LOTS of questions about good burners, software, and MP3's

[Terp]

Greetings,

I about to finally buy a CD burner and was looking for recommendations...I checked out the Plextor 12x10x32 I hear everyone talking about and it sounds sweet, but is the added price worth it? I am not sure how often I will re-write and could save some cash getting one with 4x rw (seen a creative and a few others for under $200.00)...thoughts?

Also, I have been told CloneCD and Diskdoupe are good ripping programs...Is one better than the other? What software do most people use when burning CD's (audio and data)?

Any favorite sites to download MP3's from? I tried Napster last night, but not too fond of sharing my directory with other users and downloading stuff from other dial-up users...Tried http://www.mp3.com and a few others and each had a few songs I was looking for, but no one site seemed better than the other.

As for the CD's, I am sure not all are created equal Any one brand stand out from the rest of the pack? Do I need different CD's depending on what I am burning (i.e. Audio or Data)? DO you buy them based on write speed (say 12X), or by capacity, or a combination thereof?

I heard some audio CD's will not play in all CD-Players, like my car for instance...some would just be recognized by computers and standalone MP3 players...So do I need a higher quality CD to burn the audio to, or do I need a special program?
...Or is it the quality of the Burner I am using that will determine whether my car CD player will play it?

If making CD's for my home or car's CD player, what format do I burn them in?

Do I have to convert MP3's to .wav's to burn them? If so, this seems like it will reduce the overall quality...true?

I seem to have missed the music/MP3 revolution, so trying to get onboard now ...any help/comments/advice you have is more than welcomed!

 

[Silencer]

I've had good experiences with Hewlett-Packard Burners and I would reccomend them to anyone!

For ripping I use Musicmatch Jukebox (www.musicmatch.com)

I use Napster and NEWSGROUPS for all my downloading (alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.*) also www.oth.net works pretty good. And with Napster,you DO NOT have to share with others.

And all CD ARE generally the same except for capacity. I use Verbatim and they work fine!

With E-Z CD creator there will be an option to make audio CD's. just turn the cda/mp3 to wav and you're all set!

You can burn MP3s to a CD but they won't work in a CD player. You could get a MP3CD player (mamboX or MPTrip) to play those CDs

Advice: Don't share Metallica on Napster.

that's all!

 

[Rankor]

Try this 'little' gem of a site:

http://www.dailymp3.com/noframe.html

I personally use:

Nero for burning,
MusicMatch JukeBox for Ripping, and
MaPlay 1.A for playing MP3s.

Not many people have heard of this MP3 Player but it's been around from the beginning when all of this MP3 craze started off (circa 1996). MaPlay is a great app but not as full-bodied as WinAmp is today.

 

[Terp]

...so you have to burn MP3's as a .wav file to play on regular CD-players...does this reduce the overall sound quality? How about burning regular store-bought music CD's to a disk...same .wav format?

 

[helloedchen]

only thing i would say is if you can get a scsi version, go for that. I went through an IDE and a scsi and I have to say the scsi provides a lot less buffer underruns and other odd things that can cause coaster creation

 

[konichiwa]

CloneCD and Diskdupe are not 'ripping' softwares, but rather CD copiers. CloneCD is a raw-write copier that will copy many types of protected CD's (usually games). If it will not copy, you can go to http://www.gamecopyworld.com and that site can give you instructions on how to copy a protected CD.

As for mp3's, the best place (by far) to download mp3's are newsgroups. If you ask your ISP or visit their website, they will most likely have a News (NNTP) server that you can use. IF you download Forte's Agent (http://www.forteinc.com) or Free Agent (the freeware version) and subscribes to groups under the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 tree.

The best program for burning mp3's to CD is Nero 5.x It will convert mp3's on the fly to CD format so you don't have to use Winamp's DiskWriter plugin to convert them.

To rip mp3's, the best way is probably to get AudioGrabber and use an encoder plugin. The best plugin's, in order, are Radium's Fraunhofer's encoder (although it is only available through Radium, a warez release group) and then Lame Encoder. That is a free encoder, new versions are released almost every week. Do *not* get AudioCatalyst. It uses the AudioGrabber ripper (which is good) but uses the Xing encoder, which is definately the worst. Music Match Jukebox works okay, except it uses the MP3Enc encoder, and Lame is a better encoder, and it is free.

About the burner...you might regret getting a 4x burner, because it is VERY slow compared to that fast Plextor burner. It might be worth the extra cost to get the Plextor burner, they are the best brand of burners on the planet, bar none. Check the Hot Deals forum to see if there are any current bargains on that or any other Plextor Burners. They are WELL worth the money, believe me. You might also want to try the For Sale/For Trade forum, someone might be selling a burner.

CD's...well, some brands of cd-r are much better than others. If you visit http://www.cdmediaworld.com you will see their huge database of information about cd-r/w's. The cheaper CD's (especially when combined with a cheaper burner) won't work in some CD players. For instance, cheap-o CDs burned on my Philips burner won't work in my car CD player, however, those same CD's will work in my car player when burned on my Plextor drive. I have found that TDK and Imation discs are the best for the price. You can usually buy Imation's in packs of 100 on a spindle from as low as $29 from Staples after their Sunday Circular comes out.

Hope I answered your questions...feel free to keep asking.

 

[hubbs]

Yup use Nero that way you can burn mp3's and they will work on basically any cd player. If you burn your audio to a CD-RW they will more than likely just work on your computer and NOT your home or car cd player.

I have had good luck w/my HEWLETT PACKARD burner it has got the job done for me.

I use scour exchange to download songs. It's fast and easy and you don't have to worry about the Napster Infringement thing.

That's what I would go for. Hope that helped.

 

[mosdef]

Terp... mp3s were (in almost all cases) once wavs. MP3 is a highly-compressed audio format, meaning that inherently some quality (how ever little it may be) is lost; wav isn't. So converting to wav will result in no loss in quality. However, you won't really have to worry about this because many burning programs today do the conversion on-the-fly. Just make sure your software is updated. For example, if you buy that 12x Plextor (which I highly recommend), you will get the latest Adaptec Easy CD Creator software). Also don't buy into that "music" CD-R bs. Even a salesman at CompUSA admitted to me that there is no difference between music CD-Rs and regular CD-Rs, it's just a marketing ploy. Any CD-R can perform as any audio CD.
Hope that helped!

-mosdef

 

[Terp]

Good call on the Newsgroups, guys...Many thanks...there are a *bazillion* songs in there

Yea, the Plextor seems to be favored everywhere I read...next *hot deal* I can find, I'll go for broke...although the HP does get very high praises, as well...I'll keep an eye out for both and keep researching.

I am reading up "ripping" and "burning" and all this jargon now... sure more questions will surface

Danke Schon

 

[Terp]

That shows how far behind I am...I thought MP3's were a digital type format of high quality music, not a compression type as mosdef mentioned...I sure have some homework to do!

 

[Workin']

As far as "audio" CD-R's go, it's NOT A MARKETING PLOY!!!!!!

The audio quality is the same whether you use a "data" or "audio" CD-R.

There is a legitimate use for them - that is if you have a stereo component CD writer (Phillips and Harman/Kardon are two companies that make them, among others). This type of recorder will not work with "data" CD-R's. The "audio" CD-R's have a subcode flag set to tell the component recorder that a royalty has been paid to the recording industry. And here's why -

The electronics industry's refusal to pay royalties on DAT (Digital Audio Tape) blanks for consumer decks in the mid 1980's led to the introduction of SCMS (Serial Copy Management System), which allowed only one generation of digital copying (i.e., you could copy an original but not a copy). Unfortunately SCMS was proven to introduce audible artifacts and thus led to the demise of DAT as a consumer format. DAT is still alive in the professional arena but there it is not burdened with SCMS, since it is used pre-mastering and not typically available to the general public.

The DAT/SCMS debacle led to the royalty scheme on audio CD-R's to avoid the destruction of yet another new format.

When the electronics companies announced plans to produce a consumer-oriented CD recorder (i.e., one you can put in your stereo system that looks like a stereo component, and has no other use than to record music), the RIAA threatened with never-ending lawsuits unless the format either 1)prevented digital copying (via SCMS or another scheme), or 2)paid a royalty on blank media. Since a CD recorder that can't make digital copies is not very appealing, the electronics industry agreed to tack on the royalty fee to the blanks, plus set the proper flag on the disc to indicate that it has been paid and would therefore work in an audio-only recorder.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but now you can spread the word to all the others who are confused by this same question.

Also, try as many different MP3 encoders as you can, and try lots of different settings, using the same .wav file. Listen carefully, let YOUR ears decide what you like best. There is a huge difference between the various encoders, and plenty of overlap between them, quality-wise, depending on bit rate, etc.

Spend the money and get as good and fast a burner as you can.

 

[Train]

if you dont like sharing your directory while on napster, ( a major drag if you have a lot) just move them to a different directory so napster cant find them, or even put them in your recycle bin if you cant get napster to stop searching your whole hard drive, then after you have signed on, just restore them from the recycle bin, saves a lot of time.

 

[konichiwa]

Terp

MP3's are a digital music format. Just a compressed one. Basically, songs, when "ripped" from a CD are in WAV format. WAV is 1:1 compression...so a minute of music takes up approximately 10Megs. MP3's are about 10:1 (depending on what bitrate) so a minute if music is about 1Meg.