I'm a novice regarding MP3 in general, and if there is a FAQ that I
ought to read first, please let me know. - What I would like to do is
get either an IPod or other MP3 player with fairly substantial memory
(perhaps 4GB to 8GB) suitable for recording classical music (mostly
ripped from my CD collection) in an uncompressed, high quality format.
Some classical works are 30 - 45 minutes in length, so I'm thinking that
it may take lots of memory, particularly since it wouldn't be compressed.

If you were going to do this, what would you look for in a player, and
what process, or program, would you prefer to use to rip the music to
your PC and then store it in the MP3 player? Is there anything you would
look for in the player (do I need removable memory chips, for example),
and what program would you use? Would you prefer an IPod or a generic
MP3 player for this application, or does it make much difference? Would
$200 be a reasonable price for such a unit?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jim Cate

JimC wrote:

I understand that the WAV and AIFF formats use little or no compression
and should therefore provide better sound quality. - But I don't know
how or when you use these formats (e.g., when ripping the CD to the
computer, or when downloading to the player, etc.?), or where you get
them. Also, would they work on both IPod and generic MP3 players?

Jim

JimC wrote:
Well, first let's figure out about how much memory you'll be needing.
Could you give me a guess as to the total number of hours of recording
you want to fit on the MP3 player?

Personally, I have an iPod Video (30GB) which I've very happy with.
However, I don't use the supplied iTunes software to rip my CDs into
MP3s. Rather, I use Exact Audio Copy, and then I import the MP3s it
creates into iTunes.

Since you aren't sure what brand of MP3 player to go with, I would
suggest you get one of Apple's iPods. They are made to be easy to use,
and should you have any trouble, there are millions of other users out
there whose knowledge and experience you can draw from.

JimC wrote:
None, actually.

You would use these formats, like any other, when ripping the CD to the
computer.

WAV and AIFF will both work on the iPod. Some, but certainly not all,
MP3 players support WAV.

But I seriously recommend that you try some high-quality MP3 settings
before going down that road. The reason I say this is that because the
best MP3 you can make will be about four and a half times smaller than
the same piece as WAV or AIFF.

If MP3 is not satisfactory then you still have another choice open to
you: "lossless" compression. Lossless compression cuts down on the size
without affecting the sound quality. It's a bit like putting a WAV file
into a ZIP archive. Few players other than the iPod support any lossless
compression formats, though.

NRen2k5 wrote:
It would be nice to get around 10 classical works on the player
(although 5 would be OK). If they average 40 minutes each, 10 would be
7.5 hours. To throw some numbers out for an initial estimate, and
assuming that the uncompressed format would use lots of memory, and I'm
guessing that this would be equal to around 37 hours of uncompressed
music. (Correct me if this is way off.) I don't know what length a
typical "song" would be, but if it's 4 minutes, for example, that might
be equal to around 555 songs? - How many Gigs is this?

Obviously, I could get by with less, but if I'm going with only a few
selections, would it then be better to get a player with memory chips
that could be plugged in to play particular sets of music selections?


Why do you use Exact Audio Copy?

If I used an IPod, does that mean that I would have access to a bigger
selection of music, particularly classical works, on the web from
ITunes? Or would the results be the same or better if I ripped them from
CDs I already have? I'm assuming that it's free with your own CDs, but
that there is a charge on ITunes. - Anyone know how much the charge is
for a 40-minute symphony or concerto, for example?

Thanks for the information.

Jim

"JimC" <avocat5@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:ZPBth.37037$Gr2.1650@newssvr21.news.prodigy.n et...
May I ask why you think you want/need uncompressed? I'm not saying you are
wrong, but you may be assuming that your biggest concern is the 'fidelity'
of the audio quality.

I say this question on the assumption that you are likely to be using this
for listening to music 'on the move', and you are going to be using
earphones rather than headphones to listen to it. In which case I would say
that you'll (probably) be fine with 'decent' * (256kb/s)compression because
the benefits of 'lossless' are probably going to be lost between the machine
and your eardrum.

Of course, if most of your listening is in a relatively quiet office or
suchlike, you'll not have a problem; but be aware that you'll still need
very good headphones to make lossless really worthwhile.

I suspect that a more significant problem you are likely to meet is that a
lot of classical music has a very wide dynamic range and you may find that
you need to adjust the volume to effectively listen to the 'quiet bits'
whilst not deafening yourself in the 'loud bits'.

If you have a budget of $200, I'd suggest you spend $75 on good quality
headphones/earphones and get whatever player takes your fancy. I've had good
times with Creative and I like the fact that they don't force you to use
iTunes software to control what audio files get onto your player.

Hope this helps

Owen

*Lossless will give you between 2.5 and 5 CDs/Gigabyte
Hi Q lossy (as WMA) will give you between 3 and 9 CDs/Gb
Best mp3 will give you between 5 and 7 CDs/ Gb
Decent Quality mp3 will give you about 9CDs/Gb
Reasonable mp3 will give you about 12 CDs /Gb - 'Reasonable' is pretty good.

I've no idea how good the 'ipod' format is, but there are downsides to going
down the 'Apple' path.

JimC wrote:

A Wave file is about 10 Mb in size for 1 minute of music. so a 30 minute
piece would be 300 MB in size. You could fit about 20 of these on a 8GB
player. I have a song on my computer playing now that is about 26
minutes long and is about a 30MB MP3 at 192 kbs cbr. for most stuff I
don't hear much difference @ 192 KBS.

I use CDeX to rip cd's. I have used Exact Audio Copy, both use lame to
make the MP3's, Either is better at making MP3's that Itunes wich uses
an older technology. I found CDeX easier to configure, and worked well
right after installing. I had to mess with Exact Audio Copy to get it to
do what I wanted.

John

John Karpich wrote:


Per my previous note, do some MEP players or IPods offer removable
memory chips? This might make it more convenient to switch out files I
wanted to listen to that week.

Jim

JimC wrote:
Yes, there are MP3 players out there that allow you to swap memory
chips. However, if you're going to be putting your music on in a
lossless format, you're going to need very large-capacity memory chips,
which would make doing so more expensive than just getting a large
hard-drive based player like the iPod Video.

Here's a simple calculator to tell you how many songs will fill a certain
number of GBs at different bit rates.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/calculator

"JimC" <avocat5@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:ZPBth.37037$Gr2.1650@newssvr21.news.prodigy.n et...
In addition to my previous post, you may also not be aware that when ripping
from CD to mp3, you are going to get audible gaps between the individual CD
'tracks'. I understand that there is software that will rip multiple tracks
into a single file without introducing gaps, and I'm sure someone will
recommend one.

Owen