"1. The RIP button is found in the Creative MediaSource Organizer View. If you are at the "Player" view, click on the MODE switch, to get to the Organizer view.



2. Insert your Audio CD into the CD-ROM drive and "Audio CD" will appear in the "Sources" Window. Click on "Audio CD" to view the tracks in the CD:


3. If your PC is connected to the internet, you could click on "Get Info" to retrieve CD information from CDDB. If not, the artist and genre will default to "unknown".



4. Right click on the track view and choose "Select All" to rip the entire CD. (If you want to select specific tracks, just hold the CTRL key down and click on the tracks you want)


5. To start ripping, Click "RIP NOW" (located at the toolbar above). A progress window will pop up. The "DESTINATION" column shows where the ripped MP3s are saved into.



Note:
- To customize your CD ripping options, go to the File menu at the top and select Tools>Settings. Click on "Audio CD/Rip" tab of the Settings window.
- To change the Default Media Folder (where ripped tracks are saved into), click on the "PC Music Library" tab of the Settings window.
- Creative MediaSource is for legal copying only.

"The fastest way is to inform Media Sniffer, the folder where all your songs are kept. Media Sniffer will then automatically import all the ID3 tag information of these songs into the PC Music library, without you lifting a finger.

1. On the File Menu, select "Tools", then "Settings".





2. When the Settings window appears, click on the "Media Sniffer" tab.





3. Check the "Enable Media Sniffer" box and click on "Add Folders". Browse to the folder where all your music are kept and click OK.

4. Click OK again and you will be brought back to the Organizer view.

5. Press F5 to refresh the PC Music Library View so as to see your songs.

Note:
- If you have many songs, importing will take some time. Press F5 to refresh the PC Music Library view
- If you prefer to be guided through the complete and proper process of importing your music into the PC Music Library, an "Import" wizard is provided. In the PC Music Library View, click on "IMPORT" in the toolbar.

With Creative MediaSource 2, you can enjoy Karaoke without buying commercial Karaoke CDs! That's right! Creative MediaSource 2 debuts a new Karaoke effect, which instantly creates Karaoke background music from your existing CD, MP3, WMA or WAV file by suppressing the vocals.

To check out the Karaoke effects, click the EAX button on the Creative MediaSource Player.

(A) First, you would need to select a MP3/WMA file that you want to sing along to.

(B) Then check the "Enable Karaoke" checkbox.

(C) You can select any of the three Voice Suppression modes to obtain the best vocal suppression effect for your type of music. Depending on the recording, the original vocals may not be totally suppressed. However, it will be attenuated enough for your voice to be heard clearly when you sing through the microphone.

(D) If the song's pitch is too high or too low, you can adjust the pitch in the Karaoke tab.

(E) You can also add a reverb effect to your microphone for the professional touch.

"Creative MediaSource provides a one-touch-recorder for instant and easy recording.

Step 1. Just click on the REC button, and recording will begin.

Step 2. When you want to end the recording, just click the STOP button. You will then be asked to confirm the recording's filename, where you want it saved to, as well as track information, such as Title, Artist, Genre.

Note:

- A pair of recording meters are provided to help you set the optimal recording volume. Check the box next to L/R. Then play the music from your audio source. The meter should be moving. Adjust the REC volume slider until the meter is moving around the 75% range.

- OR you can just check the Automatic Recording Volume Levelling (ARVL) and let Creative MediaSource set the optimal levels for you.

Creative MediaSource also provides various recording settings, that you may want to specify before recording.To view/set these settings, click on the RED arrow next to REC button.

Available Settings

1. "Show Recording Status" - switch the Player LCD to display the recording settings.

2. "Recording source" - You can set Creative MediaSource to record from the Wave, mic, analog, CD Digital "What U Hear", MIDI.

3. "Recording format" - Select from WAV, MP3 or WMA format with various bitrate and quality.

4. "Enable Record Sync" - This is useful when you are recording an MP3/CD. When this option is enabled, the track will be played automatically when you click the REC button.

"Step 1. Launch the Speaker Settings application from the Creative MediaSource Go bar to set the correct speaker setting.

Step 2. From the Speaker Selection Panel, choose the appropriate type of speaker that best describes the speaker system you are using. For example, if you are using Creative GigaWorks^® S750, you should be selecting "7.1 Speakers".

Step 3. If your speakers have a digital input and you have connected your Sound Blaster^® card to this input then you should select "Digital Output Only", however if the speakers you are testing are analog (like the Creative Inspire 7.1 7700) do not select "Digital Output Only".

N.B. DVD-Audio's built in copy-protection systems will automatically shutdown the digital output of the soundcard. This means in order to listen to DVD-Audio content you must connect the analog cables from the sound card to the speaker set.

Step 4. Once that is done, perform the "Speaker Test" to ensure that the speakers are working properly.

Step 5. Now choose the "Bass Management" tab and you will be able to tweak the sub-woofer level and even adjust the crossover frequency. The crossover frequency slider lets you determine at what point the low frequencies of the content should be directed to the sub-woofer. Note that Bass Management applies only to 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 speaker set-ups.

Step 6. If you are using a headphone, 2.1 or 4.1 speaker set-up, you may like to add extra punch to your music. Simply click on the "Bass Boost" tab to adjust the bass level of your music.

Step 7. Now, launch "Creative Graphic Equalizer" from the Creative MediaSource Go launcher.

Step 8. Here, you can tweak the EQ setting according to your music taste and save it as a preset. This preset would then be applied whenever you playback music. There are also a number of pre-defined presets like "EQ Jazz" or "EQ Rock" ready to use as-is or as a basis to create your own custom EQ setting.

"One of the simplest and yet most overlooked aspects of a good and clean audio experience is in the mixer settings. By ensuring the mixer controls are set properly for the user's usage preferences they can eliminate noise from the audio path and create the ideal listening environment

Step 1. Launch the Surround Mixer from the Creative MediaSource Go bar.

In the Basic Panel, it is recommended you do the following:

Step 2. Tweak the Volume, Bass and Treble bar to your preference level.

Step 3. Enable CD-Digital if you are using the Digital Output of your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive. This will typically give you much sharper and cleaner sound than CD Audio, which is an Analog Output.

Step 4. Mute Analog Input sources like Line-In and Mic-In when they are not in use to cut down on the noise entering the system.

In the Advanced Panel, you can do the following:

Step 5. Tweak the Front Center and Subwoofer volume. The general guideline for this is that the Front Center should sound about 10% louder than the surround channels. The subwoofer should not be over tweaked as this might introduce "muddiness" into the audio playback if your subwoofer is not of high enough quality. However if you are using a set of Creative Inspire™, MegaWorks™ or GigaWorks™ speakers you will have a little extra headroom to play with due to the speaker's bass management features.

"Creative MediaSource provides an Audio Clean-up feature that helps to reduce the "clicks" and "pops" from your old analog vinyl or cassette.

Step 1. Connect your external source device (cassette or record player) to the Line In connector on your sound card.

Step 2. Set the recording options to:

Recording Source = Line in
Recording Format = Mp3 Stereo, 128 kbps

For more details on using the recorder, please refer to article no. 4 : "How do I record my voice or music with Creative MediaSource?"

Step 3. Launch the EAX console and click the "Clean-up" tab. Click the "Enable Audio Clean-up" option and select "Line In" for the "Audio Source" setting.

Step 4. Play your Source Device. You should be able to hear it. If the audio level is too low, increase the "Source Level" slider. If you cannot hear any audio, check your surround mixer settings or connections.

Step 5. If necessary, adjust the "Noise Removal" and "Click Removal" to acheive the desired clean up effect.

(note: Extreme adjustments may distort the original sound)

Step 6. Once you are satisfied with the Audio clean-up settings, click the "Record" button to start recording.

Step 7. Click the "Stop" button when the song has ended. A box will appear, asking for the track name. The "Directory" field shows where the cleaned-up mp3 is being stored.

"With certain Sound Blaster^® Audigy^® 2 products, Creative MediaSource can record audio from an external source, at an amazing studio-quality sampling rate of 24-bit/96kHz DIRECTLY to the hard disk without any detrimental sample rate conversion.

Step 1. Launch Creative MediaSource Player and select "Show Recording Source" as shown.

Step 2. Set the source to SPDIF (if your external device supports SPDIF out) or line-in.

Step 3. Set the recording quality you want to record at (up to 24-bit/96kHz in WAV).

Step 4. Launch the AudioHQ: Go to the Windows START/Programs/Creative/Sound Blaster Audigy/AudioHQ. Click on the "Bit-Accurate" tab, then click on "Enable Bit-Accurate Recording".

Step 5. Click on the REC button to start recording.

"Step 1. Run Creative MediaSource, then plug your MP3 player into the computer. Your MP3 Player should be detected and it will appear at the "Source Window".

Step 2. Open the transfer panel by clicking on the Show/Hide Right Panel.

Step 3. To view the contents of the MP3 Player in the transfer panel, change the source.

Step 4. Change the view of the 2nd panel to display the songs in your PC Music Library by clicking on "PC Music Library" in the "Source" panel.

Step 5. Select the tracks in your PC Music Library you want to transfer. To select multiple tracks, hold down the shift or ctrl key and click the additional tracks.

Step 6. Then click the transfer button. You can also drag-and-drop the tracks from the PC Music Library to your MP3 player.

"Creative Music Analyzer analyzes each music track for audio information such as tempo and dynamic range. This information is essential for features like Smart Volume Management (SVM) and Smart Playlist to work properly.

The music analysis for each track takes a few seconds, depending on the speed of your computer. If you have a large music collection, the music analysis may take a long time. It is recommended that you run Creative Music Analyzer when are not running any other programs.

Step 1. On the File Menu, select "Tools", then "Analyze Music". A dialog box then appears.

Step 2. Select the information you want to acquire.

Step 3. Click the Start button and follow the onscreen instructions.

Note:

- Each track will need to be analyzed only once. You should run Creative Music Analyzer again if you have added many songs since the last music analysis was done. Only newly added tracks will be analyzed.

- You can stop Creative Music Analyzer any time, and continue the analysis from where it was stopped during the last session.

- The tempo tells you the speed of a song, and the standard unit of measurement is beats per minute (BPM). Certain Smart Playlist presets such as "Moods - slow music" require this tempo (BPM) information to retrieve all the slow tracks in PC Music Library. This tempo information is acquired with Creative Music Analyzer. If you have not run Creative Music Analyzer, the tempo box in your PC Music Library will show a zero.

- If the tempo column is not visible in your PC Music Library, right-click the column header, and click the "tempo" check box to select it.

"Associated file types are types of files that are automatically opened using a specific application. For exmaple, if you have associated MP3 files with Creative MediaSource, Windows will automatically use Creative MediaSource to open MP3 files.

Step 1. From the Menu bar, click "Tools" -> "Settings".

Step 2. Click the "Playback" tab.

Step 3. Select the media file types to be associated with Creative MediaSource.

Step 4. Select the Always check if the selected file types are dis-associated from Creative MediaSource option to check for dis-associated file types.

Step 5. You can choose from the following two options:

Option A: Select the Automatically restore file association option to automatically restore associations for file types that have been associated to other applications. For example, if you install an application that associates file types already associated to Creative MediaSource, you can configure Creative MediaSource to automatically restore the file association to itself.

Option B: Select the Ask to restore file association option to confirm the restoration of associations for file types that have been associated to other applications.

Step 6. Click the OK button.

"You can set the default recording format to use when recording audio from various sources.

Step 1. From the Menu bar, click "Tools" -> "Settings".

Step 2. Click the "Recording" tab.

Step 3. Click the "Change recording format" button to display the "Change Recording Format" window.

Step 4. In this window, select your default recording options: Format, Channel, Bitrate type and Quality.

Step 5. Click the OK button.

"Searching and organizing a huge music library is a simpler affair if your songs are imported into Creative MediaSource. A step-by-step wizard is provided to make song importing a breeze.

Step 1. Click on the "Import" Button in the organizer view and select what you want to import (tracks or playlists)

Step 2. Select the folder where your music is located. Upon clicking "Add folder", Creative MediaSource will scan through the entire folder for media files or playlists to be imported to MediaSource

Alternatively, if you wish to import just a particular file, you can do so by following these steps:
a) Select the folder where the file is (Tracks and Playlists within the folder will be displayed in the lower left window)
b) Select the individual file
c) Click on "Add File" to include that file to be imported into MediaSource

Step 3. Next, click on "Continue"

Step 4. The next step allows you to select one of 3 options to tag the files to be imported. Use the default option i.e. "Use existing tag information" if you are unsure

Step 5. Clicking on "Continue" will complete the import process

Step 6. The imported files will be displayed in your "PC Music Library" view

"Being in a LAN gaming environment, it would be impractical to have multi-speaker configurations for each and every single computer. You will only get a headache from the noise generated instead of surround sound effects. However with Sound Blaster soundcards, you can get CMSS 3D surround sound even from just a pair of headphones. Here's how:

Step 1. Go into the Start menu, Programs -> Creative -> Soundblaster Audigy -> Creative Speaker Settings.

Step 2. From the menu, choose "Headphones" from the Speaker/Headphone Selection

Step 3. Next, click the EAX button located at the bottom of the Speaker Settings menu to go into the EAX Console

Step 4. From the EAX Console, click the CMSS 3D Tab.

Step 5. Next, click on the "Enable CMSS 3D" check box to enable CMSS 3D for surround sound effects. Then, from the available modes, choose CMSS 2 as it enhances the environmental effects of the audio source, and is therefore most suited for gaming.

"With Smart Playlist, you can generate playlists automatically according to your very own preferences such as ratings, playcount, last-played date and tempo. An essential tool to manage and organize your huge array of music.

To create a customized Smart Playlist:

Step 1. Right click the Smart Playlist Icon in the "Sources" window, and click "New Playlist". Alternatively, click the Playlist Button, followed by "New Smart Playlist".

Step 2. In the next window, input the preferences for the songs that will go into your playlist. You can do so in the Simple mode, where the preferences covered are quite broad.

Otherwise, input your preferences in the advanced mode, where you can control more elements for a more refined short-listing of songs.

Step 3. Click on the Preview Button to get a glimpse of the generated playlist. If you want to fine tune or change your preferences, you can do so from the instructions as described in step 2.

Step 4. If you are satisfied with your Smart Playlist, click "Ok" and your customized Smart Playlist creation is complete!

"Easily create covers for both the front and inside of your CDs with Creative MediaSource in 4 easy steps.

To create a customized CD cover:

Step 1. In the organizer view, click the "CD Cover" button.

Step 2. In this new window, there is an array of options for you to customize your Front CD cover. You may select any of the following options:

The background Pictures

The fonts

The alignment of your album title

How the track Information will be displayed

The number of columns to display your track

Step 3. Click the "Inside Cover" button and go through the options again to customize your inside cover.

Step 4. Click "Preview" to view your own masterpiece. If you are satisfied with your design, just click "Print" and you are done! Otherwise, click "Cancel" and do the necessary changes from the preceding window.