CD to MP3 help

[BensGrandad]

I want to put some of my music cds onto my MP3 player:

Do I just connect the mp3 to the PC and then copy from the cd drive to the MP3 or do I have to use something like Nero.

Also I have 355MB left on my MP3 how many cds will that take. Aren't Cds 70mb. in which case it would be 5. Any help for an old PC duffer will be gratefully received.

 

[Chunk]

You need to Rip CDs to the PC and then copy the mp3 files to your MP3 player. Use Windows Media Player or ITunes if you a PC novice.

CD is normally 700mb so plenty of space. Mp3 album would be approximately 100mb depending on quality.

 

[BensGrandad]

so I could pick the tracks that I want and use Nero as I do to make an audio cd.

 

[gazingdown]

The space that mp3 (there are other formats, AAC is better but will depend on what your music player supports) is largely dictated by how good a quality you want the resulting music.
You can compress them a lot (i.e. a low bitrate) and it will sound poor or compress less and have them a high bitrate that will sound better (but takes more space). Depending on your music player and your ears there is a "best fit" somewhere.

For me, I have 256bit AAC (good sound quality) that takes about 2MB per minute. So a 5 minute song takes about 10MB. An album will be about 100MB.

126bit and 192bit are other popular/common rates that people use. 126 I think is a bit poor and most people will notice. 192 is probably a good compromise if you're not an audiophile but don't want things to sound crap.

So, to summarise (based on an average of 10 songs per album of 5 minute songs):
For 126 it's about 50MB per album
For 192 it's about 75MB per album
For 256 it's about 100MB per album

Depending on your music player and music management software, you can set the ripping (taking from CD to mp3) settings and also manage the music on your mp3 player (which is?). Many music players are quite cheap so if yours is old, consider a new one with a larger capacity.

 

[Chunk]

To burning an audio CD with Nero yes. If you tell it to make an Audio CD it will covnvert files mp3 etc to WAV files so that its like a CD you buy from the shops.

 

[otk]

There's little point adding such a small amount of music

Start again mate, and get an MP3 player with memory of 8Gb or above

If you continually buy CD's and want to add them to your MP3 player, you'll need this bigger capacity

iTunes will be needed if you buy an iPod, or as said above, if you buy a different brand, rip the CD's via Windows Media Player to My Music on your hard drive, and transfer them across

Before you know it, you'll have about 3000 songs on your MP3 player

 

[BensGrandad]

I don't buy CDs but have an MP3 with 2gb but have some tunes on it like GOSBTS at 3 different places and want to add some more but only have 355mb of space remaining. It is a mixed variety of popular and classical music.

I was going to buy either an Ipod or MP3 with larger storage space but thought why I usually only use it when I am up the allotment or in the car when there is nothing much on the radio.

OTK.

If I buy a larger capacity MP3 can I transfer the existing files to my music and then build that up to the required level before transferring back to the new MP3.