StainlessSteelRat.net

THE NOMAD PRIMER (V1.9, 3rd February 2005)

(AKA NOMAD - 101, OR HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM YOUR NOMAD)

If you have a suggestion to alter or add to this primer, please let me know.

So you've bought a hard disk based Creative Labs Portable Audio Player (e.g. Nomad Jukebox 3 (NJB3), Nomad Zen, Nomad Zen Micro, Nomad MuVo²), now what?...

Here are 6 steps on getting the best from your player...

1. Ripping and encoding tracks - Ripping and encoding is the process of taking your CDs and converting it into audio files, to download to your player (Technically ripping is taking the file off the CD, and encoding is converting that file to one of the various digital audio formats e.g. MP3, WMA etc.). If you already have your audio in files on your computer then this step isn't important, but if you want to rip and encode tracks from your own CD's it is important.

If you ask several people how to rip and encode, which encoder, and what quality to use, you will get several different answers. Perhaps the best school of thought on this is to find a ripping/encoding program that works for *you* (the FAQ's at Nomadness.net have several favourites listed). Once you've found one you like the interface for try ripping some tracks at different qualities, and take a listen. From this list then choose the bit-rate that sounds OK to you.

The only caveat to this is that it's amazing how the ears become sensitive to artifacts in the compressed audio files over time, and you might regret encoding at too low a bit-rate.

Another school of thought is that you shouldn't choose anything under 192 kbit/s.

2. Audio file tags - If you are still waiting for your player to arrive now is the time to check your audio file tags (for MP3's these are called ID3 tags). These tags contain "hidden" data about the file, including the track title, artist, album, track number etc.

This data is *vital* to the proper usage of the player as the Music Library (on the NJB1/2/3 and Zen range) are built from this, and the Music Library is used to navigate the player. Any effort put in to cleaning your collection will pay-off *many* times later on. Get hold of a good tagging program (see the FAQ for links on this, and try them for yourself) and spend some time running through all your tags and adding/cleaning data.

The MuVo² works in a different way as it doesn’t have a Music Library build from the ID3 tags (for MP3’s), and doesn’t use the Track number field tag to sort albums. Therefore the method of assuring albums (which aren't compilations) are played in their correct order within each folder is to create each track with a file name in the format <Artist> - <Album> - <Track #> - <Title>. For compilation albums this should be <Album> - <Track #> - <Artist> - <Title>.

Notes:

(a) The sequence of tracks within an album is primarily determined by the track number field within the tag, so if this is not populated or incorrect, the tracks will be out of sequence.

(b) None of the software used with the players requires ID3 v1 tags (for MP3's). If you don't need these for other programs my recommendation is to remove them so that you are working on a single source, which is far easier. The Nomad's only use the Title, Album, Artist, Genre and Track field in the ID3 tag. Therefore unless you want to use the others they can be erased (although it's probably worth keeping at least the Year data). Note that the more verbose the data the more it takes up in the Music Library on the Nomad, thus more rapidly increasing the track limit (which is a function of the amount of tag data). Therefore cleaner less verbose tags equal more tracks on the player (if you are close to the limit).

(c) Be very careful when formatting the Track number field in the format XX/XX e.g. 01/12. MediaSource has a serious bug that wipes *all* ID3 data from a track with the track number field in this format when importing. Note that newer versions of MediaSource don't have this bug.

(d) DON'T EVER edit tags on the player itself. There's a known bug/limitation that track data edited on the player isn't brought back when you copy the files back to the PC, so will be lost. Always edit files on the PC first *before* copying to the player.

(e) I've added a section at the bottom of this document on how to use MP3 Library, my favourite tagging program.
 

3. Battery charging - Once you've received your player make sure you charge the battery fully the first time. Note that you can use the player while it is charging first time e.g. to download MP3's, as the charger is capable of running both the player and the battery charger.

The newer Nomad's (e.g. Nomad Jukebox 3, Nomad Zen, Nomad MuVo²) use a Lithium Ion battery, and here are 7 tips on getting the best from this type of battery:

(a) Normal charging - When the charging symbol displayed on the Nomad turns off, or changes to the mains symbol, the battery is still trickle charging after reaching 90% charge level. Leave it a further 30 minutes to be sure that the trickle charging has finished also

(b) First/Priming charge - Make sure to fully charge the battery the first time you use the battery (using the mains adapter this shouldn't take more than 4 hours, and normally is less as the battery ships partially charged). This gives the battery the best start in life. Note this is a change to the previous recommendation of 3 charges, which from new information I believe to not be necessary.

(c) Battery indicator accuracy - After 30 charges again fully discharge and then recharge the battery, this makes sure the battery life indicator reads as accurately as possible

(d) Data Transfers - Do hard disk transfers whilst connected with the mains power adapter. If not, this will drain the battery very quickly. This doesn't apply to the Zen Micro, which charges at the same time as being connected to the PC

(e) Day-to-day use - To get the best life from the battery, and taking (b) and (c) into account, make sure the battery is typically fully charged when possible

(f) Storing - If the battery is to be stored for a long period of time (more than a week), make sure it has around 40% charge. If the battery is stored when flat it might drop below the minimum charge level which will potentially damage the battery and prevent it from being recharged.

(g) Maximising life - Don't use EAX, the EQ or particularly Smart Volume. The latter can reduce the battery life by around 50%.

There is more information on Lithium Ion battery usage at the following two links:

Cellpower

Battery University
 

4. The latest and greatest - It's always worth ensuring that you have the latest drivers, firmware, and application software (you can check my bugs page for any show stopper bugs with any of the above). The best site for download of the above is http://www.nomadworld.com/downloads/drivers.

Drivers - Drivers are the software installed on the PC that are used to communicate between the application and the playe. The drivers *must* be installed before you have the player connected

Firmware - Firmware is equivalent to the Operating System on your player. Note that the European versions of Creative's players are typically "volume limited" (due to an EU law). This can be easily overcome by installing the International version of the firmware from the site above. To install firmware you obviously need to have the Nomad connected, and also ensure you follow the instructions given in the firmware precisely. Never install firmware with just battery power

Application - The application is the software that use to download/upload, and perform other tasks with the player. The downloaded version of MediaSource requires that the drivers are installed and the Nomad is connected and switched on, as the player is verified as being present during the beginning of the install.

Note that there is other software available e.g. Notmad (http://www.redchairsoftware.com/notmad), a Winamp Plugin etc. Check the downloads section and FAQ's at Nomadness.net for a complete list.
 

5. So what do I do now? - If you've read all this, then your next task is to read the FAQ relevant to your player at Nomadness.net (if you haven't already):

General FAQ

Nomad Jukebox 1 FAQ

Nomad Jukebox 2 FAQ (also refer to the Jukebox 3 FAQ, as the devices are very similar)

Nomad Jukebox 3 FAQ

Zen FAQ

MuVo FAQ


6. And anything else? - Now you have *fun* with your filled, cleaned, charged and fully up-to-date player! :-)

APPENDIX

BACKING UP YOUR PLAYER

You should always keep a backup of your player. Although it's rare for the player to fail, because of the nature of the portable player and the time and effort some people go to finding/building their music collection it's arguably vital to keep a backup copy.

There are various ways to create a backup copy. You can use the syncing functions available in either MediaSource (the latest version of which is available from Nomadworld.com downloads), the freeware Nomadsync, or the shareware Notmad Explorer. With the correct options set these will sync your player with your PC, and hence build a duplicate copy on the PC which you can then either leave on the hard disk or archive to CD-R/DVD-R (or other formats).

Alternatively you can use MediaSource or Notmad to simply copy the entire contents of the player to your PC.

Note: It's important at least with MediaSource and Notmad to check the folder/file path that this collection will be built with on your PC, otherwise you may end up with many "anonymous" or poorly named files in one directory. To change these settings in MediaSource you use the following Settings page:

Note that in this screenshot you have the default settings, but I advise you change the first folder to "Artist" and the second folder to "Album". Then you can change the filenaming convention to "Track Number", "Artist", "Album", and "Track Title". This gives you the maximum information in your filenames, which you can always use later, and gives you a good folder structure.

Notmad Explorer has much more flexibility over the folder/filename convention. You can see in the screenshot below, in the "Tag handling on transfer back to PC" field that you can create a structure using various parameters of the tag data.

MP3 LIBRARY

As a footnote, here is some information on how to use my personal favourite tagging program, MP3 Library. It has a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of it, so here is a quick guide on how to use it. Note that despite the name, MP3 Library can be used to edit the tag data on WMA files also:

(a) Assuming MP3 Library is installed, import your tag library using the "Import audio files (with subfolder)" toolbar button

(b) Typically it's best to then sort the list by album, by clicking on the Album column

(c) Do a visual scan of the tags. Is data missing? e.g. track number, year. Is there a lot of unnecessary comment data?

(d) If data is missing or needs changing you can edit this on a track-by-track or album-by-album basis. To edit the track(s) or album select it/them, then select the ID3 Editor tab

(e) To edit an individual track make the edits within the ID3 - Editor: decide whether you want the v1 tag (if not select "Remove Tag"), select "Save Changes" for the v2 tag (and the v1 tag if required), then click the "Save" button on the bottom toolbar. The edit should be saved to the track

(f) To edit several tracks across an album with the same data e.g. a correction to the album name: make the edit, select the checkbox to the right of the field that has been edited labeled "keep content", again decide whether you want the v1 tag (if not select "Remove Tag"), select "Save Changes" for the v2 tag (and the v1 tag if required), then click the "Save All" button on the bottom toolbar. The edits should be saved across the album. This method can be used to apply any repetitive data across multiple tracks

(g) To autonumber tracks across (typically) an album: ensure the album has been selected in the Files view, then select the ID3 - editor tab, again decide whether you want the v1 tag (if not select "Remove Tag"), select "Save Changes" for the v2 tag (and the v1 tag if required), select the checkbox to the right of the Track field twice, so that it says "Auto Number", then click the "Save All" button on the bottom toolbar. All the selected tracks should now be numbered in sequence

Note that MP3 Library also has a function to detect and fix corruption in MP3 files.