mp3

How to rip your music CDs to FLAC

MP3s are very convenient and supported by many devices from portables to car audio systems. But no matter how high the bit rate of an MP3 file, it's still a lossy format, meaning some of the sound quality is lost during the conversion from a CD.

FLAC is a lossless audio codec that doesn't lose any sound quality during conversion, but is much bigger in size than MP3 files. It's also not as widely supported in devices as compared with MP3s, but there are many more of them than just a few years ago. If sound quality … Read more

How to rip high-quality MP3s in Windows without iTunes

iTunes is a convenient way to rip CDs into compressed audio files in Windows, but it certainly isn't the only way. LAME is an open-source encoder and is considered one of the best, if not the best, MP3 encoders available. It can be used with a free CD-ripping program called Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to create high-quality MP3s. Here's how:

Installation

Step 1: Download the Windows executable of LAME to a folder on your PC and unzip it.

Step 2: Download and install Exact Audio Copy. You'll need to have an audio CD in your optical drive … Read more

Rocker Neil Young challenging MP3s with new audio format

Get ready, MP3s: Rocker Neil Young and his electric-powered Lincoln Continental are coming for you.

According to "Rolling Stone," Young has applied for a series of trademarks on what appears to be potential names for a new high-definition audio format that the musician is creating.

The project appears to be the result of Young's long-standing dissatisfaction with the quality of MP3s.

"They might sound like great song titles, but '21st Century Record Player,' 'Earth Storage,' and 'Thanks for Listening' aren't new Neil Young tunes," "the magazine wrote. "They're trademarks that the … Read more

Audio? Video? iTunes does it all.

Bottom line: Version 10.6 of iTunes brings a handful of enhancements to Apple's ubiquitous media software, and adds support for 1080p video.

Review: As one of the most popular programs for managing music and video content on a personal computer, Apple's iTunes software has become an indispensable part of our digital life.

Interface The look and layout of iTunes 10 is essentially identical to that of iTunes 9, with just a couple of noticeable differences. The first is that Apple has updated its logo for iTunes. Rather than the old-school music note-over-CD icon, you'll see a … Read more

iTunes 10.6.1 addresses media handling bugs

Apple has released an update to iTunes that addresses a number of bugs with the program's handling of photos, videos, and music artwork, along with a couple of file ordering issues and VoiceOver corrections.

The update should also fix a problem in which iTunes may become unresponsive for people using iPod Nano or Shuffle devices. So if you have one of these and have experienced hangs with iTunes, then this update should help.

A final fix in this update is for a problem in which browsing through TV episodes on an AppleTV device might result in them being reorganized.… Read more

VLC supports more video formats

VLC Media Player is a longtime open-source favorite, and the latest version offers fixes and feature enhancements for the Mac version that make it a must download. It's not the only option for free video playback, but it's one of the best, and it's often the go-to media player for Mac users who can't seem to play a specific media file.

VLC Media player offers a number of tools and customization options to manage and watch video. Users get frame-by-frame advancement; granular speed controls allowing for on-the-fly slower or faster playback; and live recording of streaming … Read more

It's Dynamic Range Day, turn it up

Dynamic Range Day comes to us from Turn Me Up, a non-profit music organization working with artists and recording professionals who are promoting more dynamic recordings. Most contemporary recordings are anything but; they are mixed to sound loud all the time.

I know that might seem ridiculous, every music player--radio, iPod, hi-fi, or home theater system--has a volume control. You can listen quietly or turn it way up, but do you realize that every recording--every album, video, movie, or TV show--has been mixed with a fixed relative loudness level? Many movies have extremely wide soft-to-loud dynamic range, but nowadays music … Read more

MP3 DJ Doorbell: Rickroll your unsuspecting visitors

I'm looking at my hopelessly low-tech 1940s-era doorbell. Its most impressive feature is a light-up button outside. If only I could make it play "Friday" instead of "ding-dong."

For $50, I can upgrade to MP3 doorbell technology, thanks to Swann's MP3 DJ Doorbell. The wireless design makes installation easy. It consists of a speaker unit that you mount inside and a push button doorbell unit that you mount outside. … Read more

Apple wants iPad to be the Kleenex of tablets

Apple doesn't want consumers to buy tablets, it wants them to buy iPads.

That's likely the thinking behind Apple's head-scratching move to dub its latest product the new iPad, dropping any numbers or suffixes.

By moving back to just iPad for the name, Apple can better crystalize its marketing effort under a single brand. More importantly, the company can take its dominant market position and push to have "iPad" supersede "tablet" as the generic name for a tablet computing device. Think Kleenex for tissues, Photoshop for image manipulation, or Apple's own iPod … Read more