Just joined. Ripping help please.

[Praxis]

Greetings:

This is my first post to this great forum as I have just joined this evening. I also do hope that this is the appropriate place for my first post.

I'm in my early days of learning about all the ins and outs of audio and have a long, long way to go, so I'm not yet even a newbie, I'm a newbit. I've done a lot of research so far so that I didn't come on this forum looking like a bum rumaging around for handouts and freebys. So I have a beginning anyways.

My first question has to do with my recent introduction to EAC. In the past, I've always used WMP to rip my CD's, but when I took one of my burnt disks into a higher end audio store to see if it would play on a particular player that I was interested in, I found out how awful a ripping job Windows was doing. I usually ripped at 192 using WMA. So, I went searching for better and found that EAC sounded like what I needed. I want to use it to rip to FLAC so I can archive my music. To date, I have not ripped anything using EAC because I just learned about it and that brings me to ask you good folk my first question.

1) I noticed that there are step by step tutorials on the net for the last version of EAC, but does anyone know if there is a recent tutorial that is in sinc with the new EAC version (VO.99 prebeta 4) so I can follow the new exactly?

2) The other day I downloaded the latest EAC but since I'm a beginner, I checked off "beginner". Has anyone ever ripped something with the new version in the beginner mode? Would it still sound a lot better than what I was using to rip previously?

3) If I want to put EAC to expert mode, do I have to take the programme off and re-load it this time clicking "expert" instead, or is there some way to go into the programme and check off expert. I looked for it in all their settings but could not find where to change my choice.

4) Once I have ripped a disk using EAC with FLAC, how do I get it to MP3. Can I go from FLAC then into LAME to MP3? Boy, do I need help.

One last thing for now, can anyone tell me which LAME version is the most stable and tested and could you direct me exactly to that site.

Thanks so much ahead of time guys. I look forward to hearing from you.

Praxis

 

[Praxis]

ripping

bump: thanks

 

[Adam]

Just wanted to welcome you to the forum! I don't know the answers to your questions, but I'll bump the thread for others who might.

 

[Djizasse]

Welcome

http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm
(1st link)

 

[MDS]

My first question has to do with my recent introduction to EAC. In the past, I've always used WMP to rip my CD's, but when I took one of my burnt disks into a higher end audio store to see if it would play on a particular player that I was interested in, I found out how awful a ripping job Windows was doing. I usually ripped at 192 using WMA.

If you ripped a pressed CD with WMP and had it transcode to WMA then you would have had to decode the WMA files back to WAV to burn a CD. If it doesn't sound good to you it is because WMA is a lossy compression algorithm (like MP3). You are not burning the same data as what was on the original CD.

Use EAC if you want to be able to 'plug in' any encoder but don't believe the hype that it is superior at digital audio extraction. EAC will produce the exact same rip as WMP, WinAmp, SoundForge, etc. Rip a CD to WAV using EAC and again using WMP and compare the files in a good audio editor (like Sound Forge) - the results will be bit for bit identical.

 

[gus6464]

If you want to make your life less complicated use dBPowerAmp to rip your cds. It is just as good as EAC and you can install any encoder you want from LAME to OGG.

 

[Praxis]

Lame

Thanks Djizasse:

Question: the site that you gave me for the best LAME download version, when you look at that web page, is it the first download that appears i.e. "LAME MP3 encoder 3.98.2" that I want, and not any of the other versions below it?

Thanks

Praxis

 

[Praxis]

To MDS: Thanks

Hello MDS, and thanks for responding.

You mentioned that WMP will do just as good of an extraction as EAC. That is new information to me. Is it the WMA Lossless selection on WMP that you are referring too that is as good as EAC's ripping ability? What bit rate would you suggest without it being overkill in your opinion?

After ripping to WMA Lossless, if this is the selection on WMP that is competive with EAC and is the one that you are referring too, how can I then use LAME to put it into MP3?

Is WMA ......? as good a quality achival choice as FLAC?

If you could answer each of the above questions I would really appreciate it.

Thanks MDS

Praxis

 

[Praxis]

Question for MDS

Hi MDS:

I've got a question for you on this string. Thanks for you time.

Praxis

 

[centerd101]

Hi all, i am new here.

Hi everybody,

I`m a new user here, i would like to learn more about all of you and i like to discussion with u.