Frequently Asked
Questions
This is a good place to find
answers to any of your questions. Please read this page before emailing your
questions to us.
General mp3s
Making mps
Other
General mp3s:
What does mp3 stand for?
mp3 stands for "mpeg 1 layer 3."
What is an mp3?
An mp3 is a highly compressed digitial audio file, that keeps all of the quality from the
CD.
Why are mp3s better than
other music files?
mp3s take up less room (1/2 the size of a wav file) and are higher quality than other
music files.
Are mp3s legal?
Well, mp3s can be used legally and illegally. It is legal to encode your own CD for
yourself, but it is illegal to encode mp3s and trade them with others unless you have
permission from the owner of the copyright.
How do I listen to an
mp3?
You need to download an mp3 player and a song (mp3 file). Follow these steps.
Making mp3s:
How do I make my own
mp3s?
To do this, you need two programs, a ripper and an encoder. First you have to rip
the track to convert it to wav format, then you use the encoder which converts the wav
into an mp3. Some programs, such as Audio Grabber, include both of
these features built into one product.
What is a ripper?
A CD ripper gets audio tracks from CDs and turns them into wav files on your hard drive.
You need approximately 10.6mb of hard drive space for every minute of sound.
Pick one to download.
Why aren't any of the CD
rippers working for me?
You need a CD-ROM that can read RAW - not all CD-ROM players are able to do that. If none
of the CD rippers are working for you, you probably need to buy a new CD-ROM player that
can read RAW.
What is an encoder?
Encoders are programs used to
convert wav files to mp3 files, and they aren't too hard to use. It can take a while for a
song to be encoded, but the speed depends on your system. Download
an encoder.
How do I burn an mp3 to
CD in track form?
To do this, you have to convert the mp3 to a wav file, sometimes called
"decoding." There are many programs to do this, such as L3dec,
but the easiest way is to use WinAmp as a decoder since you probably use it as an mp3
player anyways. Just click go to options/preferences (ctr+p) in WinAmp and change the
output to "wav file output," instead of the default. Now you can record the wav
file onto an audio CD with a CD recorder program, such as Easy CD
Creator.
Is it possible to encode
an mp3 straight from the CD?
Yes, but only if you have an mp3 compressor or mp3 producer installed, such as Windac32. Use the program to copy a track into mp3 format.
Go to the menu "DAC," then "'select wave format" and choose Fraunhofer
IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (professional).
Other:
I downloaded an mp3 with
Netscape, but now the sound is very bad - whats wrong?
Try to always download mp3s with an ftp client. However, you can still fix the bad
sound with uncook.zip.
I tried to log on to an
ftp server, but it says that the password is incorrect - how come?
Most of the time, the server is just full. All you can do is try again later.
However, sometimes the ftp site is down or your password is actually wrong.
I have mp3s on my page
but I only see ascii text when I click them!
You have to add or change the MIME settings for mp3, and tell your system administration
to set them to: audio/mpeg mpga mp2 mp3.
Where do I go to chat
with other users about music and mp3s?
The best way to talk on the internet is probably with mIRC.
You can join channels about any topic, including Music Central's own channel on the EFNet
server, channel #musiccentral. If you have problems with IRC commands, you should
read the IRC client's help file.
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1998 Music Central. All rights reserved.
