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Best setting for ripping in iTunes, help I am confused.


dennismiller55

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I have been following Rich's post:  CODEC Comparison: test your gear/ears
 
I use to just listen to my CD's.   As everyone here knows, a library can take a lot of room.  Still, I loved my CD's.  I use to carry selected CD's with me to play in my portable Technics CD Player.  So did my daughters.  Then they both asked for iPods for Christmas.  After playing around with their iPods I quickly ditch my portable CD player for a new 120 gig Classic iPod.  I was hooked.  I liked the convenience of having most of my collection with me.  Not understanding the difference between MP3, lossless, ACC, FLAC I picked MP3 192bit rate as my standard.  I transferred my entire collection to MP3 and started selling or trading my CD's collection.  I no longer saw a need to keep them.  My CD collection is just about gone.
 
That may have been a mistake.  But it is what it is.
 
I still buy and sell CD's and  I will start ripping all my future CD's to some "lossless" format for archival purposes and continue to rip to MP3 for use on my iPod.
 
So I am looking for advice on the best iTunes MP3 encoding I should be using for use on my new 160 Gig Classic iPod. Reading Rich's post "CODEC Comparison: test your gear/ears" am I to understand that the Variable Bit Rate is the best to use.  Keep in mind my hearing is poor. Pictures are of my current setting. 
 
Is this correct or should I adjust something here?
 
Also,  should the "Use error correction when reading Audio CD" be checked.
 
Thanks for any advice.  I have read and read on this subject and just really don't understand it because so there are so many choices and opinions.
 
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Hey Dennis,
I'm at work right now but will try to post a more informative ripping guide later tonight. I prefer to rip to FLAC for the lossless format. I use a bit of software called Exact Audio Copy. Set up properly it does a practice rip and then a real rip and compares them to make sure there were not any read errors during ripping. The FLAC's can be directly transcoded to MP3 using db poweramp. No need to re rip them with Itunes. I use 192 VBR for my MP3's. I think they sound the best for the file size.
 
I will try to post more helpfully tonight.
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You should choose a higher bit rate than 192k.  Bump that up to 256 (128k mono/ joint stereo/ VBR)  128k mono will be 256k stereo.  If you always plan to use the Apple universe for replay, you can use Apple's lossless codec.  If you want to make a permanent archive then rip everything into FLAC for storage. You can then transform the FLAC files into mp3 for playback on Apple devices and still have a high quality permanent file for other devices.

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To me, MP3 is 'OK' for casual listening through those 'little eary things', while doing something else. Ripping is just that 'ripping the music'. If you really want to see what it does, put the MP3 sound and the same CD sound into a music program like 'Pro Tools' , magnify the stream and compare them. Lots of missing info there. Now that you have all MP3s, do you play them through your stereo?

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Exact Audio Copy doesn't work on Macs (but might if also using Parallel Desktops Build to use the PC platform) -- but there is Max which is the equivalent software it seems which can work on Mac....and translates to the many formats, too.
 
I have downloaded Max but have no experience yet on ripping CDs using it and converting to FLAC, apple losses, etc.
 
But you more computer-literate guys might check it out for the purpose of putting CDs into a big music library on computer. 
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You should choose a higher bit rate than 192k.  Bump that up to 256 (128k mono/ joint stereo/ VBR)  128k mono will be 256k stereo.  If you always plan to use the Apple universe for replay, you can use Apple's lossless codec.  If you want to make a permanent archive then rip everything into FLAC for storage. You can then transform the FLAC files into mp3 for playback on Apple devices and still have a high quality permanent file for other devices.

 

Thanks Rodney!

 

I changed my iTunes to the higher 256 VBR.   What is the difference between "normal" & "joint stereo" in the stereo mode option?

 

What do you use to rip to FLAC? I do have the free version of Winamp on my laptop.
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To me, MP3 is 'OK' for casual listening through those 'little eary things', while doing something else. Ripping is just that 'ripping the music'. If you really want to see what it does, put the MP3 sound and the same CD sound into a music program like 'Pro Tools' , magnify the stream and compare them. Lots of missing info there. Now that you have all MP3s, do you play them through your stereo?

 

Thanks Joe.

 

The only place I can play my music in the house is in the basement in my hobby area.  I do not listen to it very loud (unless the wife is in town).  Right now I am using my MXR-130 and some old Sony speakers.  I primarily use my iPod as the source.  I do have an old Kenwood CD player hooked up.  And I have my turntable hooked up.  But I rarely put vinyl on.  I do have plans to change most of this with the exception of the Carver Receiver and the turntable.

 

My garage shop I use a second Carver Receiver and some Optimus speakers and just my iPod as the source.

 

I am generally happy with the MP3 through the speakers. 
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Thanks Rodney!

 

I changed my iTunes to the higher 256 VBR.   What is the difference between "normal" & "joint stereo" in the stereo mode option?

 

What do you use to rip to FLAC? I do have the free version of Winamp on my laptop.
 
 
For a description of joint stereo, see the link below. 
 
I suggest reading the following to get a handle on how to deal with FLAC files on different PC platforms. http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html 
 

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I realize the intention of this thread is to get your settings in Itunes right, but if you really are trying to archive and then dispose of your CD's I wouldn't rip in Itunes. It doesn't do a very good job of ripping mp3 and there are better (lossless) formats to rip to. These formats compress the files smaller than the .wav on the CD, but they dont discard any information like mp3's and the other lossy formats. I prefer FLAC but there are others like APE and apple lossless. A quick google of lossless formats will get you hours of reading.
 


Exact Audio Copy doesn't work on Macs (but might if also using Parallel Desktops Build to use the PC platform) -- but there is Max which is the equivalent software it seems which can work on Mac....and translates to the many formats, too.
 
I have downloaded Max but have no experience yet on ripping CDs using it and converting to FLAC, apple losses, etc.
 
But you more computer-literate guys might check it out for the purpose of putting CDs into a big music library on computer. 
 
I am not a mac guy so I cant speak to max or any other software as far as personal use. I do have source that I trust who uses X Lossless Decoder (XLD) to rip on mac OS X. Are you a mac guy Dennis?
 
As far as ripping to FLAC for archival purpose for you PC people. I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC). The software takes a bit to set up properly and see how your CD Rom drive works. It looks more daunting than it really is, and you only have to do it once. Here is a link to the software and then a set up guide for it:
 
Once you get this set up. You can set it to actually rip the CD once and  then a second time, comparing bit for bit to make sure there isn't any errors during the rip. This takes a good hour usually, longer if there is scratches and it has to do error correction. Rip it to FLAC with a cue file and you can use the .cue to recreate the original CD bit for bit. Then you can burn an exact copy of the original CD from the FLAC files.
 
When I want to make a MP3 for my ipod. I use dbpoweramp to transcode the FLAC to mp3 : I though it was free but not any more I guess, I'm sure there are many other programs out there that will transcode the FLAC files for you.
 
I will post a tutorial on actually ripping the CD with EAC if anyone has interest.
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Are you a mac guy Dennis?

 

As far as ripping to FLAC for archival purpose for you PC people. I use Exact Audio Copy (EAC). The software takes a bit to set up properly and see how your CD Rom drive works. It looks more daunting than it really is, and you only have to do it once. Here is a link to the software and then a set up guide for it:

 

When I want to make a MP3 for my ipod. I use dbpoweramp to transcode the FLAC to mp3: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

 

I will post a tutorial on actually ripping the CD with EAC if anyone has interest.

 

Thanks Fabrokoner!  I always appreciate the help and advice I get here.

 

I am not a MAC guy.  I am currently using a Dell Laptop.

 

I have EAC on my laptop.  I have tried to use this program in the past.  A little hard to figure out.  Took a lot of time to rip a CD.  I understand it is verifying the rip but I thought it was just too long and that the program was not working right.

 

I went to the dbpoweramp site.  Looks like this programs has the ability to rip in many formats.  Would it not be easier to use just one program?  Is the software deficient in ripping but excels in converting?

 

I would be interested in the EAC Tutorial.  I opened the program and could only see the ability to rip to a WAV file.  FLAC was not an option.
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I have EAC on my laptop.  I have tried to use this program in the past.  A little hard to figure out.  Took a lot of time to rip a CD.  I understand it is verifying the rip but I thought it was just too long and that the program was not working right.
I agree its a bit daunting, but if you follow the tutorial its not too bad. It does take a long time to rip a disc sometimes (especially if there is a scratch or dust on the disk and it goes into error correction mode). 
 
I went to the dbpoweramp site.  Looks like this programs has the ability to rip in many formats.  Would it not be easier to use just one program?  Is the software deficient in ripping but excels in converting?
 
To be honest I have never used dbpoweramp to rip before. It might rip just fine. I just know and trust EAC. It is super easy to use for converting.
 
 

I would be interested in the EAC Tutorial.  I opened the program and could only see the ability to rip to a WAV file.  FLAC was not an option.
 
I had forgot to put the links in my previous post. I edited them in, but here they are again.
 
 
The blowfish site has full step by step tutorials on how to set up EAC and calibrate your CD rom drive and on the process of actually ripping with EAC. You should be able to just follow the steps and be a ripping master in short order.
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Thanks Fabrokoner

 

I will work on EAC today.  I just got a bunch of CD's in.  Perfect time to give it another whirl.  I do want to start archiving to FLAC.  You just never know.  Music formats and players are constantly evolving.  Having a lossless backup is great protection.  I just did not give this much thought years ago when I started culling the physical cd's.  As I said earlier, it is what it is.
 

To to all who offered up their help and advice, THANKS.  It is very much appreciated.
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Awesome, Good luck getting it set up. I'm going out of town for the weekend, not sure if Ill have internet access. So I may be incommunicado for the weekend. Hopefully you'll be all set, if not I'll try to lend a hand on Monday.

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I have not read every post on this thread but my advice is to use MP3 coding and select 320 kbs for the sampling rate. I have used ITunes for a long time. Applelossless works well but if thats what you use and run out of hard drive space that's it. You can dreate another library but you will loss the other. There is no switching back and forth, especially if the new library is on a nother drive. Using the MP3 format, atleast you will then have the option to move the library and still be able to play it using other players besides ITunes.
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I have not read every post on this thread but my advice is to use MP3 coding and select 320 kbs for the sampling rate. I have used ITunes for a long time. Applelossless works well but if thats what you use and run out of hard drive space that's it. You can dreate another library but you will loss the other. There is no switching back and forth, especially if the new library is on a nother drive. Using the MP3 format, atleast you will then have the option to move the library and still be able to play it using other players besides ITunes.

 

PC storage is cheap these days.  So that is not problem I have.  My MP3 music collection is now larger than the capacity of my 160 Gig iPod, so I have to juggle the digital library in iTunes with what syncs with my iPod.  I am now contemplating getting the 240 Gig mod for my iPod.

 

Having the ability to use other players in the future is why I picked MP3 format over Apple's ACC format.

 

My biggest mistake was not archiving in lossless from the beginning.  Well, actually my biggest mistake was getting rid of my CD collection. 
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I have the same problem and I also have a 160 Gb IPod. I kept all my CD's. I connect my IPod to a different PC now and just add the CD tracks I want. My library on the main PC is too large to pick and sort through songs to snyc to the IPod. Try picking from 75084 tracks. You get tired of clicking.
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