Wednesday January 25, 2012
If you're not sure what an MP3 CD is, then it's simply a normal data CD with digital music files stored on it -- most commonly in the MP3 format. Even though the compact disc is an aging format, it is still a very popular way for music fans to enjoy listening to their favorite artists.
There can be times when creating an MP3 CD is far more practical than using a portable (MP3 player, smartphone, etc.) for carrying around your digital music library. For example, you may have several hardware devices around your home that are capable of playing MP3 files -- some DVD/CD players, home stereo systems, etc. You may even have a car stereo that can read MP3 CDs too. You can then have your favorite digital music tracks in different places without having to worry about carrying around a single portable player with all your music on it.
But why not just use regular audio CDs?
One of the best reasons why you might want to burn CDs full of MP3s is that you can get a whole lot more music on it than a regular audio CD -- on average, 8 to 10 albums depending on the audio format and encoding method used.
For more information on MP3 CDs and the advantages and disadvantages on using them, check out our MP3 CD definition article that goes into more detail.
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Friday January 20, 2012
The compact disc may be getting long in the tooth now, but many computer users still use optical media as an inexpensive backup solution for digital music. For ease-of-use, burning a collection of songs to an audio CD can also be an easier way to enjoy a compilation on a wide variety of consumer electronics that sport a built-in DVD/CD drive. However, creating audio CDs doesn't always go to plan. You may have already unsuccessfully burned CDs that had music drop outs or ended up being completely unreadable -- they make great coasters though!
There can be many reasons why a CD burning session goes south. One of the most common being the quality of the blank media used. This can vary considerably and so burning at a slower speed could be all that is needed to fix your problem. Luckily many software media players come with the ability to change the speed that CDs are written to. Windows Media Player for instance has several settings ranging from fastest all the way down to slow -- this can be invaluable if you've got an inferior batch of blank CDs that can't be written to at top-speed.
For more information on how to change the CD writing speed in Windows Media Player, consult these short tutorials:
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Tuesday January 17, 2012
Creating and saving playlists for your digital music library is essential if you want to enjoy listening to your collection time after time without having to repeatedly select individual songs to play. However, to get the most out of Windows Media Player (WMP), you can leverage playlists for other tasks too.
For example, do you get tired of manually updating your custom playlists all the time as your MP3 library grows? If so, then Microsoft's popular software media player offers a smarter way. There's a facility in WMP called Auto Playlists which can be used to intelligently update your mix lists instead of the usual standard playlists -- you simply set a criteria for WMP to keep an eye on such as an artist or genre type. Any changes that take place in your music library that match the criteria that you've set in your Auto Playlists will then be automatically synced, saving you the hassle of doing it manually. By creating Auto Playlists rather than standard ones, you suddenly have a very smart way of keeping the contents of your MP3 player in sync too.
For more ways, check out our guide on the best ways of utilizing WMP playlists.
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Thursday January 12, 2012
If you've got a collection of old MIDI files, or have downloaded some from the Internet recently, did you know that you can turn them into MP3s? If you haven't come across MIDI music before, then it's simply a file format that contains musical information such as notes and types of instruments. This type of file is normally only readable on your computer by specialized music software applications, but you can easily convert them into MP3s. Doing this will enable you to use them on your iPod, MP3 player, or other type of portable for example too.
Another way to recycle MIDI files is to use them as ringtones. If you've got an older phone that supports polyphonic ringtones, then you may not even have to convert them at all. However, newer smartphones like the iPhone only support digital audio formats and so you'll need to convert first.
For more information, read our MIDI Music Explanation article.
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