[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]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonq /img/forum/go_quote.gif 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

 

[TheAzhrei]

1. If you are going with MP3 I would suggest using LAME. I use FLAC now, and on one set of rips used ALAC. I would suggest you use FLAC for lossless quality. If you DAP can't handle it or is too small for a lot of lossless files, you can make 256+ bit LAME mp3 copies. Store the files in a drive that isn't plugged into anything for security.

2. The first time I ripped my entire collection, I used EAC. I used Monkey's Audio to encode the files to FLAC. I highly recomend both. In secure mode EAC will work on getting a quiality rip of a track as long as it needs to. Monkey's can encode all of the files in all subdirectories under the one you specify.

The DAP I was using was only 20GB so I sold it. I bought an iPod so I needed files that would work on it so I ripped my entire collection again to ALAC with iTunes. I DID NOT like how many of the tracks sounded. I don't know what iTunes' problem is, but I don't reommend it for anyone.

Now, because I ran out of space and deleted the original FLAC files, I am ripping all of my CDs again to a drive I will use to store them safely on. I'm using dbPoweramp this time. I like that it comes with other software I can use to play tunes and transcode copies to other formats.

3. I don't know what problem iTunes has, but I don't like it. Volume levels in most tracks was okay, but there were pops all through many of them and especially at the end of them.

 

[Cheule]

Azhrei, I can only speculate as to the cause of your iTunes troubles. It might have been a very obscure hardware or driver conflict. But I do want to say that I use iTunes on my various Macs, and on the one PC I have, and they do not exhibit this popping problem.

I can completely understand how you would drop iTunes in light of such a problem. It's easier to change your workflow in many cases than track down some "needle in a haystack" conflict/problem.

 

[vegaman]

Other people have generally answered everything you need, but I'd like to add that LAME v0 is a good option for use on your portable. It's variable bitrate, with an average of ~224kbps, so it can potentially offer better quality than 256kbps constant bitrate. As when required, it can go higher than 256kbps, and drop the bitrate down when not requried to compensate for this.

 

[majkel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akki007 /img/forum/go_quote.gif 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!

1. Yes. The Fraunhofer is definitely better when you compare it to the original. FhG is much faster encoding as well.
2. dBPowerAmp Reference. 28$ + tax (if applicable) is a bargain for this tool.
3. It's a policy to show how better is AAC or ALAC which are DRM protected and sold via iTunes shop. My friend tested iPoo Classic wav vs. mp3 320kb/s and the latter sounded significantly worse than the wav but on the other (better) player the difference was marginal. Let's get it straight - Apple tries to make fool of us with the mp3 quality lowering it wherever possible.

 

[vegaman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by majkel /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1. Yes. The Fraunhofer is definitely better when you compare it to the original. FhG is much faster encoding as well. 2. dBPowerAmp Reference. 28$ + tax (if applicable) is a bargain for this tool. 3. It's a policy to show how better is AAC or ALAC which are DRM protected and sold via iTunes shop. My friend tested iPoo Classic wav vs. mp3 320kb/s and the latter sounded significantly worse than the wav but on the other (better) player the difference was marginal. Let's get it straight - Apple tries to make fool of us with the mp3 quality lowering it wherever possible.

Sorry... but what are you on about?

1. Unless something has changed recently, LAME is superior, Fraunhofer is outdated.
2. While I agree that dbpoweramp is a good program, EAC is a better (unless dbpoweramp has advanced since I last used it, even then, it would only stand on equal footing) and free alternative for ripping cd's
3. This is a plain and obvious conspiracy theory