I am certain I don't want to go the winamp 3 route. I've read around enough in the winamp forums to understand that it's essentially a whole new ballgame, which is fine. But that new ballgame comes with a whole slew of new bugs and issues, which I'm not too keen on dealing with now. I also see that Monkey's Audio doesn't have a plug-in for Winamp 3.

Yeah, I have no trouble with typing and using the English language. I just wish I could translate some of 'that' ability to computers etc.. I have been active in political discussion forums for years. Before I was on the internet, I was immersed in class politics, not in any formal way, but via self-education. And I had a hobby/ habit of writing letters to world and other leaders. When I had a girl type up my two volume book (which, as you may have guessed, isn't about cd burning) on her computer, with her word processor, I was awestruck. When I finally got my hands on one, I didn't ask anyone how to type. I just sat down and typed out my two volume book. Obviously, By the time that was done, I was quite acclimated to my keyboard.

Well, Omega, I appreciate the effort. Greatly. I've been experimenting today with a few progs that I downloaded. I think I'm fairly done for today. I'm simply pooped. (I'm drained a bit worrying about my job, which is shaky.)

I downloaded/ installed Audiograbber, which is supposed to save me from having to deal with ASPI issues, apparently. If I like it, I've got to cough up a few bucks for the full version. I also downloaded the free Lame mp3 encoder plug-in, and tried it. I guess it's okay. It's going to take me a while to figure out how to set all of the settings, although a lot of the documentation I've encountered is fairly helpful.

I'm having trouble understanding the 'normalization' button. Why would you 'normalize' a single file? When I normalized with Nero (which, I read, alters the file permanently, with good or not so good consequences), I simply hi-lited my chosen compilation, selected properties via right-clicking, selected filters and then selected normalize for the whole shebang. It still didn't do a great job of making the tracks equal in volume, mind you.

I also downloaded/ installed Monkey's Audio, and tried it. However, The prog wouldn't install the winamp plug-in that came with it. Therefore, While I was able to create an .ape file, I couldn't play it in my winamp. In fact, I just asked now for help (elsewhere) in figuring out why, since I have winamp 2.81, which is supposed to take the plug-in. Then I had a quick look around, which included looking into the settings of my winamp. I have all the file types selected, or I thought I did. I don't know. I also saw APE there. I made sure that 'all' the file types listed were selected before I exited, and then tried to play an ape file again. This time it played.

My next move, besides just getting familiar with all these new progs and their settings, is to determine whether I can have all of these audio files handily in my one Kazaa Lite 'Shared Folder', accessible for playing in winamp, and for both creating compilations out of them without regard for the various file types, and burning.

Now, If Monkey's Audio doesn't alter a file, and can be returned to it's original form, zip file-like, then how do I normalize ape files together with mp3 and wav files when I'm creating and burning compilations?