What is an mp3 and how is it used?
Most computer users have heard of mp3 files but not many know what they are and fewer yet know how to make them.
The Basics:
An mp3 file is an audio file that has been compressed. The name MP3 stands for Mpeg 1 Audio Layer 3. The human hearing range is between 20Hz to 20 KHz and it is most sensitive between 2 to 4 KHz. This MP3 model among other techniques tries to eliminate the frequencies which the human ear is unable to hear keeping all the hearing frequencies leaving intact the hearing experience. The advantage to this type of encoding is that the mp3 file is significantly smaller than the original audio file. Where an original music cd will contain approximately 20 songs the same cd with mp3 music on it will contain approximately 80 songs with very little noticeable sound quality loss and twice that amount of music if you’re willing to sacrifice on the quality a little. Many home, auto cd players, and home DVD players will now play mp3 formatted discs. The media player that came with your computer will also play these mp3 files so saving these files to your computer will save room on your hard drive as well allow you to build custom music play lists which can be burned to disc or transferred to a portable player. The biggest demand for these types of files is portable mp3 players such as Mac’s “Ipod” or RCA’s “Lyra”. If you have or are going to purchase one of these devices you will want to know how to make the music files that play on them.
The tools I will be using to show you how to make these files are the programs that come with Windows XP.
If you have Windows XP and have not upgraded to Windows Media Player 11 you should do so. It is a free download from Microsoft on their Windows Update Web Site. If you are using an earlier version of Windows such as Windows 98, ME, or 2000 then Media Player 11 will not be available to you. The best alternative for that would be to get the free version of Real Player Media Player from www.real.com . This is a free download but you will have to submit some registration information.
NOTE: There can be substantial penalties for copyright infringement. I do not recommend downloading ANY music that is not purchased. It is perfectly legal to take a cd that you have purchased and make mp3 files of the songs to play on your computer or portable mp3 player. There are also web sites that sell mp3 downloads which is also legal but the cost seems just as high or sometimes even higher per song than if you went out and purchased the CD and got the original quality music. Most of the mp3 downloads you will find on the internet are of lesser sound quality than you can make yourself.
With all that being said… let’s get started. Making mp3 files from audio CD’s is called “Ripping” so first we need to “Rip” the music!
1. Take out your favorite music CD, plop it in the CD drive on your computer, and close the tray.
The first thing that pops up when the computer recognizes the disc is the following window…
I have selected the “Rip Music From CD” option. Then clicked on the OK button to get the next screen…
close up… this is what you will get the first time in order to set the program up for the type of file and quality that you want.
Here I have ticked the “Change My Current Format Settings” button and then click ok.
Next we get the following screen…
Close up on the smaller inset screen…
As you can see I have chosen the mp3 format and ticked the eject CD when ripping is done. Notice the Audio quality slider… here you can adjust the quality of the music from near CD quality at 320 Kbps all the way to the right which I have done. Personally, for decent listening of music, I would not go lower than 192 Kbps but that is my personal preference. You can play with the quality settings and find a setting that you are comfortable with. Just remember that the lower the quality the smaller the file size and the smaller the file size the more music you can fit on a disc. If you have a special folder you want your ripped music to go to you can specify that location at this time. I have left it at the default location.
Once you get the settings done click on ok and
you will have the media player open in front of
you. Since we started out with the first screen
to Rip the music from the CD, the player
should have started ripping automatically
when you clicked ok on the settings page. If
for some reason the ripping process does not
start automatically you can click on the
"Rip Music" button on the right side of the
title bar.
The screen will look like this…
You will notice that each song is labeled with the song name, the artist, composer, music genre, and length of the song. This will only happen if you are connected to the internet at the time you are ripping the CD and if the CD information is available for the CD you are ripping. Most CD’s have this information available. I have run across very few that haven’t. The ripping process is generally very fast with the default folder for your ripped music to go to in the “My Music” folder located in the “My Documents” folder. When it’s done you should have a file folder in “My Music” labeled with the Artist's name and inside that folder another folder labeled with the Album Title and inside that folder the individual mp3 files of the songs on the CD labeled with the song titles, Artist, and Album. If you rip more than 1 CD by the same Artist each CD will automatically rip the music
to a new file folder in the Artist's main folder. The folder will look like this when you open it...
Congratulations… You have just ripped the music off an audio CD and now have the files in your computer. You now have control over these files and can make custom play lists, burn them to CD, transfer them to your portable mp3 player, or listen to the music right on your computer without the need of a CD in the tray.
Let's go through the process of burning the mp3 music to CD. Fortunately with Windows XP you do not need a special burning program to accomplish this task. All you need is a blank disk and a burner. Most blank discs sold these days will hold 700mb of data so we can't exceed that. Let's start where we left off with the ripping process...
Here I have clicked once on the top left file, the first file in the folder, to highlight it. If you look in the lower left corner of the screen you will see the details for this file. It is 5.77mb in size. Now we could click on each file individually and add up the file sizes but there is an easier way. Hold your shift key down and click once on the bottom right file, the last file in the folder. Now all the files in between should be highlighted too and should look like this...
Now look at the detail section on the bottom left. The total file size for all the highlighted files is 86.0mb. Well if a disc will hold 700mb then we need a whole bunch more ripped music ripped to fill it up but this is a start. With all the files highlighted now go up to any one of the files and right click once. You should get a something like this....
Here we want to go down the main menu to "Send To" and then over to the smaller menu and click on CD-RW. That is your CD burner.
What is going to happen is that all of the highlighted files are going to be sent to a temporary file that we will burn later after we get enough music compiled to fill the CD. When you click on the CD-RW the following shows up...
You can click down where the balloon points to and go to the temporary file. It looks like this...
Here is where it's a good idea to have a custom play list already compiled to fill the CD so you only have to do this once but you can repeat the process until you get enough to fill the CD. It should look like this...
I have highlighted the entire folder to check the total file size. Here it is 684mb which is under the 700mb restriction and nearly fills the entire disk. There 79 full songs here. Now look at the left side of the screen near the top where it says "Writing Tasks" and click on "Write These Files To CD". A wizard will start and guide you through the burning process. Here is the first screen...
I have given the CD I am about to burn a name and have checked to close the wizard when it's done burning.
Click next...
Here you have the option of making a standard audio CD, like the one you just ripped, out of these mp3 files or making a data CD. We want this disc to be in the mp3 format which is data so that is what I have checked.
Click on next...
Here is an option to convert the files into a Highmat compatable CD. I have no Highmat devices so it is not necessary. If you have Highmat devices then you can choose this option and convert the files. The conversion process is automatic but does take a little time.
Click next...
This is the screen you see while the CD is burning. When it's done the wizard will close, your temporary file folder will close, and the CD tray will open holding your completed CD.
Congatulations!... You have now successfully ripped and burned yourself an mp3 CD.
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