GaryCat

Hi,

I'm planning to buy an MP3 capable ICE system later in the year but want to start building up my music collection now. I'm hppy with CDex/LAME as for recording but do I need any particular settings to make sure that the mp3 files I create will work with whatever system I choose.

I.e. any suggestions for bitrate, ID tags, directory/file layout etc etc.

Cheers
Gary.

BigRed

i have a kenwood MP3 changer, I encode all my MP's at 192kbps this gives a near CD quality sound. I you are putting your MP3's onto CD do not burn at more than 8x speed, if you do you may find that the cd will skip and make strange noises, I have learnt this from previous attemps.

The kenwood changer does not display ID3 tags, so you have to try to remenber the tracks you have burnt to your discs, this can be a pain in the backside.

BigRed

dnb

I'll second what BigRed said (I have the same Kenwood setup)
I use a one level directory structure - I have a directory for each artist & have all the albums mixed in the dorectory. (The kenwood changer setup uses numbers to indicate directory and track, so a shallow structure is easier to remember... Quite easy, as it orders the dirs alphabetically)

Big Col

I've got an Alpine 7893r.

I've only burnt one disc with 122 mp3's in the one folder so I'm no expert on any folder problems.

As the other folks have said encode at 192kbps.

My Alpine displays the id3v1 tag. So before burning the mp3's to disc I had to go through all the mp3's and tidy the tags up. Most of my CD collection has been ripped with the id3v2 tags so I had to copy the details over to the id3v1 tag.

The only problems I've had are with mp3's from an unknown origin not ripped by myself eg Kazaa, WinMX etc. Some of these are very poor with the levels all over the place. Although they may sound OK on the PC the Alpine really shows up how poor they really are.

chiark

192 minimum VBR is what I use, with VBR set for "quality".

Also, have a look at EAC (Exact Audio Copy) for encoding, it's the best I've found and is free

nom

EAC is very good, agreed there
Seems to always give very good results; well, the best MP3 can do, anyway... certainly not pops, etc.
192 is a good absolute minimum too, but on variable it should be able to increase considerably on that, fortunately. The VBR bit though, I have seen, doesn't work on some players. Might need to check on that with the player!

PPPscooby

yeah i have the early kenwood mp3 player, no auto changer, used to use 128kb mp3 but now got adsl and use 192kb, to be honest cant hear that much difference, use directory structure on your CDs tho, as browing a CD full of over 120 mp3s takes forever, bit fiddly tho cos the songs support ID3v1 tags but the folder can only be 8 characters max.

Esoteric Beast

I have a Pioneer DEH-P7400MP lovely little unit

record at 192 and also use sub directorys otherwise your searching for ever

nom

I think whether 192 is good enough or not is subjective.
To my ears, it's pants. However, that's just me...

Play around & see what works best - pick a track with a lot of highs, lows & details in it (all the bits that MP3s get very wrong, a long with imaging but that's a bit of a lost cause, I think ) then rip it on different settings. Listen & compare the rips (better if you can do it with the eventual set up, but that doesn't seem an option here!) - there will be a point that your ears/the system is unable to tell the difference, or a point that you are happy at.
Note that it does make a big difference what ripper you use - the realaudio one isn't quite as bad as the MS one. The best is the freebie LAME running through Exact Audio Copy. For the same bitrate conversion, it's far better.
I think you're probably having information overload now!

Huffer

I use the JVC KD-SX985.

It's a brilliant headunit, and allows reading of ID3 v2 tags. Easy navigation and great sound even from crap speakers.

My suggestions for encoding - if ripping from a CD, don't settle for anything less than 192. I'd go for 240kps if possible, but that does increase the filesize somewhat.

At the moment CD is limited storage - sure if you listen at 128 it's ok, and that's cool for mellowy tunes. But if you're hitting a lot of highs and lows (dance, party anthems, rap) you're better off with a higher bitrate.

I fully recommend any headunit which allows you to AUX input from solid state (flash) inputs. That means if you have any kind of flash based player you just plug in, download, jump in the car and hit the road. No messing about with CDs. And yeah, my JVC has a frontmounted AUX input.

Can anyone say, laptop + poweradaptor = mega roadtrip?

HELLA YEAH!

LG John

Is there any software that can take the tracks of a standard CD and compress them to MP3 files allowing multiply album's to be burned onto the one disk. To date all I've done it drag and dropped mp3 files from the internet onto one disk.

rb5 286

iTrader: (2)

cd ex is a good program and is free to download from the net to convert ur cd's to mp3 files

use Nero to setup and manage ur cd burning