MP3 Encoding

[obsidian]

Well, I just noticed that most of the MP3's on my computer and portable MP3 player are encoded in 128Kbps CBR so I figure it's time to re-encode them from the source CDs. I want to encode my MP3's as VBR for best quality for the file size. I've been reading up on LAME and it sounds promising.

My cousin's suggesting dBpowerAMP. Any opinions on this?
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

I read this article recently... good info, but thought their procedure for encoding MP3's was a little lengthy... ripping from CD to WAV, converting WAV to MP3, then ID3 tag it. Each step requiring a different app.
http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/encoding.ars

What programs do you use and what steps do you do to encode your MP3's?

[+JuggerNaut+]

dbpoweramp is good for on the fly encoding whether it be from a single file, a batch of files, or from an audio CD. it works very well as an all in one program. haven't used it in a couple of years though, so not sure if you can choose your own LAME encoder or if the current builds incorporate the most current version of LAME.

cdex works very well also but is not quite as easy to encode seperate files as DbPoweramp. depending on your choice of encoding, generally it produces error-free .mp3's.

to my ears, the best ripper is Exact Audio Copy/LAME/FLAC. i don't recall the version of LAME off the top of my head, but i can post once i'm back home. EAC extracts one audio track at a time to .wav format and will do multiple passes if it finds an error on your cd (scratch for instance). then, depending on what compression exe you pointed it to, it will compress that .wav file. you can have EAC delete the .wav file when it's finished with the compression or you can keep it for another "job". what i do is this..

CD>.wav>FLAC then .wav>.mp3 (and sometimes ogg vorbis)

EAC does require "setting up", but it's not a big deal.

i can go into detail later if you wish and am more than willing to help you out step by step with EAC.

[+JuggerNaut+]

all that rambling and didn't tell you what FLAC is (in case you don't know). it stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec and is what it reads - a lossless Codec. i back up ALL of my CD's to FLAC then convert the .wav's from the FLAC conversion to either .mp3 or .ogg for portability.

[obsidian]

Thanks for the info.

One other question, where does WMP and iTunes store CD track names?

Is there any utilities to port CD track names between programs, say identify them in iTunes then have them ported over to WMP o EAC?

ATM, it seems as if each application is storing them in different places so I have to re-identify the CD with every app.

[+JuggerNaut+]

EAC and CDEX use cddb/freedb to fetch the cd's info once it's in the drive, so you don't have to do anything other than tag your compressed files the way you want to with any free tagging proggie.

[saturn]

If I encode wavs to mp3 I use LAME 3.93.1 (I think) with "--alt preset standard" setting. That will encode the wav into an high bitrate VBR MP3 file with great sound quality.

[+JuggerNaut+]

If I encode wavs to mp3 I use LAME 3.93.1 (I think) with "--alt preset standard" setting. That will encode the wav into an high bitrate VBR MP3 file with great sound quality.

duh

[obsidian]

Well, what I've found is that iTunes does a great job organizing and categorizing my music library via Gracenote CDDB. Unfortunately the MP3 encoding is lacking. While it does do VBR quite well, I'm getting the occasional pop or crackle.

EAC and CDex do a great job with encoding but I've found that categorizing with FreeDB CDDB isn't as organized.

That's why I'm wondering if there's a way to import the iTunes local DB into EAC. I guess that's a bit of an obscure question, but boy, would that solve all my problems and make life easier.

[+JuggerNaut+]

While it does do VBR quite well, I'm getting the occasional pop or crackle.

then i would say it doesn't do VBR quite well

That's why I'm wondering if there's a way to import the iTunes local DB into EAC. I guess that's a bit of an obscure question, but boy, would that solve all my problems and make life easier.

on that note, i have no idea since i don't use itunes.

[saturn]

If I encode wavs to mp3 I use LAME 3.93.1 (I think) with "--alt preset standard" setting. That will encode the wav into an high bitrate VBR MP3 file with great sound quality.

duh

murrrrrrrr

[+JuggerNaut+]

If I encode wavs to mp3 I use LAME 3.93.1 (I think) with "--alt preset standard" setting. That will encode the wav into an high bitrate VBR MP3 file with great sound quality.

duh

murrrrrrrr

old. ;0

[FragaGeddon]

I edit all my mp3 tags by hand.
I just goto www.allmusic.com and get the info.
Then I use MP3 Tag Tools to write the tags.

[+JuggerNaut+]

nice link.

[FragaGeddon]

fixed

[saturn]

I edit all my mp3 tags by hand.
I just goto www.allmusic.com and get the info.
Then I use MP3 Tag Tools to write the tags.

You could have used the program "Tag and Rename" and get CD info/titles/tracknumbers from allmusic/amazon and freedb directly. It writes the tags for you.

[4g3nt_Smith]

I personally have noted no bad rips with the iTunes mp3 encoder, or the AAC encoder. VBR 192 is your friend.

[FragaGeddon]

I edit all my mp3 tags by hand.
I just goto www.allmusic.com and get the info.
Then I use MP3 Tag Tools to write the tags.

You could have used the program "Tag and Rename" and get CD info/titles/tracknumbers from allmusic/amazon and freedb directly. It writes the tags for you.

Yes I know that but I prefer to do it manually.

[FragaGeddon]

It's mainly music that I get for free that needs fixing. I'm not sure about tag & rename but I can also rename the filename which is nice.

[+JuggerNaut+]

VBR 192 is your friend.

no it's not.

[4g3nt_Smith]

What do you suggest for a portable music player? Unless you're some whiney audiophile 192 is fine, and thats even assuming there are audible parts of the song where the eoncoder will go as low as 192.

[+JuggerNaut+]

What do you suggest for a portable music player? Unless you're some whiney audiophile 192 is fine, and thats even assuming there are audible parts of the song where the eoncoder will go as low as 192.

i don't care for the Fraunhofer codec that iTunes uses. LAME is a better codec all around.

i'm not sure how iTunes handles VBR, but if you state a 192 avg, then your last sentence makes no sense, since it should go as low as around 128 on quieter sections and as high as 256 on more complicated sections of the track in question.

so, unless you're some kind of whiney MAC fanboy, there are better encoding options than iTunes.

[4g3nt_Smith]

192 is the minimum is will go, not the average.

[+JuggerNaut+]

192 is the minimum is will go, not the average.

for itunes, it seems that is correct. although, what's the point in having a 320kbs option in VBR when you've maxed the headroom

either way, the Fraunhofer codec is inferior to the LAME codec which was mostly my point anyway.

[saturn]

I edit all my mp3 tags by hand.
I just goto www.allmusic.com and get the info.
Then I use MP3 Tag Tools to write the tags.

You could have used the program "Tag and Rename" and get CD info/titles/tracknumbers from allmusic/amazon and freedb directly. It writes the tags for you.

Yes I know that but I prefer to do it manually.

why? it does a fine job and it saves you a lot of hassle and work

[Dr_Watson]

i've been pretty happy with using audiograbber + lame