Before digital downloads and subscription services, the only way for a consumer to create an MP3 was to import audio from the original CD. This process, known as 'ripping', was introduced in 1993 and laid the groundwork for the digital music revolution. The MP3 format compresses the file size of music without losing audio fidelity. CD ripping is still the only way to be fully in control of your end results - to create files that sound and play the way you want t

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

hem to. An added advantage, it offers the greatest flexibility as well as the ability to create a custom digital music collection. A collection that will stay uncorrupted for years. It is this 'ripping' process that iTunes is so good at and we'll discuss a few of the settings that will make for a better result.

Personalize your collection
The first thing you'll want to consider is your end use. Will you mostly listen to your music at home on a very

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

good set of speakers or high end headphones? Is it all about portability for you? Maybe a little of both? Are you an audiophile, techie, gym rat, or like to travel. Then there are always budget considerations, even at today's prices 500 gigabytes will still set you back hundreds and if you're serious you'll need more than 500 gigs. Your answers to these questions will help you decide on the proper settings to use in iTunes for your particular use.

Before you

rip
For starters you'll need a computer with a CD drive, ripping software like iTunes and an internet connection. Beyond that, these key factors are important; Players/Software, Sound Quality, Storage cost,Time and speed.

• Player and software - If you're a committed iPod user then iTunes is a perfect solution. However if you want to make sure you'll be able to adapt your collection to the next big thing you will want to cr

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

eate files that not only work with your iPod but make sure you keep either the original CD or an uncompressed AIFF file on a backup hard disk so you can recompress to a different format in the future.

Sound quality - Experts who have spent hours testing the quality of various file formats and different conversion variables agree that a song track ripped at a bit rate of 192 kbps result in a file that provides CD quality sound on your iPod

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

and other MP players. However the loss in data of most compressed formats is significant so if you're serious about sound quality, you should consider ripping at a higher compressed bit rate (up to 300 kbps) or consider a lossless or uncompressed format. These high bit rates or lossless formats don't lend themselves to iPod portability and are best used for keeping a library in tact ready to be compressed to your favorite iPod or music phone. Once you have a pri

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

stine library you can use it as your source to compress in a variety of ways never changing the original.

Cost and storage capacity - Even today most of us still don't have enough free hard drive space to accommodate a sizeable CD collection. Even compressed MP3 files will eat up space rapidly so be prepared to lay out several hundred dollars for that 500 Gig backup.This is especially true if you are ripping more than 100 CDs and most esp

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ecially if you will rip in lossless or at high bit rates. As an example you can plan on 100 CDs ripped at 192 kbps using a minimum of 10 gigabytes of storage. That isn't too bad when you think about it - probably 1500 songs and 80 to 100 hours of listening before you repeat anything. One additional thought, hard drives do fail so if you have gone to time, trouble and expense of putting your entire music collection in lossless format on a drive reserved for your

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

eirs than a backup is always a good idea.

Time and speed - these are considerations when you have a large collection and you plan on adding CDs to your list on a regular basis. Todays average system may take 8-10 minutes to rip a CD. The contributing factors are CPU speed, available free memory, optical drive read/write speed, and the ripping software being used. If you plan on performing other tasks while ripping e.g. browsing the intern

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

et,email etc this will also slow the process. We suggest you don't listen while you rip since this too will slow things down.

Best Practices when Ripping
Check the condition of your CD - Consider cleaning dusty or scratched CDs - the scratch removers will help on all but deeply scratched CDs. The better the condition you start with the better your end result.

• Format and bit rate - use the following table to help yo

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

decide on setting that are best for your personal use.

Compressed formats - small file size. Use one of these formats if you are pinched for storage space or if you ar mainly concerned with portability i.e. you want to fit more music on your iPod.
• MP3 - The advantages are it is universal format and will play on any digital player or computer.
• WMA - Windows media player won't work on iPod or Macs.
• AAC - works wi

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

th iTunes and iPod

Lossless formats - medium file size.These are platform specific formats with files slightly smaller than uncompressed but retain most of the original sound quality.
• Apple Lossless - iTunes and iPods only
• Windows Lossless - can be used oon windows capable MP3 player only.

Uncompressed formats - these represent an exact digital copy of the original CD. One song can take up as muc

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

h space as an entire CDs worth of compressed files.

AIFF - retains ID tag.

WAV - doesn't retain ID tags.

Proprietary formats - these can generally only be used on specific MP3 players so you'll need to know which is for which. NOTE: iPod users are always safe using iTunes.

Bit Rates - determines the level of compression and resulting file size as well as reproduced sound quality. When ripping to one of the compressed formats you'

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

l have the choice on what bit rate to use. Generally range from 16 kbps to 320 kpbs - the suggested minimum for music is 128 kbps. This option is not offered on lossless and uncompressed formats. The higher the bit rate you select the better the reproduced audio quality but the file size will grow proportionally e.g. a CD ripped at 320 kbps will take about twice the space as one ripped at 16 kpbs.

Variable bit rate (VBR) - This is a custom setting that

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

gives the highest quality and smallest file size possible at a chosen bit rate. Data is removed in varying amounts over the course of the rip resulting in overall better sound and output levels. If you're using compressed format this setting is recommended. With VBR enable your selected bit rate is used as the guaranteed minimum for that CD rip.

Music data - make sure you are connected to the internet when ripping since iTunes and other soft

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

are use an online database ( Gracenotes CDDB or freedb.org) to get song title, artist and album information. Without this information your play lists are not very user friendly.

Post Ripping

• Tagging and grooming - Although your software will do its best to fill in all the song and artist information it still can be maddeningly inconsistent or incomplete. You will need to take a little time to perform manual clean up on your

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

music data also known as ID tags to make sure your music library is easy to browse and use. Tag information in iTunes is easy to edit by selecting song or group of songs and then selecting the 'Get Info' command. For example if you have ten albums by U2 some of them may be tagged as ' Alternative and Punk' and other tagged as 'Rock'. In order to make sure they are grouped together by genre in your iTunes browser you would need to change the genre tag. Do it as

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

soon as you're done ripping while everything is fresh in your mind.

Album art and lyrics - The latest iPods have the ability to display both album cover art and song lyrics; however as of this writing this information is not automatically embedded in the file during the ripping process.This requires downloading of the images or text and adding it to the file the same way you would edit song information.

Viewing and playback -

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

e recommend that you review your iTunes preferences and check the boxes that say 'Show genre when browsing' and 'Group compilation when browsing'. This will make finding your music easier.There is also a ' Sound check' box that when enabled will automatically adjust song playback volumes to same sound levels.

Conclusion

It is always a good idea to experiment on a couple of CDs - evaluate quality, time and effort and once you're satisfied tac

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

kle your collection. This is best done over a period of time a few CDs at a time. You'll learn as you go and mistakes will be easier to recover from. iTunes offers a great range of choices only experience will get you the most bang for your buck. If your mkusic library is large or you just don't want to bother yourself we have listed a number of commercial conversion services at our web site http://www.digitalmania-online.com/iPod-CD-Conversion.html Enjoy

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products