Illegal Operation message while trying to export to MP3

[tigercat200]

I'm new here and I've done a lot of searching with no joy about my problem. I expect that it's out there somewhere but, I just can't find the answer.

I have been transfering my vinyl and tapes to CD with success using WAV files. I would like to try MP3 just to see how much space I can save and how much I can put on a CD. I downloaded the unzipped LAME dll from the Audacity site today. Whenever I try to take either a WAV file or a new recording and export them to MP3, I get the pop-up fill in the blank window, which I'm not sure if I need to do anything there or not, and when I click OK I immediately get a message stating that Audacity has performed an Illegal Operation and the program will be shut down. It's not kidding either. I am running Audacity 1.2.6 with Windows98. Yes, I know I'm not at all current with the OS but, I don't care because this computer is a tool to solve a problem and it does all I want it to do with less hassle than the newer one at work.

Is there something I can do to export MP3 files with my current setup or am I missing something? Continuing with WAV is not a problem for me if it's going to take a lot to fix this. CD's are pretty cheap.

Thanks to anyone who may wish to try to help me.

Bob

[kozikowski]

<<<I would like to try MP3 just to see how much space I can save and how much I can put on a CD.>>>

I can answer that one. Precisely the same number of minutes you could before. Standard Music CDs are always created with fixed sampling and bitrates--44100 and 16 bit.

Say you took an hour performance, about 600 MB and MP3 compressed it down to 2KB. Cool, right? The Music CD authoring program would take that file and resample it back up to 600 MB and burn it on the CD. Only this time, it will have all the damage, distortion, and bubbly sounds that the MP3 process created.

That's just to create a Standard Music CD that will play anywhere--like your car or portable CD layer. If you want to play the music in your computer, there are more options. Make a Data CD and put as many MP3 files on there as you can fit, say the whole season of 'Prairie Home Companion" shows. However, don't be shocked if you put the disk in your car CD player and it won't play (assuming you have an older car). This would be a bad disk to send to your mum whose music CD player has the Kerosene Conversion Kit.


I'm betting Windows 98 before Second Edition will not support the MP3 export.

Koz

[tigercat200]

Thanks, Koz. So, if I'm not missing something here, MP3 format has no advantage for CD's. Given that, I can forget about messing with MP3 and continue with WAV that works fine and lasts a long time. I plan to free up the space on the computer after I spin off the CD's so, that isn't a problem and I don't have an iPod or some such thing either so, MP3 is out and WAV is in. It's kinda fun listening to al the old songs on vinyl as I record them. Brings back a lot of memories, too. Once again, Koz, thank you.

Bob

[waxcylinder]

I plan to free up the space on the computer after I spin off the CD's so, that isn't a problem and I don't have an iPod or some such thing either so, MP3 is out and WAV is in.
Bob

Just be aware that CD-R's are photosensitive (that's how they get written with the burning laser) - which means that they can degrade over time, particularly if left out in strong sunlight.

I would stongly recommend that you also invest in at least one external USB or firewire external disc to backup your WAV files before deleting them from your internal hard drive. You will have done a fair amount of work getting those WAVs, it would be a shame to lose them and to have to re-record & re-edit all over again USB discs are getting very cheap these days - my most recent one was a 1TB Iomega which I got from John Lewis UK for £97.

If the any of the CDs does go off you can then easily burn a fresh one from the backups of the WAVs.

WC

[tigercat200]

Now that is a great idea, WC. Thanks a lot and I'll start looking into it.

Bob

[kozikowski]

Recordable CDs and DVDs use the same technology as color photographs. Chromogenic dyes. You know what they look like after a few years on the wall. We took some equipment out of service recently that had its backups on CDs. The CDs were scary discolored and mottled (and they were in a file cabinet), but we started at one end of the shop and eventually found one machine that could still read them. I think it was the seventh machine; one of our video Macs. How may machines do you have?

Koz

[waxcylinder]

But also remember that disks can crash too!

That's why I use a minimum of two external disks for parallel backup copies. Just before Christmas I had my relatively new (three and a half months since purchase) 2x500Mb raid disk go awry with one of the disk pair totally unreadable/unmountable. The RAID-1 functionality didn't work properly either, I had to get inside the box and physically unplug the faulty disk for the other RAID copy to be seen. The manufacturer did replace the faulty unit with a totally new RAID array - but I was a fortnight without my second backup copy.

So multiple backup copies are good - and if you're being really conscientious an off-site copy is better

WC

[tigercat200]

Thanks, folks. I'll start shopping for a backup drive.

Bob

[stearman65]

Thanks, folks. I'll start shopping for a backup drive.

Bob

Hi Bob
I've been looking around for a back up drive, have a look at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001 ... d_i=468294
Stearman65

[waxcylinder]

Following from Stearman's link - Amazon UK has a whole page of 1TB disks http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_ce? ... &x=13&y=14 - and the prices seem to be tumbling almost monthly (or the amount of storage increases per £/$)

Correction to my earlier post above, I actually bought my Iomega drive from a John Lewis shop (not Amazon as I originally stated) - I needed to get one immediately, to secure my backups.

WC