Music rip

[ParadigmDawg]

I dont know much about computers but since I got a new one and I am going to rip some music, what are the best settings? I am using WMP11 and my best choice look like:

Format-variable bit rate-240-355Kbps
-or-
WMA Audio lossless
-or-
WMA WAV (lossless)

My main goal is to have uncompressed music to either stream to my PS3 or load onto an external hard drive for my PS3.

Thoughts?

 

[mudrummer99]

I personally use the WMA WAV (lossless) format and the 192kps mp3 format. I do it both was so my Zen mp3 can play the mp3 rips and I use the WAV files for listening to on my computer or streaming to my audio rig. WAV files are also the easiest way to burn back onto a new disc for physical back-ups of all of your cd's (although nearly all burning programs now will automatically convert mp3 files to what is necessary to be burned). Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[pzaur]

It is all going to come down to how much space you have available. Lossless formats take up a lot of memory. The only advantage to the .mp3 format is that it does take up less space. It automatically downgrades the signal by taking bits from here and there. Those lost bits can never be recouped when transferred back to a .wav file.

Here's a short website on some different file formats.

Whatever format you choose, just be sure that your player can handle it.

-pat

 

[trnqk7]

If you are going to stream music to your audio rig, I would suggest going with the wav files for the audio quality if you have the space. As pzaur mentioned, if you dont have space, us the mp3s. Just know that you might be able to tell a difference in sound quality vs. the original cd recording.

 

[krzywica]

You WILL be able to tell the difference between mp3's and any type of lossless format. I would suggest upgrading to a bigger hard drive, or adding a hard drive if you don't have the space to facilitate higher bitrate content, because you will more often than not be disappointed. MP3's are designed for portable media players mostly, where ear buds will not be able to span a wide freq range like full range speakers can.

 

[avaserfi]

You WILL be able to tell the difference between mp3's and any type of lossless format. I would suggest upgrading to a bigger hard drive, or adding a hard drive if you don't have the space to facilitate higher bitrate content, because you will more often than not be dissapointed.

This is a complete over generalization and is untrue because of its broad scope. The ideal option with unlimited hard drive space is to use a lossless encoding. Since Greg wants this to work the the PS3 FLAC is out of the question. Personally with my PS3 I use WAV encoding as I find it the simplest solution and HD space is cheap (each disc will range between 600-700MB). If space is an issue the next best choice which isn't lossless is LAME encoded MP3. LAME encoding is heavily refined in effort to optimize sound quality versus file size. To do this hundreds of blind trials were completed.

In a properly conducted ABx test using a 256kbps LAME file and a lossless one using a reference quality loudspeaker/headphone it will be near impossible if not impossible to get statistically significant results in which the participant can distinguish between the two.

So my answer to Greg is WAV if you aren't worried about HD space and if you are go LAME as its far smaller. The reason I recommend WAV over other formats is simply because it is a bit for bit copy of the CD so if anything ever happens you have an exact replica of it.

 

[jonnythan]

Lossless is all well and good, but using WAV is ridiculous. Lossless compressed audio formats take 200-400 MB per CD, compared to 500-700 for WAV.

I'm not sure what formats the PS3 can accept, but I'm sure it supports at least one compressed lossless format like FLAC or WMA lossless.

 

[rnatalli]

I can't tell the difference between a 320 mp3 and wav.

 

[pzaur]

Using .wav is only ridiculous if you don't have the resources. Hard drives are all basically the same physical size...

An advantage to using mp3 format is that you can attach a tag to every track you make which can display a lot of information. The .wav format will only display the file name. So, if you have all your tracks labeled as 01, 02, 03...it'll only show that way on the display.

Personally, I can't hear a difference between 256 kbps mp3 and wav files. I also like being able to see information about what I am listening to displayed.

-pat

 

[MDS]

Lossless is all well and good, but using WAV is ridiculous.

I must be completely off my rocker. Not only do I save the fully uncompressed WAV on an external hard drive but also if I ever have to edit any of the files I ensure that the total size falls exactly on CD block boundaries.

 

[mike c]

i'm curious if you guys re-type the filenames on each file you rip each time or are your cd extractors capable of using some sort of online database to name the files the actual title and singer.

the last software I used "cd-ex" doesn't have that feature and i'm too lazy to rip all my cd's and retype all the song titles.

edit: (im looking at my cdex now and I'm seeing cddb options, hmm, how come my last two cd rips came out with 1,2,3, etc. filenames)

 

[mudrummer99]

mike c,
i use windows media player and it automatically downloads all cd information and song names etc. automatically. It connects to an online db so I don't have to type everything else out. I know a lot of other programs do this as well, but I couldn't tell you which ones off the top of my head.

Mike

 

[MDS]

Most programs that rip and encode in one shot use CDDB or FreeDB to look up artist/album/track info and also allow you to specify a naming convention.

I do everything manually with Sound Forge so I have to type the filename when I save it and also enter the ID3 tag information when I transcode the WAV to MP3.

 

[mike c]

can wmp rip to vbr?

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Thanks guys, since I am using a 500GB hard drive it looks like I will be fine with the WAV.

 

[pzaur]

can wmp rip to vbr?

Only using Windows format. There is an option for WMA-VBR.

Most of the programs that pull in information for a CD only do so for the tags. Not the actual file name. Two different things. As of yet, I don't believe there is any tag available for .wav files.

Just came across this program for editing of tags. Looks like some potential in there.

-pat

 

[yettitheman]

I use WMA CBR 192 Kbps. It's fine.
I've tried the lossless- and I've had issues burning discs afterwards.

Use at your discretion

 

[pzaur]

I use WMA CBR 192 Kbps. It's fine.
I've tried the lossless- and I've had issues burning discs afterwards.

Use at your discretion

Obviously, your computer needs better cables on the inside!

I just came across a WPL (play list) exporter for making CD jackets. This should be handy.

-pat

 

[bandphan]

i use cdwave( www.cdwave.com ) for secotor boundry issues.

heres a good forum for lossless formats

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showforum=69

 

[yettitheman]

Obviously, your computer needs better cables on the inside!

Cables are fine. I've even got a digital SPDIF cable connecting my main rip drive to my Audigy 2. It's just something I tried once, and it didn't like it.