Getting  Along With Your Computer Column Archive

Portable Music
By Cate Eales

Appeared November 30, 2006 on castanet.net

I'm in my 50's, and so made the gut-wrenching cultural transition from "records" to CD's. Somewhere around here, I still have that icon of the 1980's, my Sony Walkman. It's a lot easier these days to take your music with you. Whether you choose an iPod or another mp3 player, or burn your music to CD's to play in the car, you can listen to the music you like --- old or new. Here is a very basic overview of the process.


Music on your computer
You've got to get the music onto your computer before you can get it OFF your computer and take it with you! If you want current music, you can subscribe to any number of online music services (most notably iTunes). You can download the music to your computer and transfer it to an iPod or other mp3 player. There are so many places where you can find out more about this that I'm going to skip right over it in this column. Today we're just going to cover getting music from your CD collection onto your computer and then making it portable.

Rip a CD
In order to grab your music from your CD, you're going to need a CD-ROM drive, and software to "rip" the tunes. Most computers sold in the last ten years have a CD drive. Most computers have Windows Media Player or RealPlayer (scroll down for the free version) installed on them. I'm going to assume you're all set.

Open up your program and choose the options that will let you copy ("Rip") CD files. You'll have the option to go online and automagically fill in the track information,or you can type it in if necessary. Follow the prompts in your program to copy the files to your computer. You'll need to choose a file format. Choose mp3 if you plan to use the files on a portable player later on, or if you want to conserve space.


Burn a CD
If you want to copy the files onto another CD, or if you want to make an exact copy of the CD, you're going to need a CD-RW drive, often called a "burner." If you have a CD-RW (RW stands for "Read/Write") you don't need a CD-ROM, because your drive will read and write. Most computers sold in the last few years have at least a CD-RW. If your desktop computer doesn't have one, they are inexpensive to get and install.

You will also need software to burn a CD. Both Windows Media Player and RealPlayer will do that. You can also use Nero or Roxio or a free CD burning program like DeepBurner.

You're also going to need some blank CD's.

Before you go on, give some thought to how you're going to want to listen to this music. Does your car have a CD player? Will it play CD's, or will it play a CD with mp3 files on it? You can fit between 74 and 80 minutes of music on a CD if you just copy the tracks in the CDA format (what audio CD's use), or about 700 minutes (roughly 175 four-minute tracks) if you convert the files to mp3's.

If you have a boom box, stereo, car stereo or something that will play mp3's, that's the way to go. The audio quality would still be very good. There is an informative FAQ about all of this here.  (Warning: Extreme Geek Factor)


Use an mp3 player
If you have a portable audio device that will play mp3's, you can transfer your music to the device. Once type of mp3 player is the iPod. There are plenty of other types, with different "looks" and different capacities. A useful feature of an mp3 player is that you can change the music that's on it. I have one, and believe me I put different music on it when I have my teeth cleaned than when I go to the gym. You can use RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to transfer files between the computer and the mp3 player. You can use iTunes if you like. Some mp3 players use their own software to make transfers easier.


If that sounds complicated...
It's not difficult to transfer music from CD's to your computer and make it portable. If you have a large collection to transfer, it can take a lot of time, especially if you want to transfer from cassette tapes or vinyl. If you don't have the time or the technical savvy, you can outsource the project. We do that kind of work at Real Life Internet Solutions.


Thanks once again for the email with questions and comments. Please keep them coming. Remember, you can review past columns at any time in the Column Archives, here. Please drive safely while you're listening to that music!

 

Links
Record http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record
Sony Walkman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Walkman
RealPlayer http://www.real.com/playerplus (scroll down for the free version)
Windows Media Player http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx
Roxio http://www.roxio.com/
Nero http://ww2.nero.com/enu/index.html
DeepBurner http://www.deepburner.com/?r=products
CD FAQ http://www.cdrfaq.org/
Apple iPod+iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/
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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric, and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions, helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management. Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit the Real Life Internet Solutions website at www.rlis.com.