Creating mp3s is a task, just like creating tandas is a task. Skill is involved. Creating mp3s "automatically", without thought applied is as likely to yield good results as creating tandas "automatically", letting a random selecter pick 3 songs at a time.
MP3s can be created well or poorly, and they can be created to be indistinguishable from the original by the human ear.
Especially given the sound quality of some of the originals, especially those of the '20s and '30s.
-- Alexis Cousein Senior Systems Engineer alexis @sgi.com SGI Brussels If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals.