Flying Music -- iTunes PIREP

Are you sure about the MP3 format? Back when I looked into this,
they were delivering files in some not-MP3 format. I prefer MP3
because my CD player plays MP3 format CDs.

As someone else said, the songs actually come across in something called
".AAC" format.

Whatever it is, it rips straight to a CD without a problem, and apparently
plays in the iPod player (which I don't own).

I suppose there must be a way to convert it to MP3 format? For me this is
a non-issue, but I can see why it would be critical from your end...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:hoeSb.51691$U%5.285585@attbi_s03...
I suppose there must be a way to convert it to MP3 format? For me this
is
a non-issue, but I can see why it would be critical from your end...

As Larry said, one easy way is to just burn the music to an audio CD and
then reencode it to whatever new format you want (e.g. MP3 or WMA). Use a
CD-RW to avoid wasting blanks.

Software exists to do similar conversions between various audio formats, but
they will all essentially wind up doing the same thing: decode the one
format into raw audio and reencode into another format. They may do it at a
higher quality than CDDA (16-bit, 44.1Khz) but anyone exposed to airplane
noise on a regular basis would never notice the difference.

Pete

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:hoeSb.51691$U%5.285585@attbi_s03...
Are you sure about the MP3 format? Back when I looked into this,
they were delivering files in some not-MP3 format. I prefer MP3
because my CD player plays MP3 format CDs.

As someone else said, the songs actually come across in something called
".AAC" format.

This ACC format is actually MPEG 4, aka "MP4". The iTunes software
can understand and store files in ACC, AIFF, MP3, and WAV formats.
You can select this in the Importing Preferences. According to the
MPEG organization, ACC provides the better representation of all the
formats.

Note also that you can make a CD containing MP3 files using iTunes
(MP3 format CD). Just change the Preferences for burning a CD in the
iTunes software.

These formats are known as lossy compression methods. (Except for
AIFF, which is raw data, and I don't know about WAV.) They save space
by throwing away information that either can be inferred, isn't
necessary, or can be represented more compactly. There is some
necessary, but small, loss in fidelity of the sound. However, this
loss is small enough that unless you have top of the line equipment,
very good hearing, and a trained ear, you won't miss it.

In the usual use where there is normal amplifiers, speakers or
headphones, background noise, etc. then even a trained ear can't
really hear the difference.

Whatever it is, it rips straight to a CD without a problem, and apparently
plays in the iPod player (which I don't own).

Yup, we've got our whole CD collection on my wife's 15 GByte iPod with
space left over. YMMV. Of course we filled up the remaining space
with songs we'd purchased... grin Figure a full CD is 750 MBytes of
data. Typically perhaps 500-600 MBytes is used on a music CD. The
ACC compressed results for a few albums is below:

Aqualung: 40 MBytes
Andrea Bocelli's Romanza: 65.1 MBytes
Be Good Tanya's Blue Horse: 50.1 MBytes
Zap Mama's Seven: 69 MBytes
Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Teil I: BWV 846 - BWV 857 : 48.5
MBytes
Bob Dylan's MTV Unplugged Live 1996: 73.6 MBytes

As you see it varies some, but not with the type of music, but more
with how much the CD is filled. I think I counted 60 MBytes/CD disk
for my estimate and it came out pretty well. As usual, there's some
space on the iPod drive taken up by overhead and housekeeping data
storage, but a surprising part of the space is available.

I suppose there must be a way to convert it to MP3 format? For me this is
a non-issue, but I can see why it would be critical from your end...

Yes, using iTunes, you can export files to MP3. Just drag the file
from the iTunes window to the desktop on the Mac. Might be the same
thing on Windows too, I dunno about that.

The iTunes/iPod combination is a great one in my view. It packages
something we all like in an easy to carry and easy to manage system.
As far as it's use in a plane, as a pilot I don't want the music for
me for the same reason I have some problems with drivers using cell
phones. But my passenger likes it. We've got a headset with an
external input that my wife uses. She sets the volume so she can hear
me and the music. Works for us.

We've also got the iTrip from Griffin, a little short-range FM
transmitter that plugs into the top of the iPod. There's a few quirks
in it's usage - the volume has to be set right for example - by it's
great for car use of the iPod.

-Malcolm Teas
"I play a software geek in real life"

Thanks for the primer, Malcolm. This is neat stuff, and it's good to hear
from a "power user"...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

-Malcolm Teas
"I play a software geek in real life"

In article bAzSb.59680$U%5.346880@attbi_s03, Jay Honeck
wrote:

Thanks for the primer, Malcolm. This is neat stuff, and it's good to hear
from a "power user"...

And with iMovie, you can cut/paste and mix you favorite tracks and
export them back to iTunes. Just like the old Dr Demento tunes!

Malcolm Teas ) wrote:

As far as it's use in a plane, as a pilot I don't want the music for
me for the same reason I have some problems with drivers using cell
phones.

Malcom, thanks for the information in the rest of your post, but I wanted
to comment on the above.

IMO and experience, listening to music is nowhere near the same level of
distraction as driving while talking on a cell phone. Talking to ATC
while flying; now that equivalent to driving while talking on a cell
phone.

In my case, I listen to jazz while flying longer XC flights but never when
on approach (due to POH restrictions). Over the years I have conditioned
myself to use certain types of music to enhance my concentration. This
started when I was in college when I would tune in a local jazz station
while studying. Thus, I believe that I actually feel sharper and more
alert with some background music playing over the headsets while flying.

I just wanted to point out my reasons for an opposing viewpoint. Of
course, all bets are off if I had to listen to "Aqualung" while flying.

--
Peter












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"Malcolm Teas" wrote in message
om...
This ACC format is actually MPEG 4, aka "MP4".

For what it's worth (not much, I know) I find the use of the contraction
"MP4" misleading. "MP3" is really MPEG Layer 3 compression, and using "MP4"
implies incorrectly that there's a "Layer 4" compression being used to
compress audio for AAC, WMA and related formats, when there's not. Also, no
one uses ".mp4" as a file extension, whereas ".mp3" is quite common.

Google agrees with me, showing 15 times as many instances of "MPEG4" and
"MPEG-4" as "MP4". I suppose the subtlety of the distinction is lost on
many people, but hey, what's Usenet for if not to make subtle distinctions?


These formats are known as lossy compression methods. (Except for
AIFF, which is raw data, and I don't know about WAV.)

WAV is a generic format in that it actually comprises multiple audio
formats, each using its own codec. The WAV file header tells the software
what kind of encoding is actually used. But it is almost always either
completely uncompressed (the most common usage) or compressed using a
lossless format (usually some form of PCM). The only lossy method of
compression used with WAV that I'm aware of is simply reducing the sample
size, which IMHO is more properly classified as "downsampling" rather than
"compression".

They save space
by throwing away information that either can be inferred, isn't
necessary, or can be represented more compactly.

Actually, in the above statement only the "isn't necessary" applies to lossy
compression specifically. Compression techniques in general ALL rely on
encoding the information so that the original information can be inferred
from a more compact representation, whether lossy or not.

There is some
necessary, but small, loss in fidelity of the sound. However, this
loss is small enough that unless you have top of the line equipment,
very good hearing, and a trained ear, you won't miss it.

And the engineers working on lossy compression algorithms believe that
eventually, they will have mapped out human perceptual response well enough
that even with good hearing and a trained ear, you still won't miss the
information tossed out.

That's the whole point of how lossy algorithms like MP3 and MPEG4 work.
They identify portions of the audio signal that are not perceived by the
human ear anyway, and eliminate them. By eliminating some the information
content of the signal, they reduce the amount of information that needs to
be compressed, which reduces the total size of the compressed signal.

Examples of things that are eliminated are frequencies considered outside
the range of hearing (or near the edge of the range of hearing), and
portions of the signal that are significantly quieter than other portions
and so which aren't normally perceived anyway.

Of course, they also allow a sliding scale of what gets tossed out. At the
lower bitrates, portions of the audio signal detectable by the human ear
also get tossed out. But prioritization is used to try to ensure that even
in those cases, it's still the least significant portions of the signal.

In the usual use where there is normal amplifiers, speakers or
headphones, background noise, etc. then even a trained ear can't
really hear the difference.

Well, that really depends on the bitrate. It's certainly true that at
192Kbps and greater for MP3, and 128Kpbs and greater for AAC, WMA and other
forms of MPEG4, the difference is nearly imperceptible. But I assure you
that even some random tone-deaf schmoe would be able to notice the loss in
quality when playing back 32Kpbs MP3 (for example). At some point, it gets
so bad, anyone can tell.

Pete

On 2004-01-30 13:54:53 -0800, "Peter Duniho"
said:

Also, no one uses ".mp4" as a file extension, whereas ".mp3" is quite
common.

FWIW, Mac OS X & iTunes use ".m4p" for AAC tracks with DRM, as you would
buy from the iTunes Music Store. Tracks that have been ripped from CD and
encoded to AAC by iTunes have the extension ".m4a".

--

Larry Fransson
Seattle, WA

In article %M9Sb.176619$I06.1794771@attbi_s01, Jay Honeck
wrote:

A recent thread talked about downloading music for playing in the plane.
Being an old fossil, I had never done this before, and solicited suggestions
and help regarding this unknown (to me) area of the internet.

Several sites were suggested and explored, but the only "legal" (meaning
"pay per song") music site I found was www.iTunes.com , which has turned out
to be a marvelous experience -- thanks to whomever suggested it!
SNIP

Here's the best part of the whole thing: At the end, when you've got your
80 minutes (or so) of music downloaded, you burn the CD with a SINGLE CLICK.
There is none of the hassle of opening another program, or formatting a
disk -- iTunes has its own built-in CD burning software that creates a CD,
playable in ANY CD player. Again, painless, quick, and easy.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Apple. It's *ALL* this nice when you
use a Mac :-)

I love having 2500 songs on my iPod to chose from while I fly.

Tom Fleischman wrote:


Welcome to the wonderful world of Apple. It's *ALL* this nice when you
use a Mac :-)

I love having 2500 songs on my iPod to chose from while I fly.

My kid has an Ipod, 10GB I think. A Mac is not needed or desired.