This has probably been posted in numerous posts over the past year but I took the time to collect all of the information from all of the previous posts, burn my own CDs and then document the procedure in a single document. This worked for me, I hope you find it useful.

http://www.cherod.com/mustang/HowTo/ShakerMP3.htm

 

Great timing on this post! I was experimenting today and couldn't figure out why I saw only some song titles.

 

Wholly crap! Something useful! Thank you very much...

 

Good job on the web site. It took me a while to figure out that IDV2 was causing all the problems I was having with my tagging! Kind of disappointing that a car that came out less than 2 years ago doesn't understand IDV2 tags.

 

WOW! What a great post!!! I've been having some problems playing CDs I burned myself in my shaker 500, and I'd just about given up on what to do. Now I think I'll try the mp-3 route. Of course, I'm still going to need a 10-year-old neighbor kid to explain it all to me, but at least I now have a solution to try....thanks.

 

Thank you for the info!

 

Thank you!

 

STICKY REQUEST!

And to add to that, i think that having invalid tags may cause some of the tracks to not even play properly. I cant verify this but I know I have some MP3 CDs that every song will play perfectly, and then some CDs where a whole folder will have problems such as the first 3 seconds of the song playing and then it not being able to read the rest. I think the tags are the problem, and we shall see!!

Thanks for this write-up Odiaz.

 

Another thank you!

Quick question: Last I checked, regular audio CDs don't come with ID3 tags of any kind, those tags are created by the ripper/encoder based on info downloaded automagically from CDDB or the like. This database uses track lengths to determine which CD you have in your drive, and is maybe 97% accurate. The few times it guesses wrong may account for the completely inaccurate track info (try it with a homemade mix CD). You should be able to set the ID3 tag version in your encoding software, right? iTunes has been fine for me so far. Sorry if I'm way off base!

thanks again, and second the STICKY REQUEST!

 

Your welcome, I took me a while to figure this all out and I didn't see it all in one place anywhere.

To answer your question about Audio CDs, they don't include ID tags on the songs, but there are some hidden files that include information on the tracks (names, order, lentgh, etc). The ripper software you use will read this information and look up the track title in a database on the internet to obtain additional information. This information is then recorded along with the ripped track as an IDV tag. Unfortunately, some CDs from smaller labels either do not have this information or it may be incorrect. If the ripper you use has an option to specify the IDV tag type used, then that is a big help; otherwise, you can use an ID tag editor as mentioned in the writup.

 

I just wanted to add, Itunes, free download from www.itunes.com, has a free ID3 tag converter in it, and you can convert the tags to any version on the fly. Its also a good MP3 ripping software.

 

iTunes burns quick and reliably, too -- it's been a winner for me.

 

The program mentioned in the link was not successfully stripping the ID3v2 tags off my MP3s. I used MP3TagEditor instead with good results.

Thanks for the writeup!

 

I just sepnt a little time playing with I tunes and it looks pretty impressive. There are a few default settings that you may want to change, for example, you should change the import file format from ACC to MP3. (edit->preferences->advanced->importing -- Import using and select MP3 from drop down menu)

The other thing that I discovered is that the ID3tag editor that comes with it is great, but the MP3 songs must be imported into Itunes first. If you have a large collection of Mp3s I tunes will automatically discover them but not import them. You need to import them. Once they are imported, makes sure they are in MP3 format and not AAC. If they are in ACC format, you can convert them to MP3. Once you do, you will be able to change the ID3v tags. (advanced->convert ID3 tags)

I'm going to play with Itunes a bit more and then rewrite this how to using Itunes, it seems it can do everything and best of all, it's free.

 

It might be free, but it is a pig and it will use every chance that it can to try and sign you up for something you don't want or reassign all multimedia file extentions to apple products. Not to mention convert your entire library to AAU. You have to keep your defenses up...

 

I am down with that. iTunes embodies all that is evil in the world!! Heck, it came from Apple, that should be all the info that anyone needs to know!

 

Wow...

First, iTunes makes no more effort to hijack your media as ANY other media player out there, unless you're talking about some grassroots indie piece of crap you found while trying to evade the establishment. iTunes will do as much or as little as you want it to. It will also do more than you would think at first glance. Apple hardware is a joke, but usable software is their forte.

Second, iTunes doesn't sign you up for anything. You're retarded.

 

Look, dude I am in IT and I have been volunteered by many of my neighbors to fix their little darlings laptops because little JR downloaded some spyware and their PC is running 'slow'. I have seen it all, and even though I hate Microsoft, I use WMP because it is the least invasive all-inclusive media player. iTunes may let you "opt-out" of overtaking your media files, but it is quite fond of updating itself quite often, and you have to keep on opting out every time you upgrade. The same with products like Real Player. Real player and others like it (like that POS that Apple makes for MOV files) if you pick the "typical" install will overtake all of your media associations. Always pick the custom install and opt-out every time. I get tired of it. I also said that it will 'try' and sign you up for stuff all the time. Just look at your kid's inbox for all the 'new release' information after you install iTunes. And how when you run the player it connects to their store front. I don't need the ads in my life 24x7...I don't need my kids being tempted to click on something that I don't want to pay for....end of story..

 

Now now lets play nice.
No one is forcing anyone to use any software, this has been a very informative thread and lets keep it that way. Itunes, as far as "invading" is no different than ANY other 3rd party media player for XP, period... so we can ex that conversation out. And for just as many reasons as one person may default to WMP, another may Default to Winamp, or Realplayer, or Itunes, or Musicmatch, and so on and so forth.

The point made, which is pretty much undeniable and relevent to this thread, is that Itunes comes with all the tools you need to make proper MP3 CDs for your shaker sound system. Yes, there is WMP, yes there are countless other software out there to use instead, yes its possible for almost any of these programs to take over your computer's media (I'm an IT Administrator, so I know as well), but thats another discussion for another thread.

 

Hi guys, I'm in IT too. You are absolutely right about Spyware and default installations. Any program that is offered free is just a back door for those pirates to hijack your PC, however, if you know what you are doing and take proper precautions, Itunes could definitely be very useful when used as described, just to rip, organize, save the ID3 tags as V1 and burn your data disks all in one application. You don't have to use it for every day use unles you want to. I use WMP as my default media player.

If you choose to use itunes, I would recommend reseting the default preferences and never, ever upgrade without doing a manual upgrade. Yes you will have to opt out of all the bullsh**t but the aplication is very useful and you can't complain about the price.

I rewrote the original article and added instructions for ripping and editing idv3 tags using iTunes.