Reel-to-Reel and MP3's
"Moose Turd Pie" and "The Legend of Cow Patty"
Now, why is it that those sound like really good classics to me? Guess I'm just weird that way. Actually, I have heard "The Legend of Cow Patty"...somewhere...but it's been a really long time. Would that have been done by the Austin Lounge Lizards?
I dragged out my reel-to-reel and dubbed some of my old favorites, going back to the '60's and a few things that I recorded off the radio. Some of those "really good" hits kinda suck now. Guess I was in a different frame of mind then.
As it turned out, some of the tapes were in not-so-good condition and not salvageable. I used an audio editing utility in Nero to digitize the analog tapes. There are other apps available; I just like Nero for this job. I first made wave files and burned each recording to a CD to save as a master, which I then used to make mp3's.
Incidentally, if one were interested in making very high quality mp3's of a CD collection, I highly recommend using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and the Lame encoder. The programs are free for download. You just load the CD, push a couple of keys, and walk away.
EAC will look at the CD content, go to an online database, automatically enter all data into the music files (album name, artist, song name, time, genre, release date, etc.), and do the conversion. Again, set it up to use Lame and process in VBR (Variable Bit Rate) at the highest setting. There are links to help with setup.
I now have my complete collection of CD's and some dubs from old tapes on an external hard drive.....easy to copy over to my portable mp3 player. These mp3's also serve as backups of my collection, just in case the CD's were to disappear.
Additionally, I rehabilitated an old computer, that I was ready to pitch, and loaded WinAmp onto it (I prefer an older version that requires less resource overhead). With the external hard drive attached to the old computer, which is linked to my home stereo, I have a jukebox with a powerful search function and play list capability. Much more convenient than digging through drawers full of CD's and works great for parties.
If you really want to get serious, you can do all this with your wireless network or you can port into an FM transmitter to enjoy your music on your boombox or truck radio.....hmmm.....maybe I need to get out more often.
Enough rambling,
Buzz
