Does anyone else get questions like "Did you downlaod all those from Napster?" when you tell people how many songs your empeg currently has? I am starting to think that most folks either:

A) Don't know that it is possible to create your own MP3s

or

B) People think it is physically impossible to own 300+ CDs and have the time and persistence to rip all of them to MP3s...

Just wondering what everyone else experiences out there while showing off their cool toy.

Dave Clark
Austin, Texas
12g Blue MK2
S/N 80000329

ALL the time. It's a common question i'm sure most of us get. I think i have about 5 songs from napster, the rest are from my own CD's... and yes, a lot of people find it hard to believe that you'd have that many cd's let alone that you'd rip them all. =]


|| loren.cox ||

My answer to that question is always: "I prefer to make my own directly from the original CDs. I can get much better quality that way. Most of the stuff you get from Napster is crap."

___________
Tony Fabris

Yeah I have a couple songs from Napster that have audio "blips" in them so I'll use that as a comparison for people that ask why I think the stuff on Napster is poorly ripped. Heck I've got one song that cuts out completely after 1:37 but the track info in MusicMatch says 3:53 long. I keep forgetting to remove it from the empeg.

I think a common misconception among non-computer folks is that MP3s are an illegal form because of the media coverage of the Napster situation and that they refer to it as "the illegal MP3 song swapping service." For example, I bought my mom an iMac so she could surf the web and it comes loaded with some MP3s, she was afraid to play them because she thought they were illegal and didn't know how they got on her new computer.

Dave Clark
Austin, Texas
12g Blue MK2
S/N 80000329

I'm sure people think Napster is the ONLY place to get MP3's. The other question is whether I have one of the latest top 5 hits, or songs that they like. (then say my selection is crap!)

I have a few congs from Napster, but their quality is dubious and I usually have to redo the ID tags. I can't imagine how people look up their songs without proper tags or file names!

Murray 06000047
I don't think, therefore I am not.

B) People think it is physically impossible to own 300+ CDs and have the time and persistence to rip all of them to MP3s...

I am staring to think that myself (the ripping part) . I have hardly finished half of my 600+ CDs, and I rushed some rips and am going to have to repeat them

Most of people I showed my empeg know the proportion of my disposable income I spend on CDs, so they don't blame me for Napsterism. Besides, due to prevalence of slow Internet connections here (V90 or even slower dialup is still a norm, ISDN gaining popularity, ADSL still in experimental use only (and probably going to be expansive), cable nonexistent) Napster, Gnutella and such are not very popular here.

Those two or three tracks I downloaded using Gnutella were decently ripped, but it took me months to get them.

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I got my empeg 5 days before i was due to fly out to a ship for four months and i managed to rip about 200cds in two days. Up all night with two computers chomping away quality wasn't great but i managed it. Qucik and dirty is the phrase

Quick and dirty is the phrase

Yeah, I hate it when it has to be that way. I ripped a heap of my cousins CDs for her wedding and found out too late that my CD drive was giving errors toward the end of the disc and not getting the entire track. I've given the CDs back and it's too much effort to locate the bad songs right now. (roll on 1.1 tagging!)


Murray 06000047
I don't think, therefore I am not.

I ripped about 300 CDs in a couple of weeks by taking them all to work, and shuffling them into the CD tray every time the previous one finished. I only did the ripping (using EAC) during the day. The encoding got done overnight (using Lame).

I wish that EAC had facilities for this -- it'll eject the CD when it's done, but you still have to click on it to rip the next one -- it ought to notice the tray shutting and rip the next one automatically.

The limiting factor, I found, was the fact that I only had enough hard disk space to store about 15 ripped CDs at once.

Then, in the morning, I uploaded the whole lot onto the empeg, and got ready to do the next batch.

I must remember to bring the CDs home at some point, but I don't actually need them for anything, anymore.


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

I'm sure people think Napster is the ONLY place to get MP3's.

How true. Plus, there has been this big misconception that now that Napster won't be the file sharing service it once was, MP3's will disapear completely.

After seeing my empeg, many people ask me what I'm going to do now that Napster has shut down. "I'm going to listen to music, you moron!"

DiGNAN
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, etc.

(roll on 1.1 tagging!)
Amen! I know I've got lots of bad rips (some from Napster, but more from "Old-School Napster"(Usenet)). I can't stomach listing to all of them at my PC and picking out the bad ones. Is there any way to mark the tracks now (1.04, maybe), and wait until emplode 1.1 to use the marks?
I know...wishful thinking

_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

I was lucky enough to have a rack of Linux boxes available for use when I decided to encode my 600+ CD collection. I re-wrote the script to do the MP3 encoding in background and just fed 6 CD's at a time into the boxes to be ripped, returning once an hour or so to re-feed them.

The encoding (128Kbps) usually took most of the night, so when I got to work I just retrieved all the completed files and started in on another batch. Took me 2-3 weeks to get them all done. Now I'm taking my time re-encoding them all in VBR mode and fixing all the tags, but at least I can listen to them all while I'm taking my time and fixing them all up.

I've only used Napster for a couple albums which I had on LP's from my college years that I didn't want to spend the time fixing.

OK, so we're a bit nuts about music and having it all available. What's your point? GRIN!

Mk2, 40gb (2gb free!), blue
http://www.tower-mt.com

Is there any way to mark the tracks now (1.04, maybe), and wait until emplode 1.1 to use the marks?

Marking isn't present in 1.0x, sorry, you have to wait for 1.1 for that.

In the meantime, there's this great gadget you can use to take care of the problem. It's a portable graphite-based data recording device. It's very small and easy to keep around the empeg. It's also quite inexpensive. Every time a bad track comes up, you can use this device to store the track name. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's called a pencil.

___________
Tony Fabris

Every time a bad track comes up, you can use this device to store the track name. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's called a pencil.

Now your not suggesting people take their eyes off the road to write down bad track names are you Tony?

I have the pencil, it's the darn paper with the list I keep losing...

Dave Clark
Austin, Texas
12g Blue MK2
S/N 80000329

...it's the darn paper with the list I keep losing...

Paper? Paper! So that's what I've been doing wrong...

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"