Hello Forum, I'm a newbie that's even newer to MP3 game. I'm getting ready to transfer all my 500 CD's to a more mobile format and then purchase a player. I'm sure what I want will be released this coming year, but that's another discussion. I've be reading as much as possible and found out that Lame is the encoder of choice. I intend to use a higher setting for archiving first. I have been reading about EAC and the set up looks a little confusing and limits me to using one drive. Can I use my nero 6 Ultra with the Powerpack lame encoder with as good as results as EAC. I was also reading about Winlame .It offers good decoding as well as ease of use .Is that the same as Winamp ? Can anyone give me a push in the right direction and any setting advice? There seems to be endless information out there all claiming to be the best. I want the best encoding with good decoding. I guess that would make anyone happy!!!
I was waiting to see if anyone else offered an opinion, but looks like I can go first... I have used the Massau Lame 3.93 plugin in Nero as well as EAC with Lame 3.97. Both work well for me. I like that EAC will tell you when it thinks there is a problem with the disk. Nero just goes ahead and reads and encodes. I use MP3 only in the car, so it doesn't really matter which process I use. I use Alt Preset Standard in 3.93 and 192kbs VBR in EAC. While MP3 is adequate for portability, using a lossy compression for "archiving" may not be a good thing. Have you considered FLAC or (I think it's called) Wavepak? Hope you get some good answers to your questions.
Wow, Thanks for the reply. Being a newbie that know one will answer is a little tough. I should have just asked one question at a time. Other members probably take me for someone that isn’t willing to work for the answers and just wants everything handed to them. First, I’m really surprised no one has an opinion on the performance of Nero plug ins. Wheather it is the Massau Lame one you’re using or the PowerPack one I have installed. I thought this would be a quick answer if the performance is there. Second, I really have not considered other formats , Being a newbie I need to get my feet wet in digital music compression somewhere , Why not start with the most popular , MP3. As far as the archiving , I was going to create one file for archiving at a high bit rate say Lame Insane level that I could always convert down to something else from or use as a music sever file and another for portable music devices at a bit rate more like your own 192kbs VBR . My other PC has two 370 gig hard drives I could just load all 500 cd’s in WAVE if I wanted to, but what am I going to learn that way. I guess I should just jump in with EAC and sort out the command lines talked about at Chris Myden’s web site for the newer version of Lame. I hope I can find the help in the forums to get it up and running as it still seems a little confusing. Your opinions were greatly appreciated and I’ll look over Wavepak, I need to know anything I can learn!!
After about 6 emails and a month of waiting , I finally got a response from Nero regarding there Lame encoder settings for VBR and since I could not find the information anywhere I thought I would post it for anyone that wants it. Nero lame encoder is version 3.92 and the VBR settings break down as follows . 1.) Please have a look at the following index: 0 - 240 kbps 1 - 225 kbps 2 - 190 kbps 3 - 175 kbps 4 - 165 kbps 5 - 130 kbps 6 - 115 kbps 7 - 100 kbps 8 - 85 kbps 9 - 65 kbps I hope this information helps someone out; it took long enough to get. I'm now considering using a lossless music format as well. Does anyone have any feedback on the short comings of Flac or Apple Lossless? Many thanks!!!
If you want true quality of your music, then I would stick with the WAV files on the cds. Mp3s are always going to be less quality for the space you save.
That is a very simple and complete statement. What am I thinking!! Why get all caught up in all the hype when what you have is already the best. I’ll just make a music file for ipod purposes and if wanted load my cd’s in WAV. How simple can it be!! Many thanks for a clearer perspective to my wants!!
I've made about 150 compilations CDs, they are all WAV cds. I keep one batch in my car and originals inside. If lost or scratched I just make another copy. Copy your original CDs and play with them and save your originals. Glad to have helped.
10cc, garmoon is right about the fact that the uncompressed .wav files are better than encoding-to anything. However, if you have many "downloaded" mp3 files, it might be annoying to listen to your very nice .wav files and then a downloaded mp3 of questionable nature. In response to this problem, I listen to everything in mp3 format. Also, because the file sizes of mp3s are much smaller, you can have a very large music libary at your finger tips. EAC is the best ripping utility hands down, it is worth learning to use it. For converting .wav to mp3, I like to use the very simple program ALL2LAME. Use the preset "--preset extreme" in the box labeled switches. You should be able to find lots of info on the web related to EAC and ALL2LAME.
