Distorted Mp3 file

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Guest

I was looking at an old discussion here, and it looks like if one rips a WMA
file from CD to MP3 in WMP you lose quality. Did I understand that correctly?
That's very depressing if true.

I just purchased and downloaded an album from Puretracks and it came through
as WMA tracks. I want to play this album on my CD player so I had to convert
the tracks to mp3. I noticed that the sound was somewhat distorted, so I did
a test with the original files on my computer. If I play the wma file in WMP
10 it sounds fine; but if I play the mp3 file that I'd created using WMP it
is indeed distorted.

That's when I came here to see what I could find. If you can only buy a
track from the internet as wma, it seems it's not worth it if you're looking
for music for CD. What's the word on this?
 
....I should add that I've been using CD-RWs to save my music as data and then
playing them on a dvd recorder. This works brilliantly if you want to have
huge numbers of tracks on one CD. But it does make it necessary to have mp3s
and not wmas.

Since I wrote my first message I decided to try burning all the wma files
from the album I'd downloaded to one CD-R. Of course, now the CD sounds
great, and because I burned it as an audio cd it also plays in my dvd
recorder. But I was rather hoping to add all the tracks from that album to
one of my -RW data CDs. So if anyone knows a way to rip to MP3 while
preserving music quality, I'd be grateful to hear.

Also, what's the point of some music downloaders selling as wma while others
provide mp3s? In other words, where does the DRM come in to all this? Why
aren't there DRM problems with the sites that sell mp3s?
 
Benzmum said:
...I should add that I've been using CD-RWs to save my music as data and
then
playing them on a dvd recorder. This works brilliantly if you want to have
huge numbers of tracks on one CD. But it does make it necessary to have
mp3s
and not wmas.
Click to expand...

Don't use CR-RW's, unless you want to format them and re-use. And they
won't be read on all car stereos nor on all older house stereo units. Most
modern CD players can read wma's and mp3's - check the specs that came with
your hi-fi player.

And no, you don't necessarily have to convert to mp3's as modern CD players
can read wma files. Check the specs of whatever you're using.
Since I wrote my first message I decided to try burning all the wma files
from the album I'd downloaded to one CD-R. Of course, now the CD sounds
great, and because I burned it as an audio cd it also plays in my dvd
recorder. But I was rather hoping to add all the tracks from that album to
one of my -RW data CDs. So if anyone knows a way to rip to MP3 while
preserving music quality, I'd be grateful to hear.
Click to expand...

If you burned as an audio CD, the programme you used would have
"transformed" the compressed files into wave format prior to burning (called
"on the fly"). However once burned, unless you created a multi session CD,
you cannot add to it, it will have been "finalised".

An album is normally about 70 minutes or less - that will fit on an normal
CD. A part from putting several/many ablums on a CD, why bother burning a
data CD ?
Also, what's the point of some music downloaders selling as wma while
others
provide mp3s? In other words, where does the DRM come in to all this? Why
aren't there DRM problems with the sites that sell mp3s?
Click to expand...

Its a choice - you can copyright wma's but can't standard mp3's as far as
I'm aware. Certain mp3's circulating on the web are illegal - use eMule,
WinMX etc to find out !

Yes its true - if you transform one compressed file into another you lose
quality, its logical, not depressing (sic).

Why to mp3's ? Why not to wave format ? Are you sure, if you're really
talking about one album, that your burning programme didn't convert to waves
prior to burning ? Did you burn the wma's as a data CD or audio ? If the
latter, then your software DID transform. BTW, what are you using to burn ?

Wave files are enormous. wma's and mp3's are compressed therefore take up
less space. But because they're compressed they eliminate certain high and
low frequencies that the ear doesn't "mormally" hear, hence the "loss" of
quality at certain compression levels.

You're very complicated. Why not keep one album per CD. Convert the
downloaded files into waves using software (Google and you will
find)normalise the sound to get the same level, then burn. I have found that
even such software as Nero will slightly distort when burning on the fly is.
converting files at the same time as burning.

If you need anything else re-post. But basically, transform your legal files
into wave format and burn as an audio file on CD-R's, not CD-RW's.

Cheers,
Jerry
 
Thanks for taking the time to write, Jerry. And, yes, I am "very
complicated," thanks! :-)

I like saving my music as data because I can get up to 80 tracks on a CD,
and I like using the random feature to play my music. I have a dvd recorder
at home, and this happily plays my data CD with really good quality sound. If
I had a CD player that could handle 5 or more CDs at a time, then I'd be
happy to to save my music as audio. I have a very limited budget, and
investing in the dvd recorder because my vcr was dying was all I could
manage. Most of what I download is mp3 (all paid for!) so the conversion
problem isn't an issue. All my downloading and CD writing is done on my PC.

The only CD player I have is a clunky portable which I carry in my car, and
of course I can't use the data CD in it. But I do create the occasional audio
CD for that player.
 
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