Ripping music to computer

jcaut

I didn't read all the way through the thread, so I apologize if you've already got the info you need.

You can read all about different lossy and lossless compression formats HERE. I think the general concensus is that, among the lossy compression schemes, .mpc generally gives the best sound quality at moderate bitrates. I find .ogg to be good as well, and possibly better than .mp3.

I keep a lot of music on the computer too, and though I don't use it for critical listening, I still like for it to sound good. I experimented with some alternative formats, but I keep coming back to .mp3. After all, you're going to have to use a lossy compression if you want reasonable file sizes, and you're not going to use it for critical listening... IMO, .mp3 fits the bill. The upside is it's playable on so many things nowadays, while most of the others aren't, yet.

Here's what I do:

EAC is the best ripping program, IMO, if you are concerned more about the quality of files you create than outright speed. You can go directly to just about any format you want; You don't have to go .wav first and then convert. You just have to know how to set it up. Read on the hydrogenaudio forum (the link I posted above), in the MP3 sub-forum about the recommended LAME compile and where to get it. Download the zip file and extract it. Copy the "lame enc.dll" file and paste it into the directory where EAC is. Launch EAC. On the EAC tab in the upper left, choose "compression options". Under "Wave format" you should now be able to choose "LAME MPEG Layer-3 encoder v3.**v*.**" Use sample format: Preset:Standard. Check "Add ID3 tag" if you want, and check "Do not write wav extension to file". Then in the "File extension for headerless files" put ".mp3". Now just load your CD and click the MP3 icon and you should rip and convert to .mp3 directly. There are some other configuration options with regard to naming and directories and so forth, but they're not hard to figure out.

Preset standard will produce VBR files that average around 200kbps, so the file sizes are reasonable. They sound quite good to me, too.

michael_w

Cool thanks Jason.

I haven't really tried anything yet because I've been super busy this last week but I'll try some comparisons going and post my findings.

cmy330go

I know I am late to this thread. But for what it's worth I ripped all my music using iTunes and the AAC (basicaly MP4) format at 160k. I finally decided this after much testing between formats and rates. I found that AAC sounded quite a bit better than an equal or higher rate MP3, and took up the same space. I'm not saying that ripping above 160 does not sound better, but if I run too high of a sample rate it will shorten battery life when playing on my ipod. However in addition to listening on my Ipod I also have a pc connected to my HT system so that I can access the same music files over the network. I must say that the sound is not the least bit offensive. Little or none of the typical tinny, choppy sound of mp3s.

If it is not too late I would heavily recommend trying AAC. As you probably already know itunes is a free download.

Good Luck
Have fun ripping your library!

michael_w

So far I've been using EAC with lame doing the mp3 encoding. It's pretty decent and the file sizes are very good. It takes a little longer to rip the at least I know the rip is a quality one (well for the file size and vbr).

I'll try some other ways of ripping and maybe change ways but for now I'll just stick with EAC and lame. Thanks for the great responses people!

audiobliss

If I wanted to use EAC for ripping, but wanted to rip to .ogg files, how could I 'integrate' an .ogg encoder with EAC? Like you said do with LAME, putting it in the directory with EAC, etc...

Thanks!

heiney9

Flac files are compressed but ARE NOT Lossy. IMO, this is the best way to rip music to your hard drive. FLAC files are roughly 20-30% smaller than regualr .WAV and .CDA. I won't use any kind of software that is a lossy format (yeck).

Here are some links to get you started.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

http://members.home.nl/w.speek/flac.htm

http://sourceforge.net/projects/flac/

http://toritraders.com/guides/flac.htm

H9