>So let me start over. I know next to nothing about recording music to >iPods. What is the best way to save cassettes/records to an external >hard drive for future use (dubbing high quality to CD's), as well as put >them into iPod/iTunes for listening. I already have the hardware (USB >converter/turntable), but don't know which software and methodology to >use. Win XP SP2 Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.
First thing you need to decide to evaluate all the advice you are getting is the quality of recording you want to save. Formats like WAVE are lossless, but you still get digitization errors so they are not perfect and the file sizes are huge. Lossy formats like MP3 have much smaller file sizes because they remove extra information based on psycho-acoustic theory. The amount of compression is variable and at high bit rates the loss is insignificant. (Of course the audio nuts who think they can hear the difference between a tube amplifier and a transistor amplifier will differ on this.) So your first question is whether a high-bit-rate MP3 is sufficient for your purposes. If the answer is "yes" everything gets much simpler. Also consider if you are going to keep your original source discs. If you keep them you can always go back and digitize them again when a new technology arrives that nobody has thought of yet in 2050. The decisions you make for yourself are going to be very different than the same decisions made by the Smithsonian. ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive from 1/1/2000 is on the MARC http://marc.info/?l=computerguys-l * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
