MP3 is the compression standard used to compress WAV files into much smaller files. To get an idea of how much compression MP3 is capable of, here are a few facts: A standard stereo WAV file of a CD-quality recording uses about 10.5MB per minute. The same stereo file in MP3 format, however, only takes about 0.9MB per minute. That is a compression factor of nearly 12:1. You can further compress the file, to as much as 25:1, to get a "radio" quality sound, or as much as 90:1 to get what would be a "telephone" quality sound.

We took a closer look at 6 different MP3 Players and Rippers. We looked at Winamp, MusicMatch, RealPlayer, Jet-Audio, Sonique, and RightClick. These programs are used to play MP3 files, and some of them can also create MP3 files from WAV files or directly from an audio CD-ROM. MusicMatch can even be used to create a CD from MP3 and WAV files (provided you have a CD-Writer).

We also discussed the CDDB, a CD database located on the Internet, comprised of thousands of artist, album, and track titles. While connected to the Internet, you insert a commercial CD in your CD ROM drive, and if you have a CDDB-aware program, it will call up a web site with this database. It will match a unique CD I.D. with their records and import all title, artist, and track data into the program and onto your hard drive. From then on, any time you insert that CD into your player, it will know the CD title and track titles, even if you aren't connected to the Internet.

One of the best places to go to get MP3 files and software is at www.mp3.com. They have over 60,000 song titles, as well as several hundred software packages, that you can download.

The May meeting will be on cheap video cameras for your PC. We will not meet in June, July and August. Come join the fun at the Harmon Foundation, 2901 S. Harvard, on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM (except for summer).

For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here