If my questions can be better answered elsewhere, please let me know!
I have a collection of 300+ LPs, and almost 200 audio cassettes. I want to
digitize them, scan the record jacket info into my PC, then sell or donate
most of the LP's and get rid of the cassettes too.
I have been using AudioGrabber to convert them to WAV files, then Roxio Easy
Cd Creator 5 Basic to burn CD's. In between, I may use Cool Edit or Wave
Repair to do a little repair work.
I'm beginning to think that, if I continue, all the resulting CD's may take
up more space and be less convenient than I'd like.
Possibly, converting the WAVs to MP3, then recording to CD seems like the
way to go, to keep the physical number of CDs down. But I don't want sound
quality to be seriously compromised. I'm not a picky audiophile, but I also
don't want to be sorry that I got rid of my source music on the LPs, and all
the WAV files, before being able to record them onto an acceptable
space-efficient format better than MP3.
MP3 on CD seems good because I could then play them in my pc, and on a
portable unit with car kit that would use the car's factory cassette tape
system (and I believe there are some aftermarket car audio units that can
play the MP3/CDs). Also, this would be fine for my own archival purposes, as
long as the sound would be acceptable to me 10+ years from now.
I know that many knowlegable people favor Nero for burning, but I am a bit
locked into the Roxio Easy CD software, because I use their DirectCD (now
known as Drag&Click or some such) for my data files, and last I heard
(couple of years ago), Roxio and Nero software don't co-exist well on the
same pc. I only have Roxio's version 5 Basic, so I **assume** that their
full version 6 would convert the WAV files to MP3 and then burn them onto
CD's (hard to tell if this assumption is correct from reading their website
info).....

My Questions: anyone think there's a better way to go than my idea of LP to
WAV to MP3, getting rid of the source and, eventually, the WAV files, too?

Any recommendations about the software needed? Any reasons not to continue
to use Audiograbber to convert from analog to WAV? Any recommendations for
WAV to MP3 to CD/MP3 software?

Many thanks in advance!

Lots of people out there hate MP3's due to sound quality issues.
I don't think Roxio makes MP3's. You'll need CDex, Audiograbber or some
other 3rd party software. Roxio WILL burn audio CD's from MP3, but that's
the opposite of what you're wanting.
You don't need Direct-CD to burn a data disc, CD Creator will do it just
fine.

I recommend Audiograbber, a fine ripping and encoding program, which uses
the well-regarded Lame encoder.
Registration is 20.00, and worth it. Use the VBR stereo mode for best sound
quality, while keeping file size reasonable.
Keep backups of the discs for safety's sake.

Mark Z.


"cmxl" wrote in message
...
If my questions can be better answered elsewhere, please let me know!
I have a collection of 300+ LPs, and almost 200 audio cassettes. I want to
digitize them, scan the record jacket info into my PC, then sell or donate
most of the LP's and get rid of the cassettes too.
I have been using AudioGrabber to convert them to WAV files, then Roxio
Easy
Cd Creator 5 Basic to burn CD's. In between, I may use Cool Edit or Wave
Repair to do a little repair work.
I'm beginning to think that, if I continue, all the resulting CD's may
take
up more space and be less convenient than I'd like.
Possibly, converting the WAVs to MP3, then recording to CD seems like the
way to go, to keep the physical number of CDs down. But I don't want sound
quality to be seriously compromised. I'm not a picky audiophile, but I
also
don't want to be sorry that I got rid of my source music on the LPs, and
all
the WAV files, before being able to record them onto an acceptable
space-efficient format better than MP3.
MP3 on CD seems good because I could then play them in my pc, and on a
portable unit with car kit that would use the car's factory cassette tape
system (and I believe there are some aftermarket car audio units that can
play the MP3/CDs). Also, this would be fine for my own archival purposes,
as
long as the sound would be acceptable to me 10+ years from now.
I know that many knowlegable people favor Nero for burning, but I am a bit
locked into the Roxio Easy CD software, because I use their DirectCD (now
known as Drag&Click or some such) for my data files, and last I heard
(couple of years ago), Roxio and Nero software don't co-exist well on the
same pc. I only have Roxio's version 5 Basic, so I **assume** that their
full version 6 would convert the WAV files to MP3 and then burn them onto
CD's (hard to tell if this assumption is correct from reading their
website
info).....

My Questions: anyone think there's a better way to go than my idea of LP
to
WAV to MP3, getting rid of the source and, eventually, the WAV files, too?

Any recommendations about the software needed? Any reasons not to continue
to use Audiograbber to convert from analog to WAV? Any recommendations for
WAV to MP3 to CD/MP3 software?

Many thanks in advance!

Mark, thanks for your advice! But my basic problem remains: I really want to
get rid of my LPs and convert my cassettes, but I hate to have to make so
many CDs to hold the WAV files. Just hoping there might be a more compact
solution.




"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
nk.net...
Lots of people out there hate MP3's due to sound quality issues.

Well, I wasn't saying to use WAV files, just recommending VBR MP3's for
sound quality, and recommending you back them up because eventually
something could well happen to destroy your entire collection.
Even CDR's aren't indestructible - they're easily damaged, and I've had a
few go bad for no good reason at all.

Mark Z.


"cmxl" wrote in message
...
Mark, thanks for your advice! But my basic problem remains: I really want
to
get rid of my LPs and convert my cassettes, but I hate to have to make so
many CDs to hold the WAV files. Just hoping there might be a more compact
solution.




"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
nk.net...
Lots of people out there hate MP3's due to sound quality issues.

cmxl wrote:

[snip]

Any recommendations about the software needed? Any reasons not to continue
to use Audiograbber to convert from analog to WAV? Any recommendations for
WAV to MP3 to CD/MP3 software?

Perhaps you should have a look to :
http://flac.sourceforge.net/

Many thanks in advance!


You're welcome.

Mark,

I've been using Audiograbber for awhile to convert to analog to digital
wav's on hard disk, now it's time to take that 30g of music and get some of
it off the hd!!

Interesting thread
http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/b.../003354.html#4
about cbr versus vbr; I tried the 192 cbr recommended there and it sounded
pretty good to me. Will probably upgrade my roxio cd creator 5 basic to
creator 5 platinum so I can take the converted mp3's and put em on CD's as
mp3's, and print labels to help keep track of it all.


"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
. net...
Well, I wasn't saying to use WAV files, just recommending VBR MP3's for
sound quality, and recommending you back them up because eventually
something could well happen to destroy your entire collection.
Even CDR's aren't indestructible - they're easily damaged, and I've had a
few go bad for no good reason at all.

Mark Z.


"cmxl" wrote in message
...
Mark, thanks for your advice! But my basic problem remains: I really
want
to
get rid of my LPs and convert my cassettes, but I hate to have to make
so
many CDs to hold the WAV files. Just hoping there might be a more
compact
solution.




"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
nk.net...
Lots of people out there hate MP3's due to sound quality issues.

Lionel,

FLAC seems a pretty interesting no-loss alternative to mp3, but I couldn't
find much off the shelf equipt to play it, did see a $399 rio karma unit.

"Lionel" wrote in message
...
cmxl wrote:

[snip]

Any recommendations about the software needed? Any reasons not to
continue
to use Audiograbber to convert from analog to WAV? Any recommendations
for
WAV to MP3 to CD/MP3 software?

Perhaps you should have a look to :
http://flac.sourceforge.net/

Many thanks in advance!


You're welcome.

cmxl wrote:

Lionel,

FLAC seems a pretty interesting no-loss alternative to mp3, but I couldn't
find much off the shelf equipt to play it, did see a $399 rio karma unit.

Looking for archival purposes ?

"Convenient CD archiving: FLAC has a "cue sheet" metadata block for
storing a CD table of contents and all track and index points. For
instance, you can rip a CD to a single file, then import the CD's
extracted cue sheet while encoding to yield a single file representation
of the entire CD. If your original CD is damaged, the cue sheet can be
exported later in order to burn an exact copy."

Yes Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 does have the posibility to make
-convert to- mp3
The only but is I didn't manage to choose for the compressionrate. I
made cd's with 300 kb/s mp3's. 192kb/s would be fine for me.
Mine question is, can I change the samplerate?



"cmxl" wrote in message ...
If my questions can be better answered elsewhere, please let me know!
I have a collection of 300+ LPs, and almost 200 audio cassettes. I want to
digitize them, scan the record jacket info into my PC, then sell or donate
most of the LP's and get rid of the cassettes too.
I have been using AudioGrabber to convert them to WAV files, then Roxio Easy
Cd Creator 5 Basic to burn CD's. In between, I may use Cool Edit or Wave
Repair to do a little repair work.
I'm beginning to think that, if I continue, all the resulting CD's may take
up more space and be less convenient than I'd like.
Possibly, converting the WAVs to MP3, then recording to CD seems like the
way to go, to keep the physical number of CDs down. But I don't want sound
quality to be seriously compromised. I'm not a picky audiophile, but I also
don't want to be sorry that I got rid of my source music on the LPs, and all
the WAV files, before being able to record them onto an acceptable
space-efficient format better than MP3.
MP3 on CD seems good because I could then play them in my pc, and on a
portable unit with car kit that would use the car's factory cassette tape
system (and I believe there are some aftermarket car audio units that can
play the MP3/CDs). Also, this would be fine for my own archival purposes, as
long as the sound would be acceptable to me 10+ years from now.
I know that many knowlegable people favor Nero for burning, but I am a bit
locked into the Roxio Easy CD software, because I use their DirectCD (now
known as Drag&Click or some such) for my data files, and last I heard
(couple of years ago), Roxio and Nero software don't co-exist well on the
same pc. I only have Roxio's version 5 Basic, so I **assume** that their
full version 6 would convert the WAV files to MP3 and then burn them onto
CD's (hard to tell if this assumption is correct from reading their website
info).....

My Questions: anyone think there's a better way to go than my idea of LP to
WAV to MP3, getting rid of the source and, eventually, the WAV files, too?

Any recommendations about the software needed? Any reasons not to continue
to use Audiograbber to convert from analog to WAV? Any recommendations for
WAV to MP3 to CD/MP3 software?

Many thanks in advance!

Sheesh, I just found out that mp3's are treated as data files, not audio
files, so they can probably just be burnt with anything (like roxio cd
creator 5 basic) that will do a data cd. I don't need to upgrade.


Will probably upgrade my roxio cd creator 5 basic to
creator 5 platinum so I can take the converted mp3's and put em on CD's as
mp3's, and print labels to help keep track of it all.