What to Rip with?

[akki007]

Few questions...

1. Does anybody use Fraunhofer? Is it superior to LAME?
2. What application do people use to rip MP3's?
3. Why does iTunes appear to lower the volume on ripped MP3's?

Thanks!

[Agnostic]

1. No and I don't think so.
2. Foobar
3. No idea

[nor_spoon]

x2 on Foobar, although I use it for Flac.

[mybeat]

1. don't know, never hear of it.
2. I use Exact audio copy for flac and mp3's.
3. don't know

[krmathis]

1a. I am sure somebody do. But not me...
1b. No idea.
2. Max (the few times I rip/encode to MP3 that is).
3. "Sound Check" turned on maybe?

[whuffor]

1.
Without being an expert in the field I'd say that most seem to think that the free encoder/decoder LAME is the best one right now for good quality mp3 rips.

AFAIK, fraunhofer made the original algorithms for the mp3 codec, but I don't know how involved they are today with developing their codec.

2.
You can rip CDs with many applications. It all depends on what suits you in terms of convenience or demand of quality. There are rippers in many music players like winamp, foobar2000, iTunes and also stand alone rippers like EAC. Another, commerical app, is dbPowerAmp, which is a very capable ripper, and has a suite of accompanying programs including a music player.

I use EAC in secure mode to ensure that I get as good a replication of the original media as possible, but that is overkill for many since ripping that way takes a bit longer than the burst method employed by other rippers.

3.
I am not familiar enough with iTunes to know the answer to that, but the only thing I can think of offhand is that it employs some sort of normalising. Maybe there is a setting to disable that if you look through the configuration options for iTunes.

[PianistOne111]

1. I don't know. I would guess LAME is probably better.
2. I don't rip mp3's. I rip to lossless, and if I need a smaller file, I use Adobe Audition to convert.
3. Don't know.

[wavoman]

Fraunhofer invented MP3, but most people think LAME, which has been worked on extensively, is the way to go.

LAME 3.98 was released TODAY! RareWares

In other threads you will find the following advice, which is rock-solid:

Rip with EAC and keep a lossless version on your hard drive (buying a bigger hard drive is cheap). Convert to MP3 at 256 or higher using LAME, letting foobar manage the whole process for you.

If you own a PC, EAC+foobar/LAME is really an excellent way to get the job done.

BTW I use lossless even on my portable (Cowan i7) for things I rip myself, and 256 MP3 for things I buy from Amazon. Very fine SQ.

[sonq]

I've been using instructions on Hydrogen & jiGGafellz' Step-by-Step Guide to Secure CD Ripping w/Exact Audio Copy to attempt ripping with EAC. I'm almost ready to give up and rip them in Lossless WAV using WMP on my XP.

I'm concern about overcompromising the ripping quality. Can someone advice me if K-Mixer screws up playback only or the ripping process too?

I've ordered a Pico and will be pointless if my ripped data is compromised. Thanks

[r@mside]

Originally Posted by sonq

I've been using instructions on Hydrogen & jiGGafellz' Step-by-Step Guide to Secure CD Ripping w/Exact Audio Copy to attempt ripping with EAC. I'm almost ready to give up and rip them in Lossless WAV using WMP on my XP.

I'm concern about overcompromising the ripping quality. Can someone advice me if K-Mixer screws up playback only or the ripping process too?

I've ordered a Pico and will be pointless if my ripped data is compromised. Thanks

Give AutoFlac a try