How to Import CDs and Tips for Your Minidiscs

All modern computers are equipped with CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives, and digital extraction or "ripping" of audio should be possible using basic, free software, such as iTunes. Simply insert your CD in the drive, select it in the menu, and click the Import CD button in the top right corner of the iTunes interface. In most cases, this will encode the music from the CD into the default AAC or MP3 format.

On Macs you should not encounter any problems with this, but on a Windows machine, you may need to check your CD-ROM settings. To do this in Windows XP right click on your CD or DVD player in the Device Manager and select Properties in the menu that appears. Then, click on the Properties tab in the dialog box that comes up, and make sure the checkbox beside Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device is selected. If it is not selected by default, it could be that your drive is either not connected properly, or it simply does not support digital audio playback and extraction.

If you want to take more control over the ripping process, you can set the compression format in your music management software. If you want to make a perfect digital copy of the music on the CD, then you should transfer it to your computer as a WAV or AIFF file.

CDs store audio in an uncompressed (often called "lossless") format, and the files produced when transferring digitally from a CD to the hard drive should be identical to one another. Minidiscs can also store audio in a lossless digital format, but to get more time out of a Minidisc, ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) compression is often used. Lower compression ratios produce imperceptible distortion, but higher levels produce audio artifacts that cannot be removed. Simply put, these files will not sound as good as uncompressed files, and no amount of manipulation is going to improve them.

The transfer of music from Minidisc to your computer should be done digitally. Because the music is stored as digital information, using an audio cable, an analog connection, will require the device to convert the digital signal to an analog one to be sent to the computer; at this point it will have to be reconverted to a digital format. Not only will slight inaccuracies be introduced during the conversions, but distortion can be produced in the cable.

Many Minidisc players are not equipped with digital outputs, and similarly, many consumer level sound cards do not offer any form of digital input. If this is the case with your setup, you should obtain a high quality cable to connect the Line Out or the headphone jack of your device to the Line In on your sound card, and record the audio in much the same manner that you would a cassette tape.

If your Minidisc player supports digital output, then it will often include software enabling you to take advantage of this, but you must also have a digital input on your computer. This will take the form of either a coaxial input to be used with a coaxial cable, or an optical input that will either be a square or 1/8"-sized optical jack. Both plugs emit a red light when attached to a working device. Optical-to-coaxial adapters are available if necessary. Sony's Net MD allows digital transfers from computer to Minidisc via USB, but not vice versa.