Community Newsletter: Q&A: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection
- 10/20/05 5:49 PM
Thanks!
by BC'85 - 10/25/05 8:24 PM In reply to: RE: I tried and need help by midfingrAfter a bit of trial and error, it worked. The keys were making sure that I checked every box in record and play and checking "what you hear" in the roxio software.
The Roxio software has meters as well as multiple finishing and cleaning options.
I was attempting to save (and did) a 20+ year old tape of an album long out of print.
Many thanks. This entire feed above was key.
Digitizing Analog Sources
by kameha1 - 10/22/05 9:28 AM In reply to: Digitizing Analog Sources by David LevineHi,have used this software with some degree of satisfaction.
http://www.polderbits.com/
Digitizing Analog Sources
by ellenash - 10/22/05 9:01 PM In reply to: Digitizing Analog Sources by kameha1I found out how to do this right here, on this forum. I use MusicMatch Jukebox, which was recommended by several people. I do use a cable recommended right above this post. It plugs into the back of the stereo - which plays vinyl or cassette tapes, and then into the computer. The problem is the tracks - with most of the old records and tapes, you have to type in each track, which is really annoying. But, you only have to do it once, so I guess it's not that bad.
Keeping it all with MusicMatch lets me use music from any format - CD, cassettes and vinyl and put them all into my music library.
I'm not a kid, and I'm not a techie - I'm a grandmother. I didn't know how to do it, but the posts to this forum helped walk me through it all, and in one afternoon, presto! I was recording vinyl to my computer, then making CDs of them to play in my car. How neat is that! So, if I can do it, so can you! Happy listening!
Digitizing Analog Sources - Try audacity
by RichM - 10/25/05 5:34 PM In reply to: Digitizing Analog Sources by David LevineA free program that I've use successfuly is audacity. It work very well but you will have to experiment with it. I used an old tape player using the earphone output to the external input on the computer (not the mike!). It did a fair job taking music from old cassette tapes. You create one or two big files and then manually divide them into the song files. It may take a while to get the hang of it but for me it was worth the effort.
MusicMatch Jukebox
by hack49 - 10/21/05 3:23 AM In reply to: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Thanks for the suggestion of Audiograbber, which I'll now try.
For years I have used MusicMatch Jukebox - also available as a freebie - which I've found handles interformat conversions well as well as being good burning software.
I'm not saying is the best, or even better than anything else, but I've found it reliable and very easy to use.
MusicMatch USED to be good
by seamusiv - 10/21/05 6:35 AM In reply to: MusicMatch Jukebox by hack49I have to say that I am a fan of MusicMatch - I own a lifetime license. But in recent years, somewhere between the upgrade from version 8 to 10, it became an unwieldy audioplayer that is a HUGE memory hog.
I now have 3 audio players on my machine, all for different reasons, and wish I could somehow combine them into one.
For tagging music files, MusicMatch is the best. With a licensed version you can 'supertag' multiple files with ease. Look up CDDB and apply what you find quickly.
For a slim, powerful music player that doesn't hog your system, I like MediaMonkey. You can play tracks from other drives on your network and you can run it from your system tray.
For purchasing music, iTunes is the way to go.
MusicMatch JukeBox
by rimbaud - 10/21/05 7:08 AM In reply to: MusicMatch USED to be good by seamusivI think MusicMatch JukeBox is a great all-in-one solution, especially for those unbale to run iTunes (Windows versions previous to XP). I don't think it's a "memory hog", but must suffer from a "memory leak", or some other problem. It has become "buggy"... I don't run it at work anymore (on my Windows 2000 machine), because it will often cause my system to reboot on exit from the program.
MusicMatch 10.0
by wdelabarre - 10/23/05 4:21 AM In reply to: MusicMatch Jukebox by hack49I've had to uninstall MusicMatch 10.x because it's too buggy(I'm using Win XP). Ver. 9.x is the one that works best.
Great topic, great response..Pedantic point: CDs are digital
by richwig - 10/21/05 3:28 AM In reply to: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your CD collection is already digital. Compact discs provide two channels of sound digitized at 44.1 kilohertz sampling. So technically you're converting from one digital encoding scheme to another. MP3 and other new formats provide pretty good quality with far less storage space required.
But it was already digital, and already high quality.
Winamp
by mtxoracle - 10/21/05 3:35 AM In reply to: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First i would like to congratulate Scott Z for a great, complete answer.
Now i prefer Winamp to be my personal music player ripper/encoder. with a host of plugins to personalize it and skinable interface, you can do almost anyting. Theres even an ipod plugin, for your next step in to digital muisc, Edward. I would also advise you to invest in a larger hard drive or a 2nd hard drive.
My seccond choice would be iTunes, its verry well supported and the most popular player bar none on the market right now.
My winamp is noisey...
by - 10/30/05 12:06 PM In reply to: Winamp by mtxoracleWhen I use winamp I get lots of background noise. Kind of a hiss/static thing. This happens when I'm listening to my own files as well as streaming audio. I've used a few different versions of WA and think that I'm using the latest right now but I've always gotton the noisey playback. I find JetAudio, RealA, and WMP much quieter.
Is there something wrong here? I'd like WA to play just as quietly as the rest...
Slightly Inaccurate...
by cdreis - 10/21/05 3:42 AM In reply to: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It should be noted that reducing the "bit rate" does not reduce the ends of the audio spectrum, it affects the entire spectrum.
Bit Rate refers to the number of times that the audio is sampled each second. If there were ten 1khz notes in one second of audio, and you were sampling at a rate of only 5 times per second, then you would loose all or some of half of those 1khz notes.
At bit rates of 128k+, you can't actually loose whole notes-- you loose parts of the harmonics and interactions between sounds, resulting in less presence and realisim. At a low enough bit rate, the audio waves would have so much missing that the distortion becomes audible.
Try CdeX 1.51
by gonzalo_san_gil - 10/21/05 3:53 AM In reply to: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
You can choose among a variety of formats an decide what you like more while listening. In a format, you have to consider quality, not only compression rates. And only you can decide which you like more... after listening and weight the balance between saved disk space and final quality of the compresed file.
Only your own ears must decide...
I Hope I have helped...
other audio converter freeware here
by shirtforbrains - 11/11/05 11:28 AM In reply to: Try CdeX 1.51 by gonzalo_san_gilI tried CDex 1.51 and it appears to be a great freeware audio program w/all the bells and whistles. I am running win98SE and encountered too many bugs/issues with it, when all I want is a user-friendly converter.
Switch is the answer for me
Download.com keyword Switch
Switch is a program for Windows that lets you convert audio files from one format to another. All major audio file formats can be loaded and converted using this program.
WMA destroys music more than it needs to, don't use it.
by edge_bit - 10/21/05 4:11 AM In reply to: 10/21/05 Best format for digitizing my CD collection by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
WMA sounds awful in side-by-side tests with MP3 and the original WAV file.
The reason is WMA adds a strange reverse-reverb to everything. Then end result is everything sounds "swishier" as each sound is preceeded by a kind of "echo".
WMA is -NOT- a format you should ever use.
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