Hey guys been coming to this forum for a while now and just been enjoying the great banter everyone has here, but now i would like some advice since i’m pretty sure one of you guys will know!
I may seem rather dim by asking this but it 's all still new for me (i lead a deprived life :p)
I recently bought an mp3 player, i didnt want to go all the way and spend a load on it, so i just went for a very basic one, but small and cool looking (as you do).
It comes with 64mb of memory build in, but i only seem to get about 12 tracks on to it, yet a few of my mates have far more than that and i don’t want to ask and look real dumb if it is something quite obvious!
Can any of you guys enlighten me on how to inrease the number of tracks i can store on to the small amount of memory that i have without having to spend more money.
MP3s use about 1MB of space per minute of time (roughly) so assuming your average track is about four minutes you should be able to fit about 16 songs. If you listen to longer stuff, obviously you’ll be able to fit less.
If you don’t mind a drop in quality, try ripping your CDs at a lower bitrate. That will make the MP3 files smaller.
Try to avoid going lower than 96kbps. (Or is it 98?) I personally prefer 128 because the meg-a-minute ratio is so easy to work with, and they sound fine.
Your mp3 player probably uses a flash memory card, which you can replace with a bigger one (or sometimes you can just add a second; depends on the player). To see which cards are available and their prices, go to pricewatch.com and click on “Flash Card” under “Memory.” As you can see, the larger sticks quickly get expensive, and you’d have to do a bit of research to figure out exactly which type your mp3 player uses.
But the truth is that these flash card players are a bit out of style with mp3 enthusiasts nowadays. There are walkman-sized mp3 players that contain a tiny hard drive and hold 5, 10, 20, or more gigabytes of data. They have their own OSes with searchable libraries and playlists. The Creative Labs Nomad and Archos players are the most popular. And I suppose there’s the iPod, but I don’t run in those circles and don’t know much about it. Your mates who have far more mp3s than you are probably using one of these.
I got a Nomad Jukebox I a few years ago, and the first thing I do with a new CD nowadays is rip the tracks and put them on the mp3 player. I carry around most of my music collection on it, yet I still haven’t filled the 5 gig hard drive. It’s quite a bit nicer than having to constantly swap the 12-16 tracks that a flash memory card can hold whenever you want to listen to something new.
As has been said before in this thread, a lower bitrate will get you more songs. I must concur with Ellis Dee, a bitrate lower than 96kbps won’t sound too good. It seems to me that when I’m listening to music, a higher bitrate means that I can listen to it louder, without it become fuzzy/unclear. 96kbps or 112kbps (advertized as "near-CD Quality) are fine if you aren’t going to be trying to blow out your eardrums, but if you are, stick with 128. As for changing the bitrate, I’m pretty sure that Musicmatch Jukebox will do it, and I’m also pretty sure that it’ll do it on the free version. So, if buying more memory isn’t an option, that might be the next best thing.