Windows XP Digital Music for Dummies

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Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2004-11-26
Publisher(s): For Dummies
List Price: $21.99

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Summary

Now you can give new meaning to the description " High-performance computer!" And you can even choose the performers Elvis or Elton, the Beatles or Beethoven, Eminem or Englebert, Pfish or Pavarotti. Your Windows XP is like a concert hall, and "Windows XP Digital Music For Dummies is just the ticket to get you in and get you enjoying digital music. It will help you get in tune with the times with note-by-note information on: Setting up your computer to handle music Using Windows Media Player that' s part of the XP package Making your computer the centerpiece of your music collection Shopping for and downloading music from Napster, iTunes, Rhapsody, and more internet sites Selecting the hardware, software, and audio tools you need Written by Ryan Williams, an accomplished musician with an MS in Music Technology who develops digital multimedia tools, this guide helps you explore: Transferring your CDs or even vinyl records (if you have them, you know what they are) to the realm of your computer Choosing and using portable audio players Upgrading your PC and turning it into a jukebox with your all-time favori

Author Biography

Ryan Williams is the Digital Multimedia Development Specialist for the Indiana University School of Dentistry. He graduated from the Indiana University School of Music with a master’s degree in music technology, along with a bachelor’s degree in communications from DePauw University. In addition, he writes for indianapolismusic.net, a Web site focused on the musical happenings in and around the greater Indianapolis metropolitan area.
As a bassist, Ryan has played in most known genres of music and some additional ones that seemed invented on the spot. While he was named “Best Bassist In Indianapolis” by shotgunreviews.com in 2002, he will happily provide you with the names of several local musicians who both inspire and embarrass him on a regular basis. He currently shares stages and studios with the members of Mother Grove, a Celtic rock band featured in shows and festivals from Ohio to Colorado.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1(1)
About This Book
1(1)
Conventions Used in This Book
2(1)
What You Don't Have to Read
2(1)
Foolish Assumptions
3(1)
How This Book Is Organized
3(2)
Part I: Playing Music on Windows XP
3(1)
Part II: Making Windows XP Your Digital Jukebox
4(1)
Part III: Goin' Mobile: Taking Your Songs on the Road
4(1)
Part IV: Quiet in the Studio
4(1)
Part V: The Part of Tens
5(1)
Icons Used in This Book
5(1)
Where to Go from Here
5(2)
Part I: Playing Music on Windows XP
7(58)
Are You XPerienced?
9(16)
The Whats and Whys of Digital Sound
9(3)
The benefits of digital sound
10(1)
The tradeoff of better sound (and what you can do to counteract it)
11(1)
Fascinating File Formats
12(3)
WAV
12(1)
MP3
12(1)
WMA
13(1)
AAC
13(1)
Real
14(1)
MIDI
15(1)
Just the Facts
15(1)
Storing and Moving the Goods
15(2)
The Nuts and Bolts of Hardware
17(1)
Processors and memory
17(1)
Sound cards
17(1)
Speakers
18(1)
Portable audio players
18(1)
The Softer Side of Audio
18(1)
Media players
19(1)
Download programs
19(1)
Editing programs
19(1)
Law and Order: MP3
19(6)
Peer-to-peer file sharing
20(1)
Legal setbacks
20(1)
Other drawbacks of P2P
21(1)
Copying and burning files
22(3)
Wiring Your Computer for Sound
25(20)
Getting the Right Computer
25(6)
Processing ... processing
26(3)
RAMming it through
29(1)
Wanna go for a drive?
30(1)
Heading to the Hardware Store
31(8)
Sounding off
31(5)
Same disc, different box
36(1)
Seeing the light
37(1)
Speakers of the house
37(1)
Seeing the light
38(1)
Making the Connections
39(6)
Dealing a new hand of cards
39(2)
FireWire and USB
41(1)
Speak, Spot!
42(1)
Expanded features
42(2)
Networking
44(1)
Basic Operations
45(12)
Getting Sound Out of Windows XP
45(1)
Finding the Controls
46(9)
Types of Usable Media
55(2)
Windows XP Media Center Edition
57(8)
What Is Windows XP MCE?
57(5)
The similarities
58(1)
The differences
58(1)
My Music
58(4)
My Radio
62(1)
Getting What You Want
62(3)
Hard drive
62(1)
Memory
63(1)
Processor
63(2)
Part II: Making Windows XP Your Digital Jukebox
65(74)
Stalking the Wild Jukebox Software
67(22)
Something in Common
67(5)
Playback
68(1)
Organization
69(1)
Playlists
70(1)
Ripping
70(1)
Burning
71(1)
Visualizations
71(1)
Player appearance
71(1)
Other features
72(1)
Playing Your Files
72(2)
Getting Organized
74(4)
Hitting the library
74(2)
Labeling your music
76(1)
Other organizational commands
77(1)
Writing Your Playlist
78(3)
Feel the Burn
81(2)
Ripping Your Files
83(2)
Visualize the Music
85(1)
Skinning the Player
86(1)
Other Features
86(1)
Players on the Field
87(2)
iTunes
87(1)
Winamp
88(1)
Real Player
88(1)
Musicmatch
88(1)
Ripping Music Files from CDs, DVDs, and More
89(16)
What Can I Make, and Where Can I Use It?
89(1)
Music CDs
90(1)
Data CDs
90(1)
Keeping It In-House
90(1)
Bigger and Better Tools
91(2)
Ripping
91(1)
Burning
92(1)
Recording
92(1)
CD labeling
92(1)
That's what you get
93(1)
Analog to Digital
93(10)
Making the connection
93(3)
Checking the line
96(1)
Leveling it out
97(3)
Cleaning up
100(3)
Apples and Oranges
103(2)
Buying Songs at the 99-Cent Store
105(22)
Choosing the Best Virtual Record Store
105(4)
File format
106(1)
File protection
107(1)
Selection
107(1)
Software
108(1)
Price
108(1)
Shop 'til You Bop
109(8)
Signing your name on the dotted line
114(3)
Checking Out the Selection
117(10)
The search engine
117(1)
Listings
117(1)
Radio
117(3)
What do I do with it?
120(3)
Free samples
123(1)
Why would bands give it away for free?
124(3)
Radio Station WNXP
127(12)
Gently Down the Stream
127(4)
Running it through the pipeline
128(1)
The station's format
129(1)
Tuning in your software
129(2)
But Wait, There's More!
131(1)
Turn Up the Radio
131(1)
One-Stop Radio Shopping
132(2)
Live365
133(1)
Radio@Netscape
134(1)
Shoutcast
134(1)
Yahoo Launchcast
134(1)
Making Your Own Internet Radio Station
134(5)
Getting started
135(1)
Programming
136(3)
Part III: Goin' Mobile: Taking Your Songs on the Road
139(30)
Choosing an Okay Player
141(18)
One, Two, Three Types of Players
142(6)
Hard drive players
142(2)
Flash media players
144(2)
MP3 CD Players
146(2)
A Three-Album Tour
148(2)
Playing your song
148(1)
Changing your settings
149(1)
The Lineup of Players
150(5)
Hard drive players
151(2)
Flash players
153(1)
MP3 CD players
154(1)
Common Pitfalls and Problems
155(2)
Starting off on the right foot
155(1)
My controls aren't working!
155(1)
My player doesn't turn on!
155(1)
My computer doesn't recognize my player!
156(1)
Looking for Music in All the Weird Places
157(2)
Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
157(1)
Cellular phones
157(1)
Gaming devices
158(1)
Feed Me, Seymour! Transferring Songs to Your Portable Audio Player
159(10)
Hooking Up Your Portable Player
159(3)
Plugging it in
160(1)
USB
161(1)
FireWire
162(1)
Transferring Files to Your Portable Audio Player
162(5)
USB connections
163(2)
FireWire connections
165(2)
Legal Concerns
167(2)
Part IV: Quiet in the Studio
169(68)
Building Your Studio
171(18)
Putting Your Studio in the Box
171(7)
The processor
172(1)
Memory
173(2)
The hard drive
175(3)
Dealing the Sound Cards
178(4)
Multitracking
178(1)
Internal versus external sound cards
179(1)
The inputs
180(1)
Before the inputs --- the preamp
181(1)
Bits and Hertz
182(1)
Setting the Wavetable
183(1)
Stuck in the MIDI with You
184(3)
MIDI basics
184(2)
Sequencing MIDI
186(1)
Oh, THAT Kind of Keyboard
187(2)
MIDI controller
187(1)
Synthesizer
187(1)
Drum machines
187(1)
Other input alternatives
188(1)
Laying Down a Few Tracks
189(16)
Common Features and Functions
189(8)
Multitrack Capability
190(1)
Audio recording
190(1)
Sound editing
191(1)
MIDI recording
192(1)
Looping
193(1)
User interface
193(1)
Control surfaces
194(2)
Plug-ins
196(1)
Mixing
196(1)
Exporting
196(1)
Mastering
197(1)
Burning
197(1)
What Do You Want to Do?
197(2)
Just beginning
197(1)
Intermediate/project studio
198(1)
Professional
198(1)
Loop-based recording
199(1)
Soft Synths
199(1)
Hooking It All Up
200(4)
Is everybody here?
201(1)
Reducing Iatency
202(1)
Where have all the files gone?
203(1)
Removing what you don't need
203(1)
A Comparison
204(1)
Recording, Looping, and Editing
205(20)
Setting Up Your Project
205(1)
Where's It Coming From?
206(1)
Leveling It Out
207(2)
Basic Sound Levels
209(2)
Basic Sound Effects
211(2)
This one goes up to 11
211(1)
Did you record this in a cave?
212(1)
There will be a slight delay
212(1)
Join the chorus
212(1)
All things being equal
213(1)
What are my limits?
213(1)
The rest of the show
213(1)
Using Effects
213(2)
The Click Track
215(1)
Clicking the Record Button
216(1)
Layer Upon Layer
217(1)
Repeating Yourself
218(4)
Keeping a steady beat
219(1)
What key was that in?
220(1)
Repetition
221(1)
Uh, I Made a Mistake . . .
222(2)
Undo
222(1)
Selective undo
223(1)
Re-recording
224(1)
Mixing the Music
225(8)
Processing...Processing
225(6)
Finding your place
226(3)
Rendering tracks
229(2)
You Can't Have Two Masters
231(2)
No, not a cold compress
231(1)
Demanding equality
231(1)
Making the cuts
232(1)
You're fading in and out
232(1)
Finishing Up Your Song
233(4)
Online Distribution of Files
233(2)
Burning Down the Tracks
235(2)
Part V: The Part of Tens
237(32)
Ten Valuable Ways to Tune-Up Your Digital Music
239(6)
Keeping Only What You Need
239(1)
Keeping Your Looks Simple
240(1)
Defragmenting Your Hard Drive
240(1)
Using the Disc Cleanup Utility
240(1)
Using Only the Media Players You Need
241(1)
Playing Your Files with One Player
241(1)
Keeping Your System Free of Viruses and Spyware
242(1)
Keeping Your Files Organized
242(1)
Emptying Your Trash
243(1)
Burning Off Your Files
243(2)
Ten Legal Download Sites
245(4)
iPod Lounge
245(1)
Hit Squad
246(1)
Winamp
246(1)
Source Forge
246(1)
Download.com
246(1)
Version Tracker
247(1)
ZDNet Downloads
247(1)
Analog X
247(1)
Vorbis
247(1)
Archive.org
248(1)
Ten Download-Friendly Artists
249(4)
The Roots
249(1)
Charlie Hunter
250(1)
Smashing Pumpkins
250(1)
The Offspring
250(1)
Steve Coleman
250(1)
Chuck D. and Public Enemy
251(1)
Country Joe
251(1)
The Grateful Dead
251(1)
Phish
251(1)
Wilco
252(1)
Ten Songs You'll Never Want to Download
253(4)
Achy Breaky Heart
253(1)
Winchester Cathedral
254(1)
How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?
254(1)
I'm Too Sexy
254(1)
Muskrat Love
254(1)
Girl You Know It's True
255(1)
My Heart Will Go On
255(1)
She Bangs
255(1)
Ice Ice Baby
255(1)
Too Shy
256(1)
Ten Digital Music Toys for the Truly Geeky
257(4)
The BMW
257(1)
SliMP3
258(1)
LT Laser Turntable
258(1)
Philips MCi250 Wireless Broadband Internet Micro HiFi System
258(1)
Belkin iPod Backup Battery
258(1)
Laks Memory Music Watch
259(1)
C. Crane FM Transmitter
259(1)
Groove Bag Tote Speaker Purse for iPod
259(1)
Sonic Boom Bag
259(1)
PlusDeck 2
260(1)
Ten non--Windows XP Sources for Digital Music
261(4)
Concerts
261(1)
Conferences
262(1)
DVDs
262(1)
Video Games
262(1)
Giveaways
262(1)
Used CD Stores
262(1)
Promotional Offers
263(1)
Satellite Radio
263(1)
Digital Cable
263(1)
``Bonus'' Tracks
263(2)
Ten Other Ways You Can Use Windows XP for Music
265(4)
Using Google
265(1)
Organizing Your Catalog
266(1)
Supporting Independent Artists
266(1)
Ordering Music
266(1)
Researching Artists
266(1)
Ordering Concert Tickets
266(1)
Customizing Your Sounds
267(1)
Creating Sheet Music
267(1)
Talking to Artists
268(1)
Discussing Music with Fans
268(1)
Appendix A: Glossary
269(6)
Appendix B: Cutting the Wires to Your Music
275(4)
Putting Up Your Antenna
275(1)
Network name
276(1)
Configuration password
276(1)
802.11b or g?
276(1)
Getting It All Working
276(3)
Index 279

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