[foges]

Hey, i will shortly be getting an mp3 player that does not support aac format from my itunes, and i need something that will convert my 8 gb of tunes to mp3, what do you guys suggest that wont give me a loss in quality.

PS: most of my tunes are at 128 kb it seems, crapy itunes standard. am i screwed??

(will be getting the E3c)

 

[markkr]

Sorry man, if you want decent sounding MP3's, you're gonna have to start over.

On a positive note, this would be a good time to start over with something like EAC and a higher bitrate.

Good Luck.

 

[foges]

crap, i only have about half of all my cd's. what is EAC?

 

[cheechoz]

You're in the wrong forum, for this thread!

He is right, re-encoding your AAC files to MP3, will degrate the quality. Start fresh with EAC/Lame, at the highest quality setting you can take. Try to use APX, or even API, if you don't have that many CD's.

 

[blessingx]

While not ideal (here comes my often repeated diatribe) secondary artifacts aren't always noticeable. As a guide I suggest you do a few tests at 1.5 times the original bitrate. I think most would listen to LAMEs "--alt-preset standard" or higher bitrate MP3s made from 128 AACs and not have a negative reaction (at least not any more than listening to 128 AAC straight). You even use iTunes branched FhG MP3 encoder at say (again try) 192. Again its better to go back to the originals, but its not the end of the world to transcode if for some reason you can't.

BTW, what OS are you on?

 

[markkr]

Exact Audio Copy

 

[Citizen Z]

I actually think he doesn't realize that you can rip in higher bitrate than 128kbit.

Fogus, go to your Edit Menu, in iTunes and select Preferences at the bottom. Select the Advanced tab and select the Importing tab beneath it (centered between two other tabs). You can select your changes or if you go down to select custom, a new window will pop up to let you totally customize your importing options. I import at 224kbit with vbr on high.

 

[foges]

(del)

 

[foges]

ops, mods please move. I now know what ill spend my winter hols doing

.

For the songs that i dont have on cd's and are in aac format, ill have to convert, it doesnt seem to be too many, but what can you suggest for the best quality?

I'm on XP and do realise that i can rip at a higher bitrate, but i havnt changed it. ill give EAC a try

 

[Chri5peed]

Theres an option in EAC to keep the WAV files it rips and then are encoded. This way if you have the room, you can have your CDs in a lossless format on your computer. Which is basically making an identical copy. It still makes the mp3s as well...

 

[markkr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chri5peed Theres an option in EAC to keep the WAV files it rips and then are encoded. This way if you have the room, you can have your CDs in a lossless format on your computer. Which is basically making an identical copy. It still makes the mp3s as well...

Great point. This will make your life easier when CD's start "disappearing"

 

[shawntp]

AAC to MP3 is not a good idea but if you have no choice it is possible to convert up to minimize your loss. Say convert your 128 AAC's to 256 MP3's

This will only be marginally better than the flat conversion and still wont be as good as a direct rip.

You can convert AAC to MP3 right in itunes ...set MP3 as the inport type and right click on music and say convert to mp3 ...it will follow the inport setting.

I have all my music lossless on an external drive so its preserved in uncompressed digital format. I also plan on backing this up on DVD's soon. Its worth the time and you wont ever have to spend all that time again (till SACD's

)

 

[Chri5peed]

Having CDs in Lossless on your computer not only guards you from 'disappearing' CDs, but its not a disaster if a CD gets badly damaged in an accident. Although it also makes it unecessary to ever take out the CDs again.

You can download CDs in Lossless, which is the only time I'd download, but I find getting the CDs off eBay pretty easy and its certainly more satisfying to have a nice big shiny collection!

 

[foges]

ok, so when using eac i should first copy all files over in wav format and then in mp3 format, what bitrate should i compress at ? 256? should i add any additional command line?