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For many people MP3's are the perfect digitalformat, music in this format sounds similar to CD quality. MP3 filesare much smaller than the standard CD WAV file and using MP3 is free.It seems the only drawback for using MP3's is the fact that many of ourmusic is stored on other medias that are not compatible with ourcomputer and MP3 players. These media include vinyl records and audiotapes. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to convert youraudio tapes to MP3, so that you can listen to your favorite music onyour computer, MP3 player or iPod, here are some tips.

Listed below are things needed to convert audio tapes to mp3 digital audio format:

    * A pc computer with an audio card
    * WAV File Recording Application (Ripping program)
    * Application to change WAV file format into an MP3 file (Encoding Software)
    * A cable with 1/8" mini plug on each end

Now that you have all the components required to successfully convert your audio tapes to MP3 format, follow these quick steps:

* Connect the mini plug to your earphone output of your receiverthat is hooked up to the audio tape player or you can use the earphonejack that is integrated into your audio tape player.
    * Connect the other side of the cable into the Line In of your Sound Card (this input is usually green).
* Start your Ripping software on your computer for Line Inrecording. At the same time, press play to start your audio tape. Youraudio tape should be recording onto your computer in real time. It isimportant to note that you first must save your audio recording in theWAV format, and then change it later into MP3 format.
* Once you have a full recording of the audio from the audio tapesaved onto your computer and in WAV format, encode it using your MP3encoder program. Most ripping programs also include an encodingprogram. Now your old audio tape music is saved as a digital file whichcan be played on any computer or stored on a CD or IPod type device.

Important Notes

When saving your audio tapes to your computer as a WAV file, make sureyou have plenty of storage. WAV files are very large, usually about 10megabytes for one minute of sound. The proper settings for CD qualityof a WAV file are 44.1kbs, stereo and 16 bit. These settings willassure that your recording is very high CD type quality
Advantages of MP3

MP3's have many advantages including the ability to be transferredover the internet, the ability to be much smaller than a WAV file andto produce near CD quality. For instance, MP3's have a sound qualitythat is nearly 95% as good as a CD but only takes up 1/12 of the space.Because of this quality and small amount of space these files take up,MP3's have become the most popular digital music file today, being ableto be played on IPod's, cell phones and every computer with an MP3player.
Digital Music Terminology

It is important to note a few terms when working with MP3 files.

    * MP3 - stands for MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) Layer 3 Audio compression
* Bit rate - the average amount of bits per second that an audioor video file will consume or process. Usually CD quality is between128 kbps and 160 kbps; however 128 kbps is the de facto standard.
* Rip - means to extract music from a CD (WAV file). However, youcan also rip music from an audio tape, vinyl record or other mediausing a Line Input from your soundcard.
* Encode - means to take a file, which is usually a large WAVfile and process it to a new format. Formats can be MP3, WMA, OGG, etc.Encoding usually requires the file to be compressed to make it smaller.