Hoff's Music Trading Notes

Trading MP3's via CD-R

Preferred filename format: 03 - Here Comes the Sun.mp3 (the separator includes spaces.)

Preferred directory naming scheme: C:\MP3s\The Beatles - Abbey Road
I like this better than c:\mp3s\The Beatles\Abbey Road because it's a flatter structure, so you can see the album titles immediately in Windows Explorer, without having to expand the artist node -- so it's faster for skimming visually to see which albums are in the directory, not just what artists are in the directory. The resulting complete name is:
C:\MP3s\The Beatles - Abbey Road\03 - Here Comes the Sun.mp3
I tell my ripper to just create a directory based on the album name, then I manually add the artist name at the beginning of the directory name.

Check the display in WinAmp to make sure the artist and song title are entered correctly. (Press Alt+3 in WinAmp to edit the track info.)

Preferred rate: 192 kbps. 160 kbps is also good. 128 kbps is ok, but it usually sounds swishy, so higher rates are strongly preferred. 192 = great, 160 = so-so, 128 = bad. This does vary depending on the ripper and the source material.

I prefer to trade several CD-R's at once; it's less work per album.

• Cost of media for trading 30 albums via MD-R: $2 x 3 discs = $6.
  
• Cost of media for trading 30 albums via MD: $3 x 30 discs = $90.

• Time required to create CD-R MP3 copies of 30 albums = ripping time + filemanipulation time + burning time = (15 albums * 15 minutes rip time) + (30 albums * 0.3 minutes filemove/copy time) + (3 CD-Rs * 18 minutes burn time) = 288 minutes. [I assume half the albums you have already ripped and are archived on one of your own CD-Rs.]
  
• Time required to create MD copies of 30 albums = 30 albums * 60 minutes = 1800 minutes. (Far longer if you do this as 6 trips to the post office rather than 1).

CD-R MP3 trading is 15 times cheaper and 6 times faster than MD trading. And the trading community for MP3 is vastly larger than for MD. And MP3 players will be far lighter and longer playing and stable than MD players. MP3 trading is going to eclipse MD trading.

MiniDisc Trades

I prefer to trade at least 5 MD's at once; it's less work per album.

I use the digital output from my CD deck.

I send the sticker-card along with the MD. I don't apply the stickers or write on them.

Don't bother with entering track titles. I can look these up at allmusic.com. You can email a track list. I don't enter them on your MDs -- the goal is to absolutely reduce the effort required to make an MD.

Best Prices for MD Blanks

minidiscnow.com

hitmall.com - Maxell colored MDs for about $5.40.

My Audio Equipment

• Sony CDP X255 CD changer (200 CDs) with optical output.
• Sony 510 home MD deck (ATRAC 4) with optical input.
• MD's: various models. Favorite: both sides see-through & colored (such as color TDKs), using medium-dark colors.
• CD-RW drive, for uncompressed, MP3, or WMA audio.
• Music Match for MP3 ripping at 4x realtime. MM currently can only rip WMA format at 128 kbps max, not 160 or 192.

Quality of Sound when Trading Recordings

One trader sent me an MD but he was vague about the source. The sound was very hissy, with a garbled transition between two songs. It sounded like it was recorded from cassette. I will double-check his source and setup again before trading with him.

It's fine to record from a source other than an MD, but let the recipient know what you're doing, so that they won't be surprised and disappointed by the results.

MD suffers significantly from generational degradation. By the the third generation, it's easy to hear the degradation, in the form of warble and smeared dynamic attack. Remember, each generation discards 80% of the information! I advise against even a second-generation copy, unless the source is very hard to find. You'll just end up re-doing the work later, until you finally have a first-generation copy. Don't waste your time handling second-rate copies. Instead, get better at tracking down traders or CD distributors.