Quick question for anyone who is overflowing with knowledge on HD STORAGE

[CRIMSON PEARL]

I am loading music cd's into my HD with itunes in WAV. Should I let the program set the bit rate and sample rate automatically or should I set it for the MAX.

 

[MDS]

If it's a WAV file created by ripping a track off a CD there is no sample rate or bit depth to set. The data on a CD is 16 bit / 44.1 kHz PCM and a WAV file is that data preceded by a header with information like number of channels (2), sample rate (44.1 kHz), bit depth (16), total number of samples, and more.

If the program allows you to set bit depth or sample rate for WAV that would mean it is resampling and you don't want to do that if your goal is to save the uncompressed PCM exactly as it is on the disc. The data will occupy approximately 10 MB per minute of stereo audio on your hard disc.

Incidentally, 'bit rate' is the rate at which bits arrive when streaming and for a 2 channel WAV (PCM) that rate is 1,411 Kbps (1.41. Mbps). Every second, 1.41 Mb will arrive for a 2 channel WAV file or looked at another way every second of a 2 channel WAV contains 1.41 Mb.

[Note: little 'b' == bits and 'B' = bytes]

 

[CRIMSON PEARL]

If it's a WAV file created by ripping a track off a CD there is no sample rate or bit depth to set. The data on a CD is 16 bit / 44.1 kHz PCM and a WAV file is that data preceded by a header with information like number of channels (2), sample rate (44.1 kHz), bit depth (16), total number of samples, and more.

If the program allows you to set bit depth or sample rate for WAV that would mean it is resampling and you don't want to do that if your goal is to save the uncompressed PCM exactly as it is on the disc. The data will occupy approximately 10 MB per minute of stereo audio on your hard disc.

Incidentally, 'bit rate' is the rate at which bits arrive when streaming and for a 2 channel WAV (PCM) that rate is 1,411 Kbps (1.41. Mbps). Every second, 1.41 Mb will arrive for a 2 channel WAV file or looked at another way every second of a 2 channel WAV contains 1.41 Mb.

[Note: little 'b' == bits and 'B' = bytes]

THANKS for the info. I'll start loading them again set to AUTO. Only loaded 10 so far.

 

[MDS]

It took me months to do 500 or so CDs but I don't use these auto rip and encode type programs because sometimes the songs need to be edited. I do it the slowwww way - one at a time with Sound Forge (audio editor).

 

[Biggiesized]

Use EAC + FLAC.

 

[MDS]

Use EAC + FLAC.

FLAC if you want to save a little bit of disc space. EAC only if you want a free program that does its job and are willing to wait 2 -3 times as long for it to read every block 18 times and still produce the exact same data as every other program that can perform digital audio extraction.

 

[jcPanny]

Apple lossless

The Apple Lossless format is similar to FLAC, except it works in iTunes. The file sizes are roughtly half that of the origional WAV file with no compression or degridation in quality. I have my music in this format on 80GB iPod for use as a music server.