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]
