odiaz

This has probably been posted in numerous posts over the past year but I took the time to collect all of the information from all of the previous posts, burn my own CDs and then document the procedure in a single document. This worked for me, I hope you find it useful.

http://www.cherod.com/mustang/HowTo/ShakerMP3.htm

bodyputtyless

Wow! That must have taken an enormous amount of time and effort putting down the MP3 instructions. They are easy to follow and straight forward. Of course the amount of time it took my system to rip,convert, compete and close my playlist was numbing. I think it would have been quicker on my end if I had taken music lessons,bought a recording studio and laid down my own tracks. LOL. Again, thanks for a terrific post. One of the best I have ever read regarding a Mustang option procedure. Terrific!

odiaz

Thanks, I thought I'd put it down on paper because the next time I go to do it I'm not going to remeber what I did.

I love that Mach 1, that is absolutely gorgeous. That's a great picture.

ktyler

Thanks for the info. I have a question though, if i already ripped songs in wmp format instead of mp3 in the rip music options menu in wmp but still did everything else through roxio will it play. I havent picked up my car yet but I am trying to get mp3s ready for when I do thanks in advance!

odiaz

No, WMP formatted tracks will not work on the shaker. WMP (windows Media Player) is a proprietary format only used by Microsoft'. You will need to convert those tracks to MP3 format.

Orion_240

Yes, but I've heard it's better to re-rip those tunes to your computer as MP3s than to convert. Can you confirm otherwise and if so what did you use to convert to MP3?
I have been ripping my new albums in MP3 but dread the thought of re-ripping!
What really sucks is all the tunes I bought from MSN, and other sites, are in Windows format!
What are the songs you buy from iTunes in?
Just wish these boneheads could use just one basic format!

S.SubZero

Mine does seem to change discs after it has played most if not all of the songs on a particular disc. Since I only have two discs I do not know if it's random.

odiaz

Orion - Yes, if you have the original CDs and the time to re-rip, that is preferred. However if you downloaded the song, got it from a friend or or obtained it from a CD you no longer have, then there is no choice but to convert it. WMP does not have this feature but many other media players do support this feature. For example, dbpoweramp which can be downloaded for free from www.dbpoweramp.com, can convert wma files to mp3 (unless they are copy protected). Note you will also need to download the windows media add-on.

SubZero, If you have the shuffle feature turned off, then the shaker will switch CDs after it finishes playing the current CD. I don't know if this only applies to music Cds as opposed to MP3 data discs. I only have data discs on my shaker and it has never changed CDs.

If any of you can confirm that the shuffle feature does play MP3 songs across data CDs (that is automatically change CDs to play MP3 songs) please let me know. Perhaps mine is defective.

S.SubZero

Mine is currently set to shuffle. After it plays *all* (or at least it feels like all) of the tracks on a disc, it changes to the other disc automatically.

bodyputtyless

My daughter uses Itunes to download music. I have since found out that Itunes does not allow you to convert music that was purchased from them to MP3. However by accident I have found that if you first burn a CD (several if you have a ton of music) of Itunes purchased songs from your Itunes library, then re-install the burned CD and copy the songs from the CD into the Windows Media Player library or playlist, you can then follow the instructions provided above to rip them and convert them to MP3. You can then burn them to a new CD and this way you can circumvent the Itunes installed conversion block. I know it means using up CD's ,however, these CD's will still work in CD players. So it's not a total loss. At least you can use the Itunes music that you paid for, the way you wish. Anyway...I'm going to switch to a music download service that provides MP3 staright up. BTW, Being old I have purchased several songs that are also "old". When I played these songs through my Ipod/car stereo system, they don't have the same volume as newer songs that were recorded with modern technology. If you convert these older songs to MP3 and burn them to a CD the songs have terrific volume qualities. They sound terrific.