Ripping Music

[krazeyeyez]

I was wondering if someone more familiar with the tech behind the music could explain in simple terms, what effect Bitrates, sample rates, etc... play on the final outcome of music.

I know there are both non-compressed and lossless modes to rip with, but when size is an issue and the speakers (in my car) well ... suck an Mp3 cuts it, but their are so many options to effect, that i was curious as to what bitrates, sample rates, etc... actually do, so when i feel the need to go the Mp3 route i am getting the most out of it, and just to expand my knowledge in the area.

Google returned stuff that lost me after sentence one, way to tech for me to understand.

[Hammie]

In the easiest of terms, the higher the bitrate, the more accurate the music will be.

Since digital cannot be a perfect curve, you need to sample at higher bitrates. a 128kbps MP3 will be sampled less than a 320kbps MP3.

The other thing is compression algorithms. MP3 has one of the highest compression factors and results in some of the worst sounding music files. However, as you mentioned many car stereos, MP3 "boom" boxes, or MP3 player headphones, cannot show the differences between these files very well. You need a system that can show the differences.

Not sure if this helped or not. I thought there was a sticky somewhere but I could not locate it.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

In the easiest of terms, the higher the bitrate, the more accurate the music will be.

Since digital cannot be a perfect curve, you need to sample at higher bitrates. a 128kbps MP3 will be sampled less than a 320kbps MP3.

The other thing is compression algorithms. MP3 has one of the highest compression factors and results in some of the worst sounding music files. However, as you mentioned many car stereos, MP3 "boom" boxes, or MP3 player headphones, cannot show the differences between these files very well. You need a system that can show the differences.

Not sure if this helped or not. I thought there was a sticky somewhere but I could not locate it.

And to add what Lou said...the higher the Bitrate...the larger the file size.

John

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

In the easiest of terms, the higher the bitrate, the more accurate the music will be.

Since digital cannot be a perfect curve, you need to sample at higher bitrates. a 128kbps MP3 will be sampled less than a 320kbps MP3.

The other thing is compression algorithms. MP3 has one of the highest compression factors and results in some of the worst sounding music files. However, as you mentioned many car stereos, MP3 "boom" boxes, or MP3 player headphones, cannot show the differences between these files very well. You need a system that can show the differences.

Not sure if this helped or not. I thought there was a sticky somewhere but I could not locate it.

Definitely did as i am planning to rip my entire collection again, both lossless and Mp3 for different purposes since i was relatively new to the whole thing when i got my first IPOD about a year ago and had no idea what i was doing.... one other thing i am curious about is this variable bitrate stuff, does that just set an average and do it's best to hit it or what?

Also if i am understanding correctly the higher the bitrate i set, and the higher sampling rate i set, the better quality of the MP3 file?

Apologies to the mods if their was a sticky or previous thread covering this stuff because i didn't see one, but i also didn't search to long as MP3 tech usually doesn't get covered around here

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

Definitely did as i am planning to rip my entire collection again, both lossless and Mp3 for different purposes since i was relatively new to the whole thing when i got my first IPOD about a year ago and had no idea what i was doing.... one other thing i am curious about is this variable bitrate stuff, does that just set an average and do it's best to hit it or what?

Also if i am understanding correctly the higher the bitrate i set, and the higher sampling rate i set, the better quality of the MP3 file?

Apologies to the mods if their was a sticky or previous thread covering this stuff because i didn't see one, but i also didn't search to long as MP3 tech usually doesn't get covered around here

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't ripped a CD to my computer in a very long time.

You CANNOT set the sampling rate from a ripping program. You can only choose the bitrate parameter.

John

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by John72953

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't ripped a CD to my computer in a very long time.

You CANNOT set the sampling rate from a ripping program. You can only choose the bitrate parameter.

John

I-tunes apparently allows both, under custom options of the mp3 and aac settings, obviously with the lossless codecs you cannot change that stuff though

So what exactly does the sampling rate effect? the rip itself, playback, or both?

[dobyblue]

If you must go lossy, try and use a variable bit rate with high quality over a constant bit rate.
.mp4 is more efficient than .mp3, so that would be even better.
I use .mp4 at the highest bitrate for files I'm adding to PS3 games for custom soundtracks.

[Rocky59]

I have all the equipment I need to rip music from my collection of vinyl LPs and 45s. I have sucessfully used audacity to record music from the turn table to the computer. However, after I have done the recording, I have to manually divide the LP side up into its songs and write all the information about the song (title, artist, album, etc) myself. This is very time consuming.

Therefore the question - Is there a software program that will divide the LP into the songs, and then using a database, identify the songs?

If not, is there a faster process that someone knows of instead of doing what I am currently doing?

Thanks.

__________________________________________________ _________________________________
Gucci Bag | Photo to oil painting | thailand vacation rental | watch vampire diaries online

[blu_world]

Originally Posted by Rocky59

I have all the equipment I need to rip music from my collection of vinyl LPs and 45s. I have sucessfully used audacity to record music from the turn table to the computer. However, after I have done the recording, I have to manually divide the LP side up into its songs and write all the information about the song (title, artist, album, etc) myself. This is very time consuming.

Therefore the question - Is there a software program that will divide the LP into the songs, and then using a database, identify the songs?

If not, is there a faster process that someone knows of instead of doing what I am currently doing?

Thanks.

currently,i don't think there is a program to help you out..
so you have to do everything manually.

[dobyblue]

I agree with Blu World, I'm not familiar with any program like that for vinyl.
Are you using 24/96 with Audacity to back up your vinyl, then dithering to 16/44.1 for CD burns?

[Icedburden]

I just re-ripped some of my favorite CD's in lossless format and the sound quality is amazing over what I had before. Thanks for the suggestions here guys.

[Clark Kent]

With the massive amount of space available cheaply now in the forms of hard drives and storage, there is no reason for people to rip anything but in lossless form. MP3's were really a stopgap format from when broadband was not widely available and our portable devices had limited space. FLAC is your friend...

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Icedburden

I just re-ripped some of my favorite CD's in lossless format and the sound quality is amazing over what I had before. Thanks for the suggestions here guys.

That is good to hear!