[ricks584]

Just bought a 40 gig Creative Zen Xtra. This is my first foray into MP3; sound quality is paramount to me so I've avoided mp3 in the past.
All I want to do is rip my CDs and upload them onto the Zen with the best possible sound quality. Space is not a big consideration. I have MusicMatch Jukebox.
Could someone give me a brief outline of what I need to do/use?
Many thanks in advance.
BTW- I took someone's advice and bought the Zen from a retailer- Bestbuy- in order to get an extended warranty. Bestbuy had the 40 gig Zen at $350 (normal price); a 4 year extended warranty was only $40.
PS: I also recently bought ER-4S's and a super micro amp to go with the Zen.

 

[blessingx]

Well if you want absolute best quality you can place uncompressed WAV's on it. Doing that will fill up the drive very quickly and likely have an affect on battery life, but it's a possibility.

For MP3, you should probably stay away from MusicMatch encoding as it uses the FhG encoder I believe. Download a program that uses the free LAME encoder. People often recommend EAC, though there are others like RazorLAME that are a little easier to set up. If you want to encode for best MP3 quality use "--alt-preset insane" (or "--alt-preset insane --vcomment" if you want to write the setting in the info tag). A slight step down is "--alt-preset fast extreme". You may not notice much difference (test), but it will take up about 30-40% less space (should it ever become an issue).

 

[scottder]

If you go the EAC/Lame route (which I recommend) check out this site:

http://www.chrismyden.com/nuke/modul...&file=painless

Scott

 

[waffenschmidt]

As blessingx said, many recommend EAC and LAME as the best way to produce high quality MP3s. However, EAC and RazorLAME do different things, although they can both be used as front ends to the LAME encoder.

1. EAC is a ripper; it creates WAVs from CDs, and has a Secure mode that increases accuracy.
2. LAME is an encoder that converts the WAVs to MP3s. It uses a command-line interface.
3. RazorLAME is a graphical front-end to LAME, making it easier to use.

That said, one can also set up EAC to call the LAME encoder directly, thus ripping and encoding in one "step." Personally, I use EAC to rip a bunch of CDs, then encode a bunch of them at once using RazorLAME as the front end to LAME, but people have different preferences.

If you want to go this route, Chris Myden's site has step-by-step instructions. (Edit: Looks like scottder beat me to the punch!) The programs are all free, but aren't the most user-friendly.

The other program you'll probably end up needing is a tag editor. I use MP3/Tag Studio, but there are a bunch of others out there. I have EAC write all of the relevant tag information into the file name, use RazorLame to create the MP3s, then use MP3/Tag Studio to create the tags from the filename, then rename the files into my preferred directory tree from the tags.

Actually, now that I write it out, the whole process is pretty much a pain in the butt. I guess I don't mind it since I'm assured of getting the best quality MP3s possible, but it sure would be nice if there were an easier way to rip/encode/tag in one step while maintaining the same quality.

I'm tempted to try dBpoweramp Music Converter ; I've read that it has some mode that makes ripping comparable in accuracy to EAC, and I know it uses the LAME encoder. Can any of you dBpoweramp users comment on it's ability to do everything needed in one shot?

 

[scottder]

waffenschmidt, jinx!!!

 

[scottder]

As mentioned on the site, the whol reason to use EAC is the "secure"mode. It's slower than other ripping methods, but the end results are very nice.

PS - I'm getting the Xtra for Xmas, I can't wait.

PPS- Yes WAV is better qulaity but it may cut into battery life, since the drive will be spinning up a lot more. Better to have well encoded MP3s on the portable.

 

[iPodophile]

If quailty is a concern, definately stay away from MusicMatch.

Another option for a LAME encoder is CDex, which is an open source compiler, free for download on Sourceforge.net. I use CDex because it's a little easier to set up than EAC, and with the Paranoid Full error setting on, the error checking is just about as good as with EAC.

Happy ripping

 

[scottder]

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

There is CDex as well. Never used it myself, nay give it a try.

Scott

 

[waffenschmidt]

That's right, iPodophile, it's CDex that has the Full Paranoid setting for accuracy supposedly comparable to EAC, not dBpoweramp. I looked at the dBpoweramp forum, and when asked to compare their ripping to EAC they kind of sidestepped the accuracy issue. That leads me to believe that dBpoweramp doesn't provide the same level of accuracy as EAC. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Off to check out CDex . . .

Edit: iPodophile, are you using CDex to rip/encode/tag all in one shot? If so, how well does it work?

 

[scottder]

just grabbed cdex, looks nice. includes lame 3.92 via dll, works pretty well.

 

[ricks584]

Thanks for all the Lame advice.

Scott: I live in Warwick RI also.

 

[scottder]

Quote:

Originally posted by ricks584 Thanks for all the Lame advice. Scott: I live in Warwick RI also.

Wow, small world. Not to break topic, but a friend and I are going to plan a Head-Fi meet in RI at some point.

Scott

 

[Lisa]

I use CDex.

I do the "rip/encode/tag all in one shot" as waffenschmidt asked.
Do this to make aps files. Works fine. Never had a problem with any of the files I made with CDex. Being WAV, 128kbps, alt preset standard or alt preset insane.

 

[waffenschmidt]

Thanks, Lisa. Yes, I tried CDex yesterday and it seems to work well. A lot less hassle than what I have been doing, although I miss some of the feedback from EAC.

I may still use my old method if I have lots of CDs to do, since my computer isn't the fastest. Ripping as a separate step goes faster, so I can run a bunch of CDs through then queue up the WAV> MP3 encoding to run overnight. But for a few CDs at a time, CDex seems to be the way to go.

I just need to try it on a couple of "problem" CDs to see how it handles those. I've got a few that EAC just can't get through in Secure mode, and for those I rip the problem tracks in Burst mode. It will be interesting to see what CDex does with those.

 

[aroon]

i use cdex as well. so far all my mp3s have turned out fine. i dont have a player yet but im thinking of getting the zen xtra and a pair of ety er-6's. you gotta write up a review on your player once you get some more time in, i gotta get some more first hand opinions