What is the benefit of a

If you have ever spent hours searching for a CD, tape, or vinyl album, only to find that the song you thought was on it, isn’t, then you know how difficult it is to try to locate a particular song the old fashioned way. Or maybe you’ve gone through every storage place in your home looking for that CD to no avail. Later you find it in your spouses car, or even your own. Although you listen to music in many places, a CD can only be in one. And then there is that favorite song on a CD full of garbage. Why carry a CD of 12 songs when you only want to listen to one of them? In the past, maybe you made cassette tape compilations to get over this dilemma. Or at least tried it once or twice to be put off by the fact that it takes at least the length of the tape in time to do so, usually more. So to make a 90-minute cassette tape of your favorite songs, you spent one - two - three - fours hours, and then on the last song, the tape ran out of room - with only 10 more seconds of that final song to go! If you’ve experienced any of these dilemmas then read on. A digital library will help you solve all of the above problems and more.

· Listen to the CD your spouse has in the car, because you have a digital copy on your hard drive.

· Make a compilation of all those “one song wonders”, so you never have to listen to the 11 other tracks of junk they put on that CD.

· Make a compilation CD of your favorite tunes, and create a label immediately. And if the last song won’t fit, you’ll know before you begin to burn the CD.

· Never lose a CD again, because if Uncle Harry borrows it and never returns it before going off to Bora Bora, you have a digital copy.

· Make a birthday, New Year, anniversary, etc., compilation to play at your party. Fill it with only the tunes you want and then either make CDs or distribute it digitally to your home stereo for playback right from your computer.

· Select, play, and control your music from anywhere in the house by using a network player.

· Take your music jogging or on vacation in a device that can hold thousands of songs but weighs less than a portable CD player.

· Record your vinyl and analog tape collection to digital format – burn them to CD for listening in your car and/or listen to them via your computer.

· Use the same tools that allow you to transfer your CD’s to hard disk to listen to Internet Radio from around the world.

Making a Digital Library

How can I build a Digital Library?

There are several ways to build up a “legal” mp3 library. File sharing systems such as Napster and Audiogalaxy, may be a quick way to get a lot of mp3 files, but as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for”. Beyond the copyright issues peer2peer swapping engenders, many people are disappointed in the sound quality of the files and find that trying to organize them is a long and painstaking process. My advice is to use your current CD collection, vinyl albums, and tapes. While there is some time and effort involved in getting your CD collection recorded to your hard drive, you will have a legal, and if you follow the tips I’ve collected here, great sounding and organized collection of your music. After you have cataloged all of your CDs, convert your vinyl records and analog tapes to add to your collection of digital music, and then see what files you want to pay for on the Internet vs. acquiring by buying the CD.

What is ripping?

Ripping is a term for “digitally copying” the audio from an audio CD. It is similar to copying a file from a floppy or CD to your hard drive. Programs like AudioStationâ, MusicMatchâ Jukebox, Windows Mediaâ Player, and Real Oneâ all of free versions and are available on the Internet for download. All of the ones mentioned will allow digital copying and cataloging on your hard drive of CDs you “ripp”. We’ll talk more about programs for ripping in a minute.

One of the other benefits of “ripping” is that if you are connected to the Internet and use a program that is partnered with Gracenote™ or All Music™ CD Database services, the program will also retrieve the track number, album title, artist, track name, durations, and the genre of music from the Internet. More on how this will help you organize your music collection can be found later in this article. For now, just remember that whenever you “ripp” a CD, it is best to use one of these services (they are free) so that your music can be organized by Artist, Album, Genre, and Title.

What audio file format should I ripp to?

There are many different file formats that can be used to store audio files on your PC. The one most of us have heard about is MP3, but depending on the program you choose, you will be presented with some other options. There are also file formats for streaming and compressing video that we will not explore in this article. Just be aware that you will also see files types like wmv (Windows Media Video) and mov (Quicktime).

Each of these formats uses a codec, which is a small piece of software used to either encode (make) an audio file or decode (play back) an audio file. The codec converts the audio to the file formats specification.

Like other pieces of system software, the audio codecs work behind the scene to convert bits and bytes to sound. The codecs are associated with file formats, and the file formats are what you really need to understand.

File Type	Extention	Description
CD Audio	cda	Developed by Phillips and Sony, the spec calls for stereo audio sampled at 44,100 kHz with a 16-bit word length. A new standard SACD (Super Audio CD) is now available that can store up to 7.1 channels of music and may use a 96kHz sampling rate. These SACDs require specialized equipment for playback and are not widely supported at this time.
Wave	wav	A Microsoft format that is a one to one copy of the audio on a CD. The file header of CD Audio is the only information removed when CD audio is “ripped” to your hard drive. Wave files can be recorded at various bit and sample rates. For CD quality audio use 16bit / 44.1 kHz. The MS standard does allow for some tag information to be saved in the file. Very few programs access this feature. AudioStation, AudioSurgeon, Sound Forge, and Cool Edit are ones that do.
MP3(MPEG Layer 3)	mp3	Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany as part of the MPEG video standard. The audio portion was quickly seized as the de-facto standard for compressed audio files. MP3 uses perceptual encoding. The encoder analyzes the audio, and removes sounds that you would not normally hear. For example, when listening to a loud passage in a song, audio information for instruments that are inaudible in the background is removed. That is why you will hear the term “lossy” compression applied to MP3 and WMA files. The inaudible information is permanently removed from the file and can never be recovered. Fraunhofer has a patent on the technology and software programs must pay to use the decoder and encoder. Recently an open source foundation called L.A.M.E. (LAME Ain’t An MP3 Encoder) has developed an encoder that is being widely used by software manufacturers because it does not require the encoders portion of the royalty. Don’t be put off by programs using the LAME encoder, as many audiophiles believe that it produces a more natural sounding compressed file. You can find more info at http://www.mp3dev.org/mp3/. Information on the Fraunhofer codec is available at http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/
MP3PRO	mp3	A new perceptual encoding scheme developed by the Fraunhofer Institute to counter the smaller file size of the Windows Media format. MP3 pro files compress audio by a factor of twenty, so CD Quality audio files can be encoded at 64/kbps. A MP3PRO file can be played back on the older MP3 decoders, but they will not sound as good as when played back on a decoder developed for MP3PRO. You’ll find more info at the Fraunhofer site mentioned above.
Windows Media	wma, asf	Microsoft quickly realized the potential benefits in developing its own proprietary format for compressing audio. The Windows Media formats have evolved since Windows 98 and are widely accepted and used for both streaming media (asx & asf) as well as for storing digital music on your computers hard drive (wma – Windows Media Audio). Like MP3, Windows Media formats employ “lossy” compression techniques. The Windows standard also includes the ability to digitally lock an audio file so that it can be used on only one computer or for a limited amount of time. This feature, called DRM (Digital Rights Management), can also be applied to files that you “ripp” to your hard drive. In most players it is an option called Secure Files. Unless you are a musician preparing original files for the internet, you should insure that this feature is turned off. Windows Media 9 for XP and Windows 2000 is in beta testing right now and promises even smaller file size as well as a lossless encoding scheme with file sizes smaller than wave files.
Real Media	rm, ra, rmj	Real Media was the first company to push video and audio streaming via the internet. Their encoders and players (decoders) are quite good, but are very proprietary and like Fraunhofer require royalties. Very few player other than RealOne will be able to play files encoded in this format. Like WMA, Real Media files can be secured with DRM copyright management. And like MP3 & WMA, Real Media files employ “lossy” compression.

Below is a breakdown of the most popular file formats and the benefits and disadvantages of each:

File Format	Size in Megabytes for a 3 minute song	Pro’s	Con’s	When to Use
Wave *	30 megabytes	True one to one copy of a CD track - no quality loss. Best for archiving of vinyl and tape recordings or for recording original music.	Large file size, ID tags not supported in most players.	For original and archival material not on CDs. Vinyl and tape recordings to hard disk.
MP3@ 160kbps *	3.1 mb’s	CD quality at 1/10 the files size, Full ID tag features for organizing, your music. The largest available number of hardware and software players and recorders.	“Lossy” encoding – (some redundant parts of the WAVE files are eliminated and can never be recovered) Slightly larger file size than WMA and REAL	I recommend this format for all material already saved on CDs.
MP3Pro@ 64kbps	1.6mb’s	Smaller file size for similar quality when compared to MP3 160kbps	“Lossy” encoding, smallest number of software / hardware programs and devices that support format	Material already saved on CDs.
WMA @ 96kbps	2 mb’s	Smaller file size for similar quality when compared to MP3 160kbps	“Lossy” encoding, only Artist, genre, album, track number, and year are saved in the file. Not compatible with some hardware / software programs and devices	Material already saved on CDs.
Real @ 96 kbps	2 mb’s	Smaller file size for similar quality when compared to MP3 kbps	“Lossy” encoding, smallest number of software / hardware programs and devices that support format	Material already saved on CDs.