How to rip CDs and encode them properly to high quality MP3 guide

[SM-Bot]

"If you are fed up with dire sounding MP3 files, either that you have downloaded, or that you have tried to rip yourself and would like to know how to actually create great sounding MP3s, then this is the guide you have been looking for."

<center><img src="http://www.short-media.com/images/news_images/2003/dec/mp3guide.jpg"></center>

<a href="http://atomnet.co.uk/?p=guides&id=4" target="_new">Read the guide @ Atomnet</a>

[primesuspect]

Enverex, that is a great guide.

[croc_]

One last note: If you find the files are a little too large, then change the “—alt-preset extreme” option to “--alt-preset normal”

I use "--alt-preset standard" if thats what they meant by "--alt-preset normal". Or maybe both work?

Despite what people say, you CAN hear the difference between 128 and 192 and APS VBR. From APS to APE VBR I haven't been able to tell any difference in quality, even with sennheiser hd580 headphones and an amplifier.

[Enverex]

Arse, yeah, standard, not normal....
I'll fix that now, 1 sec.

Cheers croc_.

Despite what people say, you CAN hear the difference between 128 and 192 and APS VBR. From APS to APE VBR I haven't been able to tell any difference in quality, even with sennheiser hd580 headphones and an amplifier.

I can tell the difference too. But it seems there are way too many people who can't tell the difference, either because they are deaf, or stupid... or both :rolleyes2

EDIT: Fixed

[croc_]

Enverex had this to say
Arse, yeah, standard, not normal....
I'll fix that now, 1 sec.

Cheers croc_.

I can tell the difference too. But it seems there are way too many people who can't tell the difference, either because they are deaf, or stupid... or both :rolleyes2

EDIT: Fixed

I thought it looked funny ;)

Yeah, my friend swears by 128 because he says "the quality can't get any higher, because thats what its recorded at" and he even works in a studio with his dad. :rolleyes2 :scratch:

Nice guide! Keep it up!

[EMT]

where's ogg?

[Enverex]

EMT had this to say
where's ogg?

Change the letters from MP3 to OGG and "--alt-preset extreme" to "-quality 9" and the guide is pretty much identical.

[Black Hawk]

EAC > *. Good article :)

[MJO]

I never encode in 128, it sounds awful.
192 or 256 all the way.
128 sounds so cheap and lacks many details.
The difference in size is negliable.

[Thrax]

I once swore by 128.. Then I actually heard one of my songs in 192. Let's just say I don't get 128 any more.

All of my CD rip are 192-256 VBR max quality.

[Black Hawk]

Thrax had this to say
I once swore by 128.. Then I actually heard one of my songs in 192. Let's just say I don't get 128 any more.

All of my CD rip are 192-256 VBR max quality. You seem to have the space, why not rip at 320 cbr?

[drasnor]

I was doing game music rips (PSX streams) to compliment my .PSF collection, and I tried it in both 128 and 192, and the difference is _very_ noticable. I settled for a VBR encode where I let LAME determine the bitrate. It was always between 190 and 195, I'll tell you that much.

I had one rip that just wouldn't encode to mp3 at ALL at any bitrate without losing a LOT of quality. I've got it in PCM .WAV still.

-drasnor :fold:

[Enverex]

Thrax had this to say
All of my CD rip are 192-256 VBR max quality.

Thats pretty much what --alt-preset extreme does them at, but slightly higher if necessasary. Especially with the added -q 0 tag.

[Thrax]

Black Hawk had this to say
Thrax had this to say
I once swore by 128.. Then I actually heard one of my songs in 192. Let's just say I don't get 128 any more.

All of my CD rip are 192-256 VBR max quality. You seem to have the space, why not rip at 320 cbr?

Because 320 CBR is unnecessary. Around 256 is the point where A) You can't hear the difference and B) You're just unnecessarily padding the file.

320kbps is getting into dolby digital range.

[Enverex]

Thrax had this to say
Black Hawk had this to say
Thrax had this to say
I once swore by 128.. Then I actually heard one of my songs in 192. Let's just say I don't get 128 any more.

All of my CD rip are 192-256 VBR max quality. You seem to have the space, why not rip at 320 cbr?

Because 320 CBR is unnecessary. Around 256 is the point where A) You can't hear the difference and B) You're just unnecessarily padding the file.

320kbps is getting into dolby digital range.

You also have to remember that there are quality options as well as just the bitrate. So even if it is encoded at a higher rate, it still may sound worse due to low quailty flags being used. LAME uses -qval 2 by default, but 0 is better (though it takes slightly longer).

[Enverex]

where's ogg?

Completed the guide for OGG if anyone wants to read it, it also includes a piece that states how to fix ID3v2 corrupted OGG files.

http://atomnet.co.uk/?p=guides&id=5

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