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CD Rewriters
CD Rewriters are the computer hardware capable of burning information
onto a CD. If you want to create CD with all your favorite mp3 files
on it, you're need a CD Rewriter along with a CD Burner. CD Rewriters
are continuing to begin burning CD at a lot faster rate with some
CD Rewriters being able to burn at 32x10x40. You can find CD Rewriters
from a range of top manufacturers such as Philips, Yamaha and Sony.
CD Burners
CD Burners are the computer software that works in tandem with
a CD Rewriters to transfer data from your computer hard drive to
a CD. CD Burners and CD Rewriters are capable of burning any sort
of computer data onto a CD, not just audio files. CD Burners like
"Nero" also convert mp3 files to Audio CD files so that
a normal household hi-fi stereo can play them. Most blank CD's hold
about 75 minutes of audio files or 750 megabytes of data. Therefore
a CD Burners can burn either 75 minutes of audio data or 750 megabytes
of data to a CD.
Decoders
MP3 Decoders convert MP3 files back into WAV format. An MP3 is
a tightly compressed high quality wav file. An uncompressed MP3
file can be as much as 11 times the original. Picking a good mp3
decoder can be very difficult. Some are lightning fast and finish
in under 20-30 seconds, but have drawbacks - Other mp3 decoders
are slow but have a boat load of widgets. This truly is one area
of MP3 work where you are going to have to decide for yourself.
If you are just an occasional decoder, then the contorted process
of decoding an mp3 with WinAmp may suffice, otherwise you may want
to find a more advanced program.
FTP Music Downloads
FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol" and is part of
the TCP/IP protocol suite. You will find FTP music download searches
on certain mp3 web site ( http://www.mp3board.com/ ). These FTP
search facilities will look through FTP sites to download files
from. FTP is still the most popular way to transfer files on the
Internet and the mp3 craze has helped boast this. A typical FTP
download address you could find on web sites such as mp3board is
below,
ftp://mrarturas:ftp@80.1.157.36/Audio/Full CD's (albums)/Madonna
- Greatest Hits Vol.2/
Music Search Engines
The same principle as a normal search engine (Google,
Lycos) , a music search engines
tries to match web site data in their database with the query entered
in the search box. Some music search engines only contain data about
other music web sites, for example the search engine at this web
site only contains data about other music web sites. So if you search
for "Beatles - Let it Be" it will show the address of
the official Beatles web site. Whereas some music search engines
search their database of music files and point you to addresses
where you can download mp3 files, for example you may type "Beatles
- Let it Be" and the search engine will find an internal address
to download the file (mp3.com
offers this feature).
Playlisters
These are more and more becoming an integrated part of top mp3
players such as Winamp and Windows Media Player. However when mp3
players were first being created you could use playlisters in connection
with them to list the mp3 files located on your computer. Playlisters
are useful for organizing your mp3 files and being able to list
them in a variety of different ways (when they downloaded, alphabetically).
Playlisters are still being created and are a very useful tool to
have in connection with your mp3 player.
Plugins
Plugins are utilities you can add to a mp3 players to improve and
change the perfomance of a mp3 player. You can also find visual
plugins which produce things such as showing scopes and spectrum
analyzers in a very colorful way in connection to playing an mp3
file. Below is a list of plugins available online,
- Acidspunk - visual plug-in for Winamp that shows scopes and
spectrum analyzers in a very colorful way.
- Albedo - visual plugin for Winamp
The two plugin are just an example of what can be found for Winamp,
you can also find a great range of plugins for Sonique, Musicmatch
and UltraPlayer.
Rippers
MP3 Rippers or CD Grabbers read and extract raw audio files from
a music CD. The files that MP3 Rippers create are large Wav format
files. After ripping a cd into wav format, you will have to convert
the wave into .mp3 format with an mp3 encoder. The main major difference
between the various MP3 rippers, is the support for various hardware,
the speed of ripping, and the sound quality of the generated wav
file. mp3 Rippers are sometimes referred to as cd grabbers or digital
audio extraction (DAEs) but we prefer mp3 Ripper.
Skins
Skins are used to change the apperance of mp3 players graphical
interfaces. Skins are designed for specific mp3 players (Winamp,
Sonique) and a mp3 player skin designed for Winamp can only be used
in connection with Winamp. You will also only find a large amount
of skins for mp3 players such as Winamp, where you will find thousands
of skins in every type of subject, such as the "Simpsons"
or "NHL Football".
Streaming
Streaming is not the same as downloading, with streaming you are
transferring only parts of the file bit by bit. The advantage to
streaming is that it is virtually instant. You only have to wait
for a few seconds before the sound is generated. The downside is
that you have to sacrifice a certain amount of sound quality; streams
can fluctuate in clarity and resonance and are best utilized as
a way of previewing a track.
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