Swap mix CDs/DVDs with other 43things music addicts through the snailmail

Well, I sent out 4 CDs with another getting ready to be sent out, and I’ve recieved 2 CDs from others with interesting music on it that has helped to expand my musical tastes. Bonus: Going through all my music to make the CDs forced me to sort my collection and retag the stragglers that I hadn’t retagged before.

If you want one of my CDs, email me your postal address at tristor@gmail.com It will be a jammed pack Data CD with all files 192VBR or better MP3, or qual10 Ogg Vorbis. I’ll even include the installer for the best media player ever made (Foobar2000) on the disc, in case you need one.

I currently have a mix of Techno, Hip Hop/Rap, Rock (Classic, Alt, and some harder stuff), Classical, and some anime OSTs. If you have any specific requests, I can probably fulfill them. I have an absolutely massive music collection, all ripped to mp3 or ogg, already.

BURNING

I am going to go on the assumption that most people are using Windows. If you are using a Macintosh, it should have CD Burning software built in that doesn’t suck. On Windows you have a variety of options, some free, some costing money. The best option is to buy Nero (6 if you can find it, better than 7).

Here are instructions on how to burn a data CD (just files, can’t be played in CD player, only read by computer) in Nero Express:

1. Open Nero Express
2. Insert blank CD-R/RW into your drive
3. Wait for Nero Express to ID the optimal settings for your disc/drive combo
4. Click Data -> Data Disc
5. Either use the “Add Files” function or drag n drop from Windows Explorer/My Computer
6. Click next, enter info if you want, leave defaults, click burn

There you go.

If you don’t want to buy Nero, you have basically one other option for the simplest way to go. CDBurnerXP Pro is your first option, simple enough to use you can figure it out.

ENCODING/FORMATS

Okay, now we are going to talk a bit about file formats/encodings/codecs.

There are 3 main types of audio formats you will see on the Internet. I’m not going to go too in depth on them, but I will give an overview. But first let me explain a few acronyms and terms.

CBR stands for Constant Bit Rate, this means that the bit rate the file is encoded at does not go above or below that set bitrate. CBR is the old way of doing things before VBR or variable bitrate encoding came around. VBR allows for the bitrate to fluctuate during the process based on what sorts of sounds are in the file being encoded. This reduces filesize without losing too much quality. Things like the 1 second pause at the beginning of the file would take 320Kbits at CBR, but at VBR would take maybe 4, as an example. Most of the better audio sharing sites required a minimum of 192 VBR, which is CD quality. Other than personal preference, there is no real reason to go above 192 VBR on MP3s, although the higher the bitrate the higher the quality of sound. Anything more than 192 VBR doesn’t gain you much, but can be noticable when played back on high-end systems.

The concept of encoding is basically removing portions of the audio that most people can’t hear and then compressing it in a lossy fashion to reduce the bitrate (how many bits per second are played), the most common types being MP3, Ogg Vorbis (OGG Container format), and WMA. MP3, or MPEG Layer 3, is the most common mainly due to compatibility with all audio player software and all (afaik) audio playing hardware for digital formats. MP3 CDs are a fairly new (less then 5 years old) hardware audio device that plays data CDs with MP3 audio burned to them, in addition to playing normal CD Audio.

Ogg Vorbis was created because MP3 is a patent encumbered format with serious quality issues. OGG is a container format, just like AVI, however it is most commonly linked to Ogg Vorbis. There are other encoding schemes that use the format including video with a combination of other audio encoding schemes (normally Vorbis) and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Compression). In this article, Ogg refers to Ogg Vorbis. Ogg takes less space with an equivalent bitrate, is less lossy within that bitrate (a 128kbps MP3 sounds the same as a 96kbps Ogg, and the Ogg takes about 3/4ths the space). Oggs are usually encoded with quality levels instead of set bitrates and use VBR. Quality level 10 (qual 10 or -q 10) is the highest quality level for Ogg and encodes at a minimum of 450kbps reaching as high as 1000kbps depending on the sort of audio being encoded. Quality level 10 produces files slightly larger than 320kbps MP3s with about 10x the audio quality, and are practically lossless (although are lossy due to the compression, they don’t cut out frequency ranges).

WMA is Microsoft’s patent encumbered and DRM friendly format designed mainly for releasing pay-per-download music online and as a compliment to WMV. WMV uses WMA for the audio, always. WMA is probably the worst format for audio you can possibly use, but is common due to its wide acceptance with “mp3 players” on the market today. Ogg Vorbis has yet to gain that acceptance and is still fringe mainly. WMAs can only encode as high as 128kbps, and a 128kbps WMA is a slightly smaller filesize and lower quality than a 128kbps MP3. There is absolutely no reason why anybody would want to use WMA, but it is extremely common none the less.

Codecs are “drivers” that allow your media software to recognize and understand various file formats and encodings. Codecs are required to both encode and decode audio and video. Most systems come with the MP3 codec builtin (system codec), all Windows systems can decode WMA by default, Ogg Vorbis requires you to install the codec, although it usually comes with your audio player (common ones being Winamp and Foobar2k).

I think this wraps up what most people need to know about encoding and audio file formats. If anybody needs to know more, I can oblidge.

TAGGING

Most of the popular file formats (WMA, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis) have a system for including information about the audio file. These are known as Tags, with the most common being the ID3 standard for MP3s. TAG YOUR FILES. There are databases online that work with your CD ripping software and media players to help you tag your files, the most important ones being FreeDB and MusicBrainz These two databases are based on f/oss technologies (with the exception of a portion of musicbrainz), and have many software applications that support their use. Tagging your files correctly and to be the most informative possible is important to most people who use digital file formats for their audio needs as opposed to keeping around physical copies to play. Please, if you participate, respect your fellow mixers and properly tag your files before sending. Musicbrainz offers a tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux that allows you to easily (almost automatically) tag your files. Read the FAQ on Musicbrainz for more information.

If anybody needs any more help with audio crap, send me an email at tristor@gmail.com or comment on this entry, I got you covered.

ADDENDUM

Please notify the person you are sending a mix CD to of the file format and encoding used. This will help people figure out to play them.

I don’t have a DVD burner, but I can read DVDS. I’m more than willing to make mp3 or ogg CDs, though. I prefer my music in ogg vorbis format qual 10 (450+ vbr), or mp3s at 320 cbr, if possible. I will upload a file listing from my music directory shortly. Also I purchased a 200GB drive and an external enclosure today, so I’m down with this.

Anyway, give me a bit, and I’ll let you all know what I can hook you up with, unless I am supposed to just send random stuff. My email address is tristor@gmail.com if you want to send me something and need a mailing address. I’m in to all sorts of music, no real preference, and I especially like music in languages other than English.