Ripping CDs and other stuff

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
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Disclaimer:I am a tad computer illiterate and this is my first MP3 player.It si the Sansa fuze

I am runnign into many problems. The first is that my Sansa Internal memory is showing Double of everything- that is it has 2 music folders, 2 audio folders and so forth. In order to fix this I stupidly deleted one of the muic folders. In doing this songs are showing on my sansa but I am not able to see them on the computer. That woudl nto be so bad if the songs themselves were also duplicated on the sansa (taking up memory).

My second issue is that some cds will rip and some will not. I checked my setting and the “protected” box is not clicked in my options. I am ripping in wpm format- not sure if that makes a difference.

Am very frustrated- help.

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Look at Settings/USB mode and change it. If it’s MTP or Auto Detect, change it to MSC. If it’s MSC, change it to MTP. Once it has changed, connect again and see what you can see in your computer.

Music gets sent over to the Fuze two ways–either MSC or MTP. The Fuze doesn’t care how it got there, but your computer can only see music that was transferred one way at a time. So maybe switching mode will find the files.

But since things have gotten so disorganized, I would suggest starting over from scratch–erasing all the music on the Fuze. To do that, go to Settings and use the Format command. That empties the Fuze of everything you have put on it. 

Then start sending music over more systematically.  I guess you’re using Windows Media Player to rip.  .wpm is a word-processing format, so I think what you mean is .wma (Windows Media Audio). I suggest you switch to mp3 because more different players work with mp3, and because…well, I just don’t trust Windows when I don’t have to.  Make the quality 192 kbps or 256. If it were up to me, I’d rip everything again to mp3, but if you already have a bunch of .wma albums that you don’t want to rip again, it’s no big deal. 

Also look in Tools/Options and make sure Auto-Sync is turned off, or your computer will keep trying to copy all your music files from your computer to the Fuze. 

Now you can send music over either in MSC or MTP, but for your own sanity it’s better to use just one rather than both.

I use MSC: rip the albums with Windows Media Player to a folder on the computer and drag-and-drop them over to the Fuze. It’s totally manual and you don’t have to worry about Windows Media Player doing bizarre things. 

But if you are comfortable with Windows Media Player and want to do playlisting, etc., with Windows Media Player,  then use MTP mode. 

Can you give an example of a CD that won’t rip? Does it have any symbols or warnings on the package? 

Message Edited by Black-Rectangle on 08-13-2009 07:31 AM

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Thanks- i will give thsi a try.

It will not copy The Gypsy Kings album and The Pogues. It does not appear to have any warnings on it so it is a little confusing. it will download and play on Windows Media Audio.

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(Is there new copy protection on CD’s now?)

Try to rip on another computer.

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You could also try a different ripping program. Exact Audio Copyis free and excellent. 

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@black_rectangle wrote:

 Exact Audio Copyis free and excellent. 

x2…especially if your CD’s are in less than pristine condition.

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@marvin_martian wrote:

@black_rectangle wrote:

 Exact Audio Copyis free and excellent. 

x2…especially if your CD’s are in less than pristine condition.

It’s O.K, but not the finest ripper ever invented, like some make it out to be.  Most the time it behaves perfectly, but once in a while it will claim that a disc is damaged or errors are present, when none exist.

I tend never to put all my eggs in one basket and use different programs as the need arises.

While not the easiest program to learn all of it’s capabilities, but one I would I would heartily recommend to add to your “audio toolbox” is Winamp.   I use it almost daily for some task or another.

It’s ripper (Winamp) is powered by Sonic, so it does a pretty good job in that capacity, if you are looking around for some software solutions.

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What are some of the factors that make a good ripping program or a bad ripping program?  I used WMP 11 for ripping last night (at 256kbps) and the mp3’s it produced sounded good to me.  But, this is the first time I’ve ever ripped a CD so I have no way to judge the output.

I have Winamp quess I should try it, ya think?

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@mikeinkaty wrote:

What are some of the factors that make a good ripping program or a bad ripping program?  I used WMP 11 for ripping last night (at 256kbps) and the mp3’s it produced sounded good to me.  But, this is the first time I’ve ever ripped a CD so I have no way to judge the output.

 

I have Winamp quess I should try it, ya think?

No one software program is going to be right for everyone or every application.  If you like a certain program, and are pleased with the results, that is all that really matters.  Sometimes we get so carried away with discussing the miniscule details, that we forget that point.

Technically, the ripping software should not add nor detract from the information that is on the original CD.  Ideally, it should compensate for slight errors that are present in all discs, and do this at a reasonable speed.  Not every program does this correctly in every instance; that’s why I use a variety of software for my ripping needs.  The programs that work well (at least some of the time) and that I use frequently include: Winamp, Exact Audio Copy, dBPowerAmp and Bonc-Enc (a converter/ripper).   Other users will find equal success with different programs.  Experimentation is a good way of determining whether  a certain ripping software will work as designed and with your equipment.

Message Edited by fuze_owner-GB on 08-14-2009 12:54 PM

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You can find endless discussions about sound quality at the wonderful Hydrogen Audio forums.

But basically, what you want in a ripper is:

  1. fidelity

  2. good automatic tagging

  3. convenience

 and very likely 4) free 

Some rippers, like iTunes and Windows Media Player, are considered slightly lower quality but get their tags from the top-quality commercial database CDDB. 

Some, like Media Monkey and EAC, use the higher-quality LAME codec but get their tags from Freedb, which is user-generated and sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes nonexistent. 

Some, like Winamp, demand you pay for a pro version for mp3 ripping. 

Really, it’s up to you. I try with Media Monkey and if freedb doesn’t have the album–which often happens with newer releases–I fall back on iTunes. But iTunes tags are ID3v2.2, so I always run them through mp3tag to make them ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. 

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@black_rectangle wrote:

You can find endless discussions about sound quality at the wonderful Hydrogen Audio forums.

 

But basically, what you want in a ripper is:

 

  1. fidelity
  1. good automatic tagging
  1. convenience

 and very likely 4) free 

 

Some rippers, like iTunes and Windows Media Player, are considered slightly lower quality but get their tags from the top-quality commercial database CDDB. 

 

Some, like Media Monkey and EAC, use the higher-quality LAME codec but get their tags from Freedb, which is user-generated and sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes nonexistent. 

 

Some, like Winamp, demand you pay for a pro version for mp3 ripping. 

 

Really, it’s up to you. I try with Media Monkey and if freedb doesn’t have the album–which often happens with newer releases–I fall back on iTunes. But iTunes tags are ID3v2.2, so I always run them through mp3tag to make them ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1. 

Well, technically… a ripper doesn’t have to be an encoder.  A ripper’s primary job is to extract the audio into a PCM audio wavefile; and nothing more.  Granted, most today’s rippers include some sort of encoding technology in the bundle…  That’s where the real difference lies.  Some programs are great at ripping but lousy at tagging or encoding into anything but .WAV.

That’s where the experimentation comes in.

Message Edited by fuze_owner-GB on 08-15-2009 11:20 AM

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So I finally got to checking this out. This may seem silly but I cannot find “settings”. Is it on mycomputer, on Sansa device or where.

I am incredibly frustrated but need a very baby step description! Thanks

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OK Guys- I found the settings on the fuze- will see if that works!