Need application suggestions for ripping to Cowon A3 PVP

[Dean S. Messing]

<http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/10762.html>

Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> Dean Messing wrote:
> > I'm not actually even sure what "ID3" tags are.
>
> They are meta-information records included with most digital sound files
> (e.g. title, composer, artist, year, bitrate, genre and so on). In
> Fedora they are supported via the id3lib package. Amarok, RythmBox etc.
> simply use this information to organize tracks and playlists.

So, perhaps I'll be able to use the tags + Amarok to organise
all the music, and then write the file structure out to
the Cowon?

> > I only know that the Cowon A3 does _not_ [use IDE tags] for
> > automatic searching and organisation (according to
> > reviews).
> 
> I know nothing about this player, though I'd be surprised if it had no
> support at all for tags.

It evidently does not.  But it has many other features that compensate
for that, including many open audio and video formats, It also has
about the highest audio quality of any player out there.

For your interest, here's a link to a Feb 08 review:
<http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/12/cowon-a3-review/>

> In any case, you definitely want to add tag
> info to your tracks for your own future sanity (and some other model of
> player you might eventually own).

Agreed, though I'm not sure what that means.  Is the tag information
carried in the file name, or in some metadata area w/in the track
itself, or as separate files w/in the ripped-to directory?

> Tags for CDs you rip yourself have to be either added manually or
> downloaded from an online database such as http://www.freedb.org/. Most
> rippers can do this for you automatically (they calculate an ID based on
> the combination of track durations, which is a fairly unique fingerprint
> for each CD). If for any reason your CD isn't in the database, you get
> to add the tags by hand (and preferably return something to the
> community by uploading them to the database). The rippers will allow you
> to create tags, or you can use a package such as easytag (yum install
> easytag).

Very helpful.  Do you recommend a ripper under KDE/F8 that is powerful
and easy.  I have very little time to rip 83 CDs, figure out Amarok
(or whatever) for the purpose of organising things, and then putting
it all on the Cowon.  Others have suggested KaudioCreator and I'm happy
to try it.  Anything better?  (I've only comline ripping with cdparanoia).

> > What I hope will happen is that the name of the files ripped will
> > contain what's on the CD jacket, stuff like 
> > 
> > "Nocture no. 20 in e minor"
> 
> That depends on whether anyone has uploaded the tag information
> somewhere. Otherwise you do it yourself.

Oh, I  hope not too many!  Very little time, though I'm happy
to provide what I do to the community. 

> > and not "track3"
> > 
> > Several months ago, before I returned the iPod I orignally bought her
> > due to it not working well with linux, I was told on this list that
> > I'd need to use an application like Amarok with it.
>
> I've had reasonable success with gtkpod, though the user interface
> leaves a lot to be desired (note that gtkpod is only for managing your
> ipod, it's not a music player though it can call on Amarok for that).

I tried to get both gtkpod and Amarok to work with the newest Classic iPod.
This was last February and I was running F7 at the time.  Nothing but
lock-ups, deleted data, and wasted time.  One of the great things
about the Cowon is that it runs Linux internally and appears simply
as a 60GB USB disk drive to my system.  Not sure if there are other
modes of communication. We just got it.


> Then again I also think iTunes is overrated as a user interface.

Never seen it but I believe you. Most Apple stuff is over-rated,
though I must say that the circular touch pad on the iPod classic
makes the tiny joystick on the Cowon seem very clumsy and retro.  On
the other hand the visual UI on the Cowon and the 4" screen are very,
very nice.  And the audio quality is, indeed, magnificient.

Dean