Lesson 1: Digitize your music collection
In this lesson, you'll learn the best way to turn your CDs into digital files that you can play on your computer and throughout your home.
Although we generally use the term "digital music" to refer to music files, CDs also contain digital music; it's just trapped on physical media. Those discs take up space, get scratched, and can be misplaced. With the right software and (perhaps more importantly) the right settings, you can turn CDs into digital files that can be shared by your computer, sound systems, or portable player. This is called "ripping" a CD. Since so many of us have a decent amount of CDs, ripping is the best way to build up a digital music library quickly.
To begin digitizing your music collection, first make sure your computer is connected to the Internet. This makes the ripping process much easier, because you won't have to enter information about every song (this is covered in detail in Lesson 2 ). Then it's time to choose which software program you're going to use. Although it's possible to rip using one program and then organize/listen with another, it's easier if you stick with one program for both jobs.
Although there are more efficient audio formats out there, we recommend using MP3 for two reasons:
- It sounds good enough with the right settings.
- It's compatible with more audio devices than any other digital format.
Ripping CD tracks into MP3 files
Here's how to rip to MP3 using our recommended settings in today's dominant jukebox programs (both free): Apple iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Ripping to MP3 with Apple iTunes:
- Download and install iTunes.
- Go to Edit / Preferences and then select the Advanced and Importing tabs.
- In the Import Using field, select MP3 Encoder.
- In the Setting field, select Custom, and then choose 192Kbps, check the box for VBR, Highest Quality, and leave the other settings as they are. Click OK.
- Insert a CD and click the Import button at the upper right of the iTunes window. When it's done, click the Eject button in iTunes next to the CD and insert the next CD.
Tip: If you're going to be ripping a lot of CDs with iTunes, select Import Songs and
Eject from the On CD Insert menu (see figure). That way, you can feed in CDs one after the other automatically.
Ripping to MP3 with Windows Media Player
- Open Windows Media Player and go to Tools / Options.
- Under the Rip Music tab, select MP3 as the format and slide the Audio quality slider to 192Kbps.
- Click OK.
- Insert a CD and click the Rip tab at the top of Windows Media Player. Click the top selection from the drop-down menu that appears (Rip '[album name]' from [drive name]) to begin ripping.
- To eject the disc, right-click it in the upper left and choose Eject from the drop-down menu.
Tip: If you're ripping a lot of CDs, check the boxes for Rip CD when inserted and
Eject CD when ripping is complete.
CNET Editor's Note: Students who are looking for a dedicated CD ripper/burner for more advanced use might consider using the more configurable Exact Audio Copy (freeware audio grabber) rather than iTunes or Windows Media Player, and then importing the ripped MP3 files into the jukebox program of their choice.
LESSON ASSIGNMENT:
Answer the following question(s):
- Describe which ripping method you chose, and why. Do you agree with us about our choices of software and file format, or do you prefer other software or settings for ripping CDs?
- As a (hopefully) fun side project, which are the first five discs you're going to digitize? Or if you've already begun transferring your CD collection into MP3s, what are the last 5 discs you digitized?
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Lesson 2: Organize your music and burn mixes
Organizing your digital music library pays serious dividends. This lesson shows you how to clean up your collection, prune unwanted files, use playlists to access new slices of your music, and burn mix CDs for friends or events.
A clean, well-organized digital music library lets you find music faster, stops duplicates from eating up space, and makes it easy to burn custom CDs. We have a lot to cover, so let's get right down to it.
ID3 tags
Each MP3 song file in your library has information embedded in it that lets your jukebox software, MP3 player, or home networked audio player know exactly what song it is. This is called the ID3 tag, and it contains the song title, the CD title, and other details such as genre, author, year of copyright, etc.
Sometimes a song's ID3 tag will have missing or incorrect info. While this doesn't impair the sound quality in any way, it does make things difficult for your jukebox software or MP3 player, because they depend on accurate ID3 tags in order to help you organize your music collection.
Here are a few ways to edit a song's tag when information is missing or incorrect.
Editing ID3 tags in iTunes:
- Right-click a song (CTRL+click on a Mac) and select Get Info.
- Click the Info tab, and you'll be able to edit the song information. Note the Previous and Next buttons at the bottom; these let you proceed directly to the Info tab of another song.
Batch editing
If you're making the exact same edits to multiple songs, batch editing makes it a lot quicker. To batch edit tags in iTunes, click the top song, then hold Shift and click the bottom one. Or, to select songs that are not adjacent, hold down CTRL (the Apple key on a Mac) and then right-click (CTRL+click on a Mac) any of the songs. Carefully check the boxes for any field you wish to batch edit, and then fill in those fields with information that will apply to every selected song.
Editing ID3 tags in Windows Media Player
To edit the information for a single song in Windows Media Player, right-click on the song in question and then access the Advanced Tag Editor.
Batch editing, as mentioned above, makes it easy to edit the information for a whole bunch of tracks at once, saving you time. To batch edit tags in Windows Media Player, click the top song, then hold the Shift key and click the bottom one. Or, to select songs that are not adjacent, hold down the CTRL key as you select them. Right-click any of the selected songs to bring up the Advanced Tag Editor. Carefully check the boxes for any field you wish to batch edit, and then fill in those fields with information that will be applied to every selected song.
Windows Media Player offers a helpful function missing from iTunes that helps you clean up all the tags in your library using automatic audio recognition. To try it out on a single track, right-click the track in question and choose Find Album Info. To clean up tags in your whole library, go to Tools / Apply Media Information Changes.
Delete songs and duplicates
To prune your collection or find and delete duplicate songs, follow these directions:
Delete a song in iTunes
To delete any song from the iTunes library, select it and then hit the Delete key. iTunes can delete music from your computer as well as its library, but only if it is stored in the iTunes Music Library. Unfortunately, to delete music you've imported from other folders (using File / Add to Library), you'll need to track down those files and delete them manually after deleting them from iTunes.
To free up disc space and reduce clutter, you'll want to delete duplicate songs from your library to reclaim disc space every once in awhile. To do this, click Edit / Show Duplicate Songs. Compare track times against each other to avoid deleting alternate versions of the same song. Otherwise, go right down the list, holding down the CTRL button (the Apple key on a Mac) to select all the duplicates, and then delete them.
Delete a song in Windows Media Player
To delete a song, select it and hit the delete key. Unlike iTunes, Windows Media Player can send songs to the Recycle Bin no matter where they are on your hard drive.
As for finding duplicates, you're on your own; Windows Media Player doesn't have a feature for locating them automatically, so you'll have to hunt for them and delete them manually.
Get smart: Use automatic playlists
Organizing your music with smart playlists is, well, smart. Next we're going to create one of the most helpful smart playlists-one that contains all the music you've added in the last month. That way you can call up all of your new purchases or freshly-ripped songs easily. And as you'll see later on, playlists can be even more important when you're listening to digital music in your living room than they are when you're at your computer.
Creating a smart playlist in iTunes
To create a smart playlist for Latest Songs in iTunes, go to File / New Smart Playlist. Choose "Date Added" in the first field, "is in the last" in the second field, and "30 days" in the third field. Leave Live Updating selected.Tip: By clicking the plus sign, you can add more criteria to your smart playlist.
Creating an auto playlist in Windows Media Player
To create an auto playlist for Latest Songs in Windows Media Player, go to File / Create Auto Playlist. Click the top plus sign and select Date Added from the drop-down menu. Make sure the two links to the right say "Is After" and "Last 30 Days." Title your playlist at the top and click OK.
LESSON ASSIGNMENT:
Answer the following question(s):
- Perform each of the tasks in this lesson using the program of your choice, iTunes or Windows Media Player. Did you run into any snags? Discover any shortcuts?
- Try creating a few different playlists using Smart Playlist in iTunes or Auto Playlist in Windows Media Player. Which ones proved the most useful to you? Please share your ideas.
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