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My MP3s made in Windows Media Player XP really suck!! Why? (1 Viewer)

Timon Russo

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When I copy from CD in WMP, I get small, crappy sounding MP3s. In the options menu, COPY FROM CD tab, there is a slider for MP3 quality, but it is set to the lowest setting and won't move! Why can't I adjust this? If I change the default type from MP3 to WMA, I can adjust the slider. Any idea? As usual, HELP hasn't been at all helpful.
 

Andre F

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Personally, I rip using MusicMatch 7.1 using 160kbps as an MP3. I then listen to the MP3s with Winamp 2.8. Seems to work for me and I'm not locked into the WMA format.
 

Yoshi Sugawara

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Microsoft has every incentive to promote its own proprietary Windows Media Audio format over MP3 (partially because it supports Digital Rights Management). Microsoft really doesn't want you to use MP3 - it wants you to use WMA.
Try using Music Match - it probably will convert CD audio to MP3 better than Windows Media Player does:
http://www.musicmatch.com
 

Timon Russo

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I am using the COPY FROM CD (I think its called) option. Nothing is playing at the time, and the extraction just takes a few seconds, and shows a little progress bar.
 

BradyB

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Dec 17, 2000
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I too have come across this problem... It is quite simple to fix. Use a different ripper, for some reason Media Player has problems both copying music from a CD and putting music on a Device. Every time I transfer music to my RIO player Via Media Player I always get pops and freezes, but If I transfer it using something else... it works perfectly...

So Problem = MS code, Fix: use someone elses freeware.(there is alot out there)
 

Timon Russo

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So the code is actually broken? Wow. I must not be the only person complaining about it then. Its a new computer, so I didn't want to go nuts installing all kinds of freeware stuff right away, but I DO have MusicMatch Jukebox, so I'll try that first. Thanks for all the help. And keep the ideas coming !
 

Kimmo Jaskari

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Noooo... don't use MS software to create MP3's. Also avoid Musicmatch and all those others. They don't suck, but they don't really shine either when it comes to creating quality MP3's.
Go to http://www.r3mix.net right now and read up on the texts there if you are using anything but Exact Audio Copy combined with Lame. The setup phase is slightly more difficult than the built-in MS stuff, but once its up and running its simplicity itself to use and you are rewarded with stunning high quality MP3's every single time, with no pops and clicks either thanks to EAC.
Seriously. Anyone making MP3's should visit the above page and study it for a while, and if after that you choose to use any other software tools to make MP3's, at least it will be an informed decision.
 

John_Berger

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Kimmo beat me to it. Just stay away from Media Player for anything other than playback. (Even then, there are better options.) Media Player is trying to be all things to all people, and when that happens there will always be quality issues.

I use CDex. It's free, and its entire reason for being is MP3 and WAV conversion/extraction, so it doesn't have any additional bloatware or concerns about playback or codecs or other things that take away from a solid, single purpose.

CDex isn't the only one, of course, but I've never had a problem with it. And you can't beat the price.
 

ThomasL

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Mar 13, 2001
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After reading various threads in this forum in the past, I've been using EAC + LAME for my CD data extraction and MP3 encoding. I've also used CDex in direct comparisons and I concluded, it is not as good at data extraction. The only downside to EAC is for tracks that it thinks have problems, it can be painfully slow. It took me more than 2 hours to extract (on a Pentium III 1Ghz PC) one 5 minute song (about 50 MB WAV) off an old Fleetwood Rumours CD. I extracted it with CDex and that only took about 5 minutes but the resulting encoded MP3 (CDex also uses LAME but an earlier version) had some noticeable pops/clicks in it. The EAC one was fine. The only source I've found better than EAC is my friend's MAC laptop. It extracted the same song in about 60 seconds and the MP3 encoding also was pop/click free and sounded just as good. So my conclusions have been either get a MAC :) or use EAC + LAME under Windows 2000.
cheers,
--tom
 

Kimmo Jaskari

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Probably the Mac just happened to have a cd-rom that tracked a tad better than yours. :)
I prefer EAC over the rest of them just because of the fact that it does error checking/correction when reading. As good as Lame VBR files are, they still can't sound good if the ripping is done with errors.
 

Thomas Newton

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The reason that it won't let you adjust the slider probably has to do with royalties, as in Microsoft not wanting to pay the royalties for a full-bit-rate encoder to the outfit that holds the patent on MP3s. An encoder that is limited to really low bit rates might well qualify for reduced royalty payments (or elimination of royalties).

iTunes is not limited to really low bit rates -- and Apple has to pay Frauenhoffer MP3 royalties every time that Apple bundles iTunes with a machine.
 

NickSo

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It took me more than 2 hours to extract (on a Pentium III 1Ghz PC) one 5 minute song
This could be because of a scratch or some bad data EAC is picking up. EAC is made to make an EXACT audio copy. It'll do whatever it can to make it exact. It took so long because it was trying to make an exact copy of something that was damaged. Happened to me too, had to go with CDex.
 

ThomasL

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Nick, unfortunately CDex ripped it but with errors that showed up as pop/clicks in the final MP3. The two hours, I don't really mind, since it's a rare event and my computer has plenty of spare CPU cycles to do this sort of work. :)
cheers,
--tom
 

Kimmo Jaskari

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When ripping a CD that's not damaged EAC is fast enough. The speed issue really only comes into play if you want to rip a few hundred discs in a row or something, but even so I'd rather those hundred discs ripped without errors and let it take a bit longer rather than get sub-par results.

Of course, ripping a dozen or so discs that are scratched and damaged would take a long time - but once you had done so you could burn the WAV files back out on CD-R and have a clean copy of the disc, as well as archive the WAV's using Lame VBR MP3's...
 

Ben Menix

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Aug 24, 1999
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I have found one jukebox program that works well, although the interface could be better, IMO. It has two problems related to the trend of this thread: It costs $25 to get full, permanent functionality; and I have no idea what program it uses for ripping. (It uses LAME for encoding).
After using multiple programs for years, I finally decided that I wanted a jukebox program with an excellent library management feature, and a playback module that either didn't rely on the built-in Windows MFC drivers or that used them more efficiently than most programs did. That's what I get out of Media Jukebox. It has never skipped, popped, etc., even while encoding mpeg2 streams at highest priority using tmpgenc while doing a file search, and a tag search and replace on a locally stored website. Great program.
http://www.mediajukebox.com
Ben Menix
[email protected]
{Edited 9/3 for grammatical errors that made intentions unclear}
 

Timon Russo

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You guys obviously know your stuff. As I said, i was a little apprehensive about installing a bunch of MP3 programs before I really knew what I had on there to begin with. I played around with MusicMatch Jukebox and it does a fine job making MP3s. Good enough for me anyway. For now. So thanks again.
 

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