Ok, so I go ahead and burn like 100 MP3s to a disk so I can play them on my DEH-740MP. Now I have a bunch of songs that sound like crap in MP3 form on this disk. I would chalk it up to being low bit rate files, but they are all at least 128k. They sound fine if I burn them as regular audio files, but like I said, they sound terrible as MP3s. Is this because of the bit rate? Should I move up to 196? Or is it just the way MP3s sound in the car. Does anyone else find the quality lower with MP3s as opposed to files converted and burnt as regular CD music?

Also, how do you guys recomend organizing the folders and files? I had nice folders set up by genre and then subfolders by either male or female artist from there. When I played the disk in the car, all the files were jumbled and just in a numerical series of folders. Any suggestions on how to correctly burn a good MP3 disk? By the way, I use MusicMatch software which does the job great for making regular disks, but maybe it is no good for MP3 disks? I don't know, just grasping here. Thanks

 

I usually organize them by Artist then Album and I think my Alpine plays them that way. I don't use a whole lot of mp3 discs, but I noticed that the rock mp3s sounded okay, whereas the vocal or jazz mp3s sounded like absolute garbage. This was all at either 256 or 320k.

I'll be testing them out some more now that I have an Alpine HU in my S2000 in addition to the one already in my Accord.

 

I just finishes making an MP3 cd too. It sounds great! I used MusicMatch and it did a good job. I made about seven folders and all of them came out right on my cd player. By the way I have the Kenwood 959.

Have you played MP3's on that cd player before? Maybe it's your cd player.

I organized the flolders by genre. R&B, Rock, Pop, Classical, etc.

Evan

 

I always shoot for 320 kbps when possible, but that's mainly because I know what the mp3 routines do to save bits on the lower settings. Decoders pretty much decode in the same way, but there's a LOT of leeway in how encoders work...some are good, some are great, and others just plain stink.

For organization, I usually do alphabetical since it's easier for me to find a song/artist in relation to what's currently playing.

128 kbps is more than adequate for decent sounding songs (as the bit rate drops, so will high-frequency information). Since they sound fine as regular audio files, that removes the possibility of the bitstreams being corrupt. This leaves two possibilities: 1) The software you're using to cut the CD's is giving you problems (this could also be tied into the particular burner you're using not being compatible with the software), and I would consider this the most likely problem, or 2) the deck is failing to decode the streams properly (very unlikely, unless all songs were encoded with a non-compliant encoder, which IS a possibility).

 

Hi sireousrex: I have the same same software as you and the same problem with song organization. this is using two differient MP3 players. The music sounds fine on both but there are nop albums just one BIG root directory. My daughter left me a copy of one of her MP# CDs and the albums work just fine.
I expect to get a MP3 receiver for the car tomorrow and install it later in the week, I expect the same problems with the albums and I try to organise by album. We both need to e-mail the software publisher ( I actually reguestered and paid ). Lets confer on this as soon as we get an answer.
Andy

 

Are you ripping your own CDs or using pirated mp3s?

I rip my CDs with EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and encode them with LAME 3.90.2 (VBR, average 192kbps). I write the cds with Roxio Easy Cd.

On my hard disk I have d:artistalbumartist - title.mp3

On cds I create a folder per artist. I have an Alpine 7894 and it sorts all titles (in a folder) alphabetically before playing them.

Check out the following addresses for specific information :

\"How do I create high quality MP3s\"' a tutorial

FAQ at Hydrogen Audio

 

I use "copies of the software I already own" but I download them from others

 

I just copied this from the music match web site, I'm too tired to look into this further tonight but maybe this will help.





My songs play on MP3 CD players in alphabetical order

You have MUSICMATCH Jukebox set to sort the tracks in alphabetical order when burned to a CD. To allow MUSICMATCH Jukebox to burn the files to the CD in the order they appear in your Playlist, please do the following:

- Click the "Burn" button in MUSICMATCH Jukebox to open Burner Plus.
- Click the "Options" button in Burner Plus.
- Click the "Options" menu option.
- Select the "Settings" menu option.
- Click the "MP3" tab.
- Remove the check box next to "Sort files" under the "Options" heading.
- Click the "OK" button to save your changes and exit the Burner Plus Options dialog.

Once this is done, the MP3 CD will be created in the order that the files appeared in your playlist. Please note that by default, Windows Explorer sorts the information on a data CD in alphabetical order. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to sort files on a data CD in the order in which they were placed on the CD using Windows Explorer.

If you would like to play the MP3 files you put on the CD in the order of the original Playlist with your computer, simply double click the Playlist.M3U file on the CD. Your MP3 CD player should automatically play the files in the order they were put on the CD.

I printed it out and will check it out tomorrow while installing the new HU and CD changer as well as MX.
Andy

 

Hi again: I tried folowing the dowloaded instructions and founfd a minor differience, after pressing the MP3 tab there was a blanked out box in the middle with a button. After pressing the button I found an add/subtract dialogue box listing album, artist, track genue. None of these had been added. I went ahead and added three of them but haven't used the system yet. As I mentioned I really was bushed last night.
Andy

 

Thanks I am going to give it a shot myself.