I should have my new MINI in about a week. In the meantime, I bought an Ipod and have been loading music on it to play in the MINI. I am not an expert at converting CDs to MP3 or MP4, so I have a question:

- Will the upgraded MINI stereo play both MP3 and MP4 formatted files?
- Will the data readout on the radio be the same in either format?
- Is there any advantage of using one of these formats over the other?
- Is there any problem if I am also using a USB memory stick instead of my Ipod?

I downloaded WINAMP to do this but you must upgrade before it will allow you to convert to MP3. (It allows MP4) I have been converting at the highest bitrate possible (356 bit, I think)

Please excuse my ignorance and thanks for the info!
Rich

 

MP4 is a video format that is very similar to the Quicktime formats. Converting audio to MP4 is not the proper format to use, especially within the context of a MINI dock as it will only transmit audio to the system. There is a plethora of free programs out there that will rip MP3s from audio CDs (Google "cd to mp3"), don't bother purchasing WinAmp Pro. Most CD burning programs will do this type of conversion.

 

Dang, I burned a bunch of discs to my hard drive in MP4 using that damn WINAMP. I started using the Ipod program, but it was so cumbersome and I had heard it was not the best to use for converting CDs.

Oh, well, I needed something to occupy my time during the last week of waiting.......Thanks for the info, Zonedguy.

 

The CD player will accept both unprotected MP3 and WMA files, for the record. I use ImTOO 3GP Video Converter 3. Obviously it says that it is a video converter, but it will convert anything to anything without having to reinsert discs. It's not a free program but it is very, very good.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Apple program - there really is no voodoo to conversion as long as your bit rate is set properly.

Also, depending on the size of the iPod, to maintain sound quality and not bury the thing with huge files, I'd never go below 256k. I know you said you did 356 (probably was 320), which is great - I'm just setting a guideline. If you have the room and care about sound quality, I'd rip AIFF, which is identical to CD.

Finally, the deck has nothing to do with format decoding - that happens in the iPod. Display will remain the same regardless of format as long as your playlist program embeds all the correct data, as it should.

 

If you're only going to be playing music off of the iPod, you can leave it in whichever format you like. The iPod connection is an analog connection through the AUX port.

If you're looking to use the USB port with a thumbdrive, you'll need to stick to MP3s and non-DRM'd WMAs. A program that's worked really well for me is MediaMonkey- it'll sync to iPods and thumb drives, burn MP3 CDs and can automatically convert files to a supported format when it syncs (although you have to tell it what formats the end device supports)

 

Are your sure it's mp4 and not m4p? m4p is aac.

 

Correct, but m4p is protected AAC (iTunes format)- you can't rip to protected AAC. Clear AAC is m4a.

 

My advice (have had several mp3 players, used many cd ripping programs, etc): Just use iTunes to rip to mp3 at 192kbps. Unless you have super good ears and use expensive headphones/speakers (not the usual $100 headphones that I use) ripping above that just wastes space on the device. Don't ever try and "convert" a compressed song to something else. Once you rip it leave it alone, or if you don't like it rip it again. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the good advice, all.

I'm going to go back and see if I can get my antiquated mind to better understand the Ipod program.

 

I agree with the MediaMonkey suggestions. Works really well! With iPod, wma device, thumb drive, etc. It doesn't care.
iTunes is ok, but there are better 'wares out there.

Also, that is correct about the iPod interface. It just send audio signal to the head-unit. Not encoded files. This applies to the AUX port and/or OEM/Dice interfaces.

I agree on the 192kbps ripping suggestion too. It's darn good for "general listening" in a car. With road/wind noise, it lessens the "crispness" of the music anyway.
The only time that I rip anything above that (ie 256 or 320) is for when I listen to stuff at home. And yes, I can hear a difference.

EDIT" I forgot to add that the MP3 on CD function works well too. This is an option if you don't have an iPod. One tip though. If you want to keep the music separate, places the files you want to play together in a folder. Kinda like playlists. It shows up on the screen like a CD changer. "disc" and "track". (ie. 01-001) I use this all the time.

 

The way I get my CD's and music to MP3 format to play into the car:

- I use iTunes to import the CD's and all the music on my hard drive. I set it to import using MP3 format.
- Once done, the MP3's appear on my hard drive in the iTunes folder.
- I create a new folder for the CD I want to make, then copy over all the folders from the iTunes directory that I want on that CD. Make sure you keep them in the individual album folders so you can properly sort them and search through them on the Mini stereo.
- Copy the entire new cd folder to your CD. Make sure you do this in data format and not music format!
- Go onto the next one until you have all your MP3 cd's done!

Works great... good luck!

 

If you can hear a difference between 192 and 320 (and I'm not doubting you can, it's very noticeable), then you should probably be ripping uncompressed for home. The difference between 320 and uncompressed is much greater than the difference between 192 and 320. I don't let anything leave my studio for reference that's compressed (I refuse to email mixes for reference as well), because even the most aloof singer will undoubtedly call me after a couple of listens and say "The mix is good, but what's wrong with my vocal?". That's where compression gets ugly - it mucks up the midrange and blows out all the imaging. That's why I always say if you have to compress, the less the better, because it's often so bad that it sometimes actually detracts from the original intentions of the artist/engineer.

That's also the primary reason why I don't buy anything on ITMS. Mp3 is bad (and I'm a member of MPEG), but AAC is worse.

 

Indeed. The only reason that I compress my music is space. I don't have the physical space for CDs nor a stack of HDDs on my desk. I have lots o' moosic.

I totally agree on the AAC comment. I've played around with OGG, FLAC and others, but for compatibility sake, i've stuck with MP3 (for now).

I envy you for being in the recording industry. I have always appreciated good sounding music. And, I'm always giving sound guys a hard time about their live performances not sounding good. Too much harshness, not balnaced, ya know?

/hijack

 

I thought ITMS uses a 128 bitrate (which is supposed to sound better than 128 encoded MP3). If you used a much higher bitrate for ripping to AAC, it should sound better.

if you're using the ipod via aux, there is the Apple lossless Flac clone for ripping. will save some space over AIFF.

Doesn't the stock headunit support unprotected AAC?

 

It's the codec itself, not the bitrate, that is troublesome. Perfect example: If you listen to Keane's "Under the Iron Sea" from ITMS and also from an MP3 that was ripped from the CD, you'll hear some of the keyboards go out of phase in the ITMS version (same holds true if you rip AAC from the CD). And don't even try listening to Sigur Ros off protected AAC. Ouch. Also, AAC is much more invasive of midrange than a good MP3 is. The fact is most people will never hear it, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.

EDIT: BTW, to clarify, I should say I'm referring to LAME mp3.

Apple Lossless is good - I have about 20% of my library ripped Apple Lossless. It's perfectly suitable for the car, but the difference between Lossless and AIFF is still huge. And you don't have to use iPod via Aux to take advantage of Apple Lossless.

Remember, it's not the head unit that has to support the codec, it's the iPod itself. The head unit does not do the decoding.

 

heh. hence lossly compression. Lame is an excellent encoder. too bad the mp3 patent owners demand tribute. Luckily, whilst mobile, the car is a harsh environment and can mask the subtle artifacts; likewise, cheap speakers and headphones and amps.

To clarify, I thought the head unit could play aac files burned to a cdrom. I'll try it out later.

 

Great thread. I have a huge Ipod 160gig so space isn't that big of an issue for me but sound quality is. I will probably delete some of my original mp3 files of artists I listen to a lot and replace them with 256 AIFF files and see how much of a difference I can hear. Thanks for the information. Good to know ITunes is fine for doing this.

Just to clarify, if I do this to some albums on my Ipod my Mini through the USB port will play the AIFF type of file along with the rest of the MP3s?

 

Absolutely.

One thing, you don't set streaming bit rate for AIFF rips. You set sample rate and bit depth (aka quantization). Since CDs are 44.1khz, you'll want to make sure you rip at 44.1khz sample rate, and you'll want to stay at 16-bit quantization. In iTunes/Prefs/Advanced/Importing, if you select AIFF and leave it on Auto when you re-rip from CD, you'll be fine.

Just realize your gonna get big file sizes with AIFF. If that's an issue, Apple Lossless is a fine substitute and will cut file size basically in half vs AIFF. You should be good at AIFF with a 160gb iPod.

 

Thanks so much!! I have some work to do now.