mp3 player question

[Wheelman]

Yeah I just rocketed myself into the 21st century and picked up an mp3 player. Got an RCA LYRA with 256mb of memory, says on the box it will hold like 80 songs or something, I can only manage to fit like 50 and thats if I squeeze. You younger guys (and gals) may be able to fill me in, how can I compress the files to fit more on it. I am using Musicmatch and Windows Media Player to upload them (WMA file seem to do better but not all of them will convert). Any little tricks will help intill I can get a 1gb card and not have to worry about it.

Before you ask Yes I am too cheap to buy an iPod

damn, I never thought that 25 was old but when it comes to modern technology I'm now seeing the hell my parents went through.


EDIT as I have now been corrected I am still living in the 19th century or something, Man I still think Atari2600 are cool, and don't give me that "retro" bs

[Eagle]

WELL I' 27 AND I KNOW HOW IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have to use smaller files. Shorter songs, files of a lesser quality, that kind of thing.

[Jonneh]

What determines the size of an mp3 is it's length and bitrate, the higher the bitrate, the more data there is about the sound it represents, this means that at lower bitrates you're gonna get lower quality music. If you're listening to music you ripped from your CDs, fiddle around with some settings and see if you can lower the bitrate value, chances are that the quality hit you experience will not be noticable due to crappy headphones/output from your player.

In short, get smaller songs, or a bigger player, 256megs is nothing!

[Wheelman]

WELL I' 27 AND I KNOW HOW IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have to use smaller files. Shorter songs, files of a lesser quality, that kind of thing.

I was never really a computer guy, ask me how to fix a dent, or repaint something, install a wheel bearing and I can probably tell you. If you want to know how to reformat you whoziwhatsit and I'm gonna look at you like you have 3 heads.

In short, get smaller songs, or a bigger player, 256megs is nothing!

Like I said, I am too cheap for an iPod, but this gave me something to work with, and it's upgradeable, I just wanted something smaller than a cd playe for when I'm on the bike or working out. the sound quality is pretty go and as soon as I can get the bigger card I'm not going to worry about it too much. As it is now I have a few hours of tunes and that'll keep me content for a day trip before I get bored.

now what I wanna know is can I change the bitrate and or size of the files I already have?

[Jaan]

25? Shoot, I got my first computer 28 years ago. It had a Zilog Z-80 processor, the small block Chevy of computer chips (c:

OKay, the thing is that MP3's aren't 21st century technology, it's last century tech. To be blunt I think it's a step backwards. You see, it's what's called a "lossy" format, which mean to compress files, audio information is simply thrown away. That's what causes that awful tinny hollow sound that MP3 songs get, especially with music that is audibly complex, like classical or death metal. There are other audio compression programs out there that are "lossless" like Monkey's Audio (*.APE) or Full Lossless Audio Codec (*.FLAC), but the most you can compress an audio file and keep all that great CD sound is 50%. The more data you throw away, the smaller the digital file but the trade off is that it will correspondingly sound worse. Many of the files that are traded on P2P networks sound no better than an 8 track that's been left out on the dashboard too long. MP3's are definitely not for audiophiles.

You know, you can buy a CD player which plays MP3 files cheaper than most dedicated MP3 players. Best Buy has a Panasonic portable CD player this week for $40, and a standard CD-R will hold 700 MB's of digital information. That's the way I would go myself. Think about it, a 700 MB CD will cost about 15 cents ... how much does a 1 GB card cost???

Oh, and before you get too excited about using those cards, you should read this first:

http://web.mit.edu/lxs/www/soapbox/lyra.html

[Wheelman]

Man you make it sound like I'm going to hell, trust me I didn't go overboard on it, I wanted something that was compact so I looked at that over a cd player and figured if I didn't like it I'd only be out 50 bucks and can reuse the 128 card for something else. BTW I dunno what that guys gripe is about unless he's talking about an older player, this one uses SD cards and doesn't have any of the bells and whistles. I just wanted something to play my tunes when I'm riding andat 60 mpg with the wind I'm not real concerned with how crystal clear it is just that its there.

[teufelhunden]

Back a few years ago, I had a Lyra2 shortcircuit in my pocket. Was a beautiful thing.

[Wheelman]

okay before people start losing thier minds because I asked a simple question on what I know is probably a sub par player, I am talking about this particular one you can get at wal-fart for 50 bucks. I'm not picky tunes is tunes to me and if they still made 8 tracks I'd probably have them.

lyra 1028

[Jaan]

Man you make it sound like I'm going to hell

At least they have good music there ...

Sorry, I just hate MP3's, it's nothing personal. The music industry is moving towards a time when you have to pay every time you listen to a song ... they hate that you can just buy a CD now and listen to it as much as you want. They're been trying to make that happen for years and digital formats are the key. Once they get the population addicted to it then they'll start clamping down on how many times you can copy it, or listen to it etc ...

ANYWAYS, you wanted to know how to make an MP3 sound ... even ... worse *sigh*. I use a program called DB PowerAMP Music Converter that's just awesome for changing music files into different formats. All you have to do is right click on the file, go to "convert", and pick the settings you want, then you click "convert" and that's about it. It's a free program, and for YEARS they allowed you to make MP3's for free, but the nazi scum who own the rights to MP3's are making them pay now, but at least you can use it for 30 days to see if you like it as much as I do:

http://tinyurl.com/5kyaz

I'm sure if you were really interested you could find an older version *somewhere* which allows you to make them for free without paying the $14

[PapaGuido31]

256megs? i have 40gigs. psh.

[Wheelman]

and a small penis to boot I'm sure