Kevin, Thanks for the very detailed and helpful message. I'm leaning in the direction of Windows Media, and the lossless format sounds like the ideal. I don't want to lose quality if I can help it, and you're right, memory, in the form of external hard drives, is quite reasonably priced right now.
Thanks again, Scott ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Lloyd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC audio discussion list. " <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 3:09 PM Subject: Re: transferring music collection to hard drive > Hi Scott. > > I'm using windows media player to archive my CD collection using WMA > lossless as my choice of format. > > As it says, it's a lossless format and so quality is guaranteed. > Therefore, > if you want to burn to CD in the future and play on a real hi-fi system, > you're going to get the full frequency range. This is where I've noticed > the compression in MP3 files that otherwise sound great when played on a > computer or portable device. > > There are other lossless formats but I think those have disadvantages. > Flak > and OG aren't really supported out there in mainstream players very often > whereas WMA is and I don't think Microsoft are going to go away too > quickly > so the format will be around for a considerable number of years. WAV is > uncompressed and so is larger than WMA files but even more of a > disadvantage > is that you don't have any ID3 tags in WAV files. > > A typical WMA lossless track of about 5 mins can be around the 30MB mark > but > memory is cheap. > > I convert my music down to 128kbps on the fly when loading up my portable > MP3 hard drive player so there's no problems in taking at least some of my > collection with me when I travel. You could though create MP3 files from > the WMA files by using a program like Goldwave. Because you're converting > from a lossless format, you are able to go ahead and create files in other > formats from your WMA masters without losing quality due to mixing and > matching of formats. You will of course get quality degradation by > reducing > the bit rates. > > So, just to be clear, I rip to WMA lossless and keep those files as my > archive masters. I store them on an external hard drive and don't touch > these again. If I want to shrink the music to take away from the > computer, > I use Goldwave to create new smaller MP3 files or use the morph function > that comes with my notmad explorer software to shrink the music on the fly > as I load my Creative jukebox. > > Regards. > > Kevin > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Scott Blanks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "PC audio discussion list. " <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org>; > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 3:46 AM > Subject: transferring music collection to hard drive > > >> Hi folks, >> >> I have a number of cd's that I am considering copying to my hard drive; > I've >> had those discs for many years and I am concerned about deterioration > and/or >> scratching, etc. However, I don't know what file format I should convert > the >> tracks into. I have free versions of Real Player and Winamp, and of > course, >> Windows Media. With those, I know I can choose between mp3, WMA, and >> possibly another format using the newest version of Winamp. What I would >> like to accomplish is converting the tracks into a high quality file that >> does not take up too much space. >> >> For those of you who have converted a large number of discs into audio >> files, what format did you choose and why? Should I shell out money for a >> more powerful program than the ones I've already mentioned? >> >> Very curious, >> Scott >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... >> http://www.pc-audio.org >> >> To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _______________________________________________ > PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
