No sign of my iPod turning up today. Sigh. Still, I've been ripping CDs all morning - I brought in a big stack with me:
I'll do another pile like this tomorrow, so when it does turn up, I'll have plenty of stuff to get me started.
Neil Turner recommended dBpowerAMP Music Converter for doing the ripping. It works a treat - composing this post took far longer than doing the ripping did, discounting the churning-away-in-the-background time. But is there anything better? CDex any good?
Posted to Music and Film by Simon Brunning at August 23, 2004 01:21 PMCDex seems to be the only one that works on my pc (WinXP), and I recommend it to anyone who asks (and some who don't!)
Posted by: Dave on August 23, 2004 01:34 PMWhat is wrong with iTunes?
Given that you presumably have to put the stuff in iTunes eventually to get it to your ipod are you not adding an extra step in the process?
Posted by: Richard on August 23, 2004 01:44 PMUh, dunno. I haven't got iTunes yet. ;-)
Does iTunes do MP3s?
Posted by: Simon Brunning on August 23, 2004 01:47 PMYep. You'll probably just have to switch the encoding to mp3 in preferences. By default I think it's AAC which I believe gives you smaller files at the same quality (or obviously higher quality at the same file size).
And you can download it for nowt:
I've started using the new Apple lossless encoder. Probably because I'm a techno-ponce. It is noticeably better than MP3, even the ones I've ripped at 192k
Of course, the biggest problem is volume levelling, otherwise you do get very noticeable differences. See http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/370342.html
I'm not entirely sure if this problem occurs with the lossless encoder or not though.
Posted by: Andy Todd on August 23, 2004 05:24 PMI love my ipod, but when I moved windows off my laptop and switched to linux I managed to corrupt the music database using gnupod (I didn't read the instructions carefully, screaming baby in the background, etc...) Unfortunately I have not had time to rerip the CDs I put on it, so right now it's functioning as a backup drive (which it does quite well), but I hope I will have time to put some CDs on there before I spend another weak on the summit of Mauna Kea bored out of my mind.
Chris
Forgot to mention, I wanted to read ebooks on my ipod, but the notes can only be a limited size (4k) so I decided to write a little python script that will split a text file into 4k bits with an index file for easy navigation on the ipod. It will create a zip file which you unpack in the notes section of the ipod. The code is available at
Posted by: Chris on August 23, 2004 06:52 PMOh no, not Dire Straits. Anything but Mr Knopfler's doodling.
Posted by: Andy Todd on August 23, 2004 07:08 PMWell, Dire Straits were in my top five stinkers[1], so it's not the first time I've gone public with my guilty secret. The first album especially is superb.
[1] http://www.brunningonline.net/simon/blog/archives/001494.html
Posted by: Simon Brunning on August 24, 2004 08:11 AMMusicMatch JukeBox will rip as well, don't know how it compares to iTunes
Posted by: El Presidente on August 24, 2004 10:25 AM