File Sharing

A recent phenomenon on the internet has been file sharing. This is basically a way of connecting users together, to enable them to offer files they have on their own computer to others wanting to download them. This is particularly useful for music fans, who can no longer buy copies of older albums, unless a copy happens to come up on the second hand market. Usually these are to be found in the mp3 format, which compresses a music file to about one tenth the original size.

In order to be able to achieve this, a suitable file sharing program is necessary. Currently the two most popular are WinMX and KaZaA. However, recent events have made this method of file sharing become very unreliable and pretty unstable. There are still some alternative ways of sharing John Miles files.

To get more details, please can you contact Mary Ellen Lee direct from the Contacts page, where she will be able to offer some sound advice.

A very handy method of tying all the tracks of an album together is called Album Wrapping. The files can be recognised by the suffix _ALBW.mp3 These can be played as a complete album using MusicMatch, but the individual tracks can be extracted by using the Album Wrap Extractor. This can be downloaded from Infamus Software. It is free, and a very small file.

If you burn your own CDs, you may want to also print the front and back insert covers for these. High resolution versions, at 300 dpi are also available. I would recommend you print them on glossy photo paper for the best results. I have created a page on the site which gives hints on scanning your own.

One point worth mentioning about converting mp3 files to audio CDs. For some reason CD rippers seem to add a small silent piece at the beginning and/or end of each mp3 track. This is normally not noticable, but if the tracks form part of a continuous piece, such as in a concert, you will then get a gap in the audio CD. The same applies if you play the mp3 files in an mp3 player. For this reason, I have combined all continuous tracks into single, composite tracks, so that this problem does not arise. It does, however, mean that you lose the track divisions. One way over this is to convert the mp3 files to wav files, and split them with a wav file editor before burning them to an audio CD. This, however, does not help when playing them on an mp3 player, so I suggest you leave the tracks combined.

John Webster