Making MP3 Cds! HELP!!!!!!!

[DaninCO]

I got a Kenwood MP3 player.
I been looking for the past two weeks and i cant find anyone who knows how to make an MP3 CD with folders. How do i do this? How do i put the music CD onto my HD so i can encode to MP3 with a high bit rate? Does anyone know this? please help, this is my last resort. Also does anyone know any good programs to do this with?
Any help would be amazing.
thanks

 

[JTang]

There are tons of programs out there, and while people are going to argue what does a better job, they're all pretty dang close as long as you choose a high bitrate, you're good. If you want a CD with folders, you should just select the folder you want burned onto a CD, and it will copy the whole structure for you. So put all the songs in the folders first, and then just put the folders on the burning queue. I use AudioCatalyst. Really easy to use small with no stupid frills.

Jon

 

[DaninCO]

thanks,
what my understanding about the quality of bit rate is that 128 is cd quality and anything above is better. The highest my Matchmusic jukebox thing will do is 160 bits. i hope thats enough. Also how do i know what kind of ID3 tag version it uses. Also is the id3 what displays the anme of the mp3 or does it display the band name and the album and **** or both?

 

[EO]

AudioCatalyst is a very good program; I've used it for a long time. Or, go to www.zdnet.com and search for "ripper" for many other choices.

As you burn MP3's...make sure you do NOT burn the CD in the Joliet format or else it will lock up the Kenwood unit during song/folder navigation. Check out Dead Link Removed for more details. This is a pretty good site that highlights all the MP3 HUs available today.

 

[DaninCO]

thanks alot, all i needa know is about the bitrate thing.

 

[JTang]

There's not much more to really "know". You basically said it all in the above post. 128 is bare minimum to something similar to CDs, above that is gravy. I wouldn't worry too much about that in the car. After the road noise 160 won't seem so different from 128 until you're at the computer, and even that might be difficult with CPU speakers.

If you're unfamiliar with bitrate, it's like frames per second in a movie. The more frames per second, the smoother the picture will be. Similar to sound clips, what you're really hearing are bits of a song. The higher the bitrate, the less song is removed between gaps of sound. mp3 uses formulas based on sound and human hearing cutting out stuff we can't hear that's extraneous information on CD tracks, and also tries to appropriately remove all the sound that is cancelled out by the left and right channels. Basically "dead" information, I believe, and there's a lot of it, since you can cut down a song to a "believable" (i.e. what the human brain will accept as similar to CD quality) 90% of its original cda file size. That's how I grasp it...

Kazaa.com, baby.

 

[DaninCO]

thanks,
well someone was tellin me the other day that if u dont have like at least 320 bitrate it will distrot my speakers and blow them up. I thought this was a little homosexual but i didnt comment because i dont like to speak out about things i dont know alot about. Anyways, thats good that 124 will be good. I just dont want distortion. thanks for the help.
also, how do i make my converter convert in iso6996 lvl 2 ot something instead of joliet. WTF, how can people do this **** simply, this kenwood player has its fukin downsides with all this ****.

 

[todd_c]

VBR is the way to go if you want the best quality for the smallest file size, if your player supports it. I use Exact Audio Copy to rip the CD and LAME to encode the MP3 in VBR format.

EAC:
Dead Link Removed

LAME:
http://www.sulaco.org/mp3/links.html

Your CD burning software should use the ISO format by default, otherwise it should be in the options somewhere.

 

[Diablo3305]

Bit rate is the amount of data that is transferred per second...the smaller an MP3 is the lower bitrate it will have. The more data per second...then the better the quality. Technically you won't notice a huge difference at the really high bitrates.... You can get 192 bitrate with music match...go down to where it says custom quality and mp3 cbr...set that to whatever you want... you can go up to 320 i think. To burn i would get a program like hotburn or nero..they seem to work the best...and just burn a data cd. My friend has the new kenwood MP3 head unit...its sick.. Oh yea make sure you edit the ID3 tags because your headunit can read all the information off the tags.

 

[EO]

Diablo, what do you mean the Kenwood unit is "sick"? Is that good or bad...?

 

[Diablo3305]

haha.. oh well i mean like good sick...its got alot of features...as far as sound..i prefer my headunit...but i have alot of mp3's so i would love to have one of those....the new kenwood mp3 headunit is definatly worth the money... i think it goes for around $500..

 

[EO]

Ha, I was hoping for the good sick! I'm about to buy that unit. I've burned many audio CDs from MP3 files to play in the factory CD player, but now I have 9 or 10 of those CDs!

As far as the sound - do you & your friend have comparable amp/speakers? I'm assuming the tuner and regular CDs would sound the same, and MP3s at 128+ bitrates should sound pretty good too.

 

[Diablo3305]

yea it is a really nice unit....hmm 9 or 10...hehe you don't even want to know how many mp3 cd's i have....lets just say the record industry would want to kill me probably ...well what i meant by sound is that my unit is basically a better unit. It has 3 preouts...5 volts each..the kenwood has 2 preouts and i think they are like 2.5 volts...its not really a big deal, just mine has more features. Im not saying that the kenwood is bad. trust me..if i didn't already have the one i have and the cd changer and all i would buy one....its very tempting to sell my stuff...although i don't know if i want to go through the hassle. As far as speakers and amps...he has better speakers than I do, because mine are still stock...but i have better amps. I'm planning on replacing the stock speakers soon i hope...just deciding on which ones to get. Personally I would go for the 192 bit rate...basically if your going to make an Mp3, do it good...you will notice a difference, especially in the frequencies....like the bass tones and stuff...anyway good luck on the unit its a good choice..

 

[EO]

Ah, I see what you mean now. Yeah, the Kenwood doesn't have a sub preout, plus I think the output voltage is even lower than what you said (1.8 volts??). It should be a good unit either way. The thing I noticed is that the current selection of MP3 units sacrifice some of those other features that most HUs have - but I guess that's just what you end up with. Thanks for the info!!

LOL about your MP3s. I have a LOT more MP3s on my hard drive that just haven't made it to CD yet - they're patiently waiting for my new HU!

 

[Diablo3305]

well actually the kenwood has a rear out...which I think is the sub out... it just has the other preout for the interior speakers... Yes the voltage is low on that unit...but it is a good unit. get a good amp and some good speakers up to that and it will sound nice....haha and about mp3's... i can't even fit them on my hard drive...lets just say i would probably need another 60 gig hd just to fit them all between 2 drives

college is usefull for something... I also only download full cd's now...its become like a collection...

 

[DaninCO]

Yeah, the head unit is tightness. I just havent played any burned MP3's yet. I havent had any problems with it except for it skipping the first 2 days i had it every once in a while. But i havent had that problem at all. I think it was because of the scratched cd i used. But i would definitly recomend it. The reason i got it was becasue of the MP3 feature even though im having trouble with it. I was wondering if one of u peeps could send me an MP3 cd with ID3 tag n ****. try to make a 160 bit rate ; ). Id pay 4$ a cd =). maybe 6$ if it is full with id3 tags and all. lol. Well tell me what the deal is.
ALso the HU sounds real good with my system. kenwood is great.

 

[DaninCO]

how do i change ID3 tags from version 3.1 to version 1.1? Musicmatch is default 3.1.

 

[Diablo3305]

hey daninCO... email me at robbic2@rpi.edu ...and Ill send you my list of mp3's.. Pick some stuff out and ill send you whatever you want... I have over 1000 FULL cd's...most are at 192 bit rate... as far as that ID3 tag thing... i don't use music match much, except to make mp3's from an audio cd. I use winamp to edit the ID3 tags...you can also look online and get an ID3 tag editor....

 

[DaninCO]

phatt

thanks, i will definitly, I finally found out how to do all that id3 shiz and how to change the format to ISO. TOok me hours but i finally figured everything out. Thanks for everyones help.