[a1leyez0nm3]

I just took back my pana 780 and got a rio 250, i love it so far, but I am not sure what I should use to rip cds and how.... I dont have that much room on my computer to make 256kbs files, but I still would like to know what programs/settings I should use... Thanks,
Chris

 

[jlo mein]

EAC (exact audio copy) with LAME....

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

it is done.
Thanks!

 

[jlo mein]

dont thank me, thank gluegun....he just educated me on all this stuff in the headphone forum....

 

[Nezer]

I use EAC and it' can't be beat.

For encoding I do one of two things.

For MP3's I use the latest stable Lame (3.92) like this:

lame --r3mix -b 32 -B 320 -m j -v -V 0 -h -q 0

This does a VBR file with 320 max bitrate and the highest quality out of the psycho-acoustic emulation possible. It also does some polyphase low-pass filter stuff between 19.3->19.5k. Not quite sure how that works but I can say it works well. MP3's don't sound like MP3s anymore. They do however sound *slightly* different than the original. Not I said different, not better or worse.

The other thing I tend to do with image files (one big-ass wave file with a cue sheet) is use Monkey's Audio for lossless compression. This works incredibly well and compresses somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rds the original. Being lossless I can uncompress with *zero* quality loss. To prove this I compared an original with a decompressed APE file with md5sum and each time I consistantly get the *exact* same md5sum. This tells me the files are identical with some insane margine of error (like one in billions and billions and billions).

Naturally short of a lossless compression system you are going to make sacrafices with the quality of the audio. The only question is can *you* hear the difference on your setup. Most people find that 128k CBR is fine for them. They sound like crap to me. 192k starts to get listenable and can be more than acceptable for most source material. My lame options above is an attempt to minimize the trade-offs with sound quality in my rig. I have not noticed any differences between those options and the source material.

Good luck!

 

[andrzejpw]

personally, I now use "--alt-preset extreme" over --r3mix. Imho, it sounds a bit better. The lame people have access to some options that r3mix doesn't.

 

[Nezer]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw personally, I now use "--alt-preset extreme" over --r3mix. Imho, it sounds a bit better. The lame people have access to some options that r3mix doesn't.

I shall give that a shot. What is your whole command line or is that just it?

 

[andrzejpw]

that's it.

 

[Nezer]

OK, I went playing... But I couldn't really tell a difference on the rig I was testing on...

PC -> SB Live -> Corda Analoguer (in bypass mode) -> Corda Headamp -> Clou Red -> HD600s

I suspect the SB Live is killing it here...

Anyway, I found the extreme setting to be a bit to large of file size for me. Busy music was almost pegged at 320. In the end and after some more goofing around I finally settled on these options:

lame --alt-preset standard --lowpass 21500 -v -b32 -B 320 -V 0 -q 0 --vbr-new --nssafejoint --athtype 2 --cwlimit 22.05

Thats a mouthful... On busy music (my test was Steve Vai's Bad Horsie) I ended up averaging about 254 kb.

I doubt setting the lowpass and cwlimit that high is gonna do much but those tweaks didn't seem to impact the file size all that much and I figure if it's there we may as well snag it!

The cwlimit tells the psycho acoustic simulator that the perception is as high as 44.1k can go (22.05khz) and setting the lowpass to 21500 makes the polyphase lowpass end at 22050 the uppermost theortical limit for frequency according to Nyquest (of course he was wrong, but thats a whole other debate). I figure if it's there why throw it out if it doesn't add too much to the file size?

The audio quality seems to not be impacted. I'll know more tomorrow after I encode a few albums and dump them to my PJB which is a MUCH better MP3 source the the SB Live!

I wish I could get my Tascam US-428 up and running, that thing kicks butt for audio though a bit overkill for most of us. (it's a small USB recording console soundcard and workstation capable of 24/48k). Unfortuatnly I am having a USB issue on my PC these days and no time to fix it.

 

[Nezer]

I lied... I think opening up that high-end really did a number on Dire Straits Brothers in Arms remaster... The acoustic guitar on "The man's too strong" is speaking to me now for the first time. It sounds MUCH more natural.

Try my settings out and tell me what you think.

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

I dont have the space for 320k rate right now, but It is either at 190k or around that. I will free up some more space and what not and then hopefully I will have more space. Thanks,
Chris

 

[Nezer]

I here ya. I'd dig through the man page and play around with the options until you find something that works for you both quality and size wize.

If space weren't a factor (and very quickly anymore it isn't) I would go with the --alt-preset insane mode which does a 320 CBR with the high-freq cranked *way* up there (kinda like what I have).

The --remix is pretty decent and should get you somewhere in the vicnity you are looking for. I prefer the VBR over CBR because the encoder can use more if it's needed. It's always a balancing act.

You might also try messing around with the --preset 192 option to get good quality and average out to 192k though I found the ABR modes to give more emphasis to wherever your targeting than to distribute the bits where needed.

 

[jlo mein]

does anyone else find EAC and LAME confusing?

i dont even know how to use LAME...i cant find a stand alone file for it...only software that includes it...

 

[davo]

jlo mein,

I've tried a couple of times and have had trouble understanding the process. I gave up and went back to my default WMP, although I must admit I hate going back to Bill with tail between my legs.

I've read enought praise about EAC/Lame that I've got to get there.

There must be a tutorial somewhere that even I can follow.

 

[dvw]

Here's a tutorial page for both.

http://www.ping.be/satcp/tutorials.htm