Phillips Expandium is in release. This portable CD player will play discs burned with mp3's and also conventional AudioCD's. The point is that the inherent file size will drive the hardware development. Keep in mind that a conventional CD-R at 650 meg can hold 150 songs or more in mp3 format. That's over 10 albums on one disc. As with all new electronic devices, there will be a period of refinement, then competition, then the consumer wins.

Let's move to the last step. While we are anticipating the eventual flood of machines and gadgets to play the mp3 on internal drives or from our mp3 burned CD's, we can still take advantage of the files we are collecting and transfer them to CD's to play on the equipment we already own. Naturally, a CD writer will be used for the final burn.

The area that needs the most attention and seems to cause the most confusion is converting the mp3 data file to a wav file. Some of the aftermarket burning software will handle the task. Nero Burning Rom and CDRwin are in favor with many folks. A word of caution, due to the nature of this software, there can be conflicts between burning programs. I avoid conflicts like the plague. If you are using WinAmp, so can you.

Let's review, you have a folder/directory that holds your mp3's, you have WinAmp, and you listened to the files and know you have the full song, and you want to make an AudioCD to play in the car, or the changer, or the Discman or whatever. Just like the CD's you already own.

For housekeeping purposes, go to Explorer and make another new folder. This one will act as a temp folder for the wav files we are about to make, to burn to the CD. Mine is in the root of "C:". Name the folder what you must and bring the name with you.

Your basic CD-R will hold 650 meg of data "or" 74 minutes of music. So, don't worry about the data size, concentrate on the length of the songs. Make a playlist in WinAmp. Keep your total time under 74 minutes. Yes, if you have an 80-minute CD-R, you can have 6 more minutes, if your burner doesn't mind.

With WinAmp open, get to the "Preferences" menu. Ctrl + P is easiest. Under "Plugins" select "Output". About the second file down on the right, should be "Nullsoft Disk Writer plugin v*.* . Select it, and click the configure button. Browse to the new folder you just made and named. Highlight it and click OK. Click close on the "Preferences" menu.

Two important things to check on the WinAmp interface: 1) Make sure the Repeat button is off. 2) Make sure the Shuffle button is off.

When you're ready, hit the Play button. You will hear nothing. But the song title will be scrolling thru the window and there should be some activity in the visualization window. It will encode at about 4x, and stop when finished. Third important tip: 3) Ctrl + P and set the plugin back to "Nullsoft waveOut plugin". Don't worry, you'll forget.

Ok, you can open Explorer if you like to make sure you just ate up the better part of a gig in your new folder. The software that came with your burner can handle it from here.

A quick tip or two for the burn. Close all unnecessary programs, just like you would if you were installing new software. If you are going to burn, burn. Also, you should be able to choose "Disc at Once" in the burner software. That will eliminate the two-second gap between tracks.

If you have a sound editor and you edit the wav file, to remove dead air on the lead- ins or lead-outs or add reverb, it's a good idea to defrag your drive before you burn. Editing leaves a lot of spaces for your Hard Disk to maneuver around.

I suggested that the folder for the wav files to be burned was temporary, after you have checked out the newly burned CD, go ahead and delete the contents of that folder, and you will be ready for your next mp3 to wav conversion.

I used the word Fundamentals in the subtitle; this field has a lot of interest and is changing rapidly. There are a few sites on our links page that you may find of interest. Our e-mail is always open. If you would like to volunteer some tried and true techniques that work for you, I will be happy to collect a few and put up a "Lurker's" Tip's page. If you think you have a suitable name for the potential tip page, submit that too.

Until Next Time,

Renovator