I finally will be recieving my empeg soon even though I ordered a while back. One thing I didn't realize is that my card had a limit on it for a day. My banks explaination was due to the fact that it is tied to my checking account, they don't want my account drained if the card is ever stolen. So anyone out there with debit or debit/credit cards may want to check the daily limit before trying to buy the empeg.

Now time to resume searching my CD archive of MP3's to prepair for the massive first upload.

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Reg 1640, 6gb Blue empeg-car mark 1. SN unknown

Congratulations!

I thought they were done shipping to all the registered folks. I take it that they were hanging on to yours until the card thing got straightened out.

I have some tips for what to prepare as you wait for the Empeg:

1) Make sure all the standard ID3 tags are filled out properly on your MP3 files before you upload them. Although that stuff can be edited after-the-fact, it's easier to get it right on your hard disk before you upload. It's useful to have the correct data so you can do things like search by artist or year. If you have any MP3s where you're not sure of the correct tag data, go to www.allmusic.com and look up the songs in their database. You can find out things like what album the song was originally recorded on and what year. Even though I rip my own MP3's, I still need to do this sometimes. For example, if I buy a "greatest hits" album or a movie soundtrack, I want to enter the original publication information for that song, not the date/name of the soundtrack album.

2) As much as possible, try to organize the MP3s on your hard disk in a structure that resembles the heirarchical playlists you might want to create. That way, you don't have to worry about the differences between the way the MP3s are stored on your computer and the way they're stored on the Empeg.

3) If possible, name the files on your hard disk so that they list in "album order" when you view them in Explorer. I do mine so that the track number is part of the file name, but comes after the album name, like this:

Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon- 01- Breathe in the Air.mp3
Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon- 02- On the Run.mp3
Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon- 03- Time.mp3
(...)
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here- 01- Shine On You Crazy Diamond 1.mp3
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here- 02- Welcome to the Machine.mp3
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here- 03- Have a Cigar.mp3

That way, it's easy to drag them into Emplode in the correct order.

4) Make sure your USB and serial ports are working before you get the Empeg. There would be nothing more frustrating than to get the Empeg and be unable to use it because of a problem with those things.

5) When you do your uploads, do them in small batches, just a couple of albums at a time. Don't try to do the whole shebang all at once. That way, if a sync crashes (hey, it happens), you won't lose much work.



-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.