MediaMonkey forum

Hi Everyone,

A couple years ago I was using a program called CD-DA Extractor to rip CD's to my computer -- there was a plugin for it that automatically created settings that would make the best quality MP3 out of it, but still be at a 192 bit rate I think....I think it also did a detailed rip to be sure to get through any scratches on the CD...

Is there a method to do this on MediaMonkey?

1. What is the best CD Ripping Settings on MM

and

2. What settings would you do for Audio books? I don't want to rip it to the point where the sound quality is bad, cause that's just annoying...but if I could rip with lower quality settings than music, but still get good quality, I'd dig that.

Thanks guys,

--Sean

Hi, VPSean,
from 192kbps on, you might not notice the difference. There is a forum related to use of different codecs and such.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... owforum=40
As for my personal opinion, 192kbps VBR (variable bit rate) should be fairly good for music.
Now, the second question. You want your Audiobooks in a lower bitrate. Well, audiobooks are something very particular, as they are speech only. Although I have not encoded anything like that, AAC or Vorbis (OGG) at 64kbps should sound pretty reasonable. MP3 in this case cuts too much of the highest region of the frequency spectrum. Last time I checked, for this bitrate it was something in the 10kHz region. Again, VBR will do a better trick here. Apart from these common formats, I am sure there are lots of codecs focused in speech only. Just remember that your mobile phones do that in real time, and sound quality is not so bad.
Regards.

Mostly I find that VBR -> V2 (in some cases V1) do the thing for Audio (Unless I use FLAC)

For Audio Books I prefer V6 (Or In some cases where there is clean Voice like most clean Radio Adverts I Use V7)

Note: All Other options are maxed.

Thanks guys...

Can someone explain how VBR is, as in the V1, V2, V3, etc.?

I've never paid any attention to that part...only paid attention to the bitrate: 192, 224, 320, etc.

I see I can pick options in the "Use Presets" area, such as:

Extreme: VBR ~256 kbps - Near CD Quality+
Insane: CBR ~320 kbps - Highest Quality


Or I can go with the Manual settings and either pick CBR, VBR, or ABR. And then with that I select wether it's V1, V2, V3, V4, etc..Mode I'm guessing I'd leave at "Joint Stereo" -- But then there's even MORE settings under "Advanced":

Sample Rate, Encoding Quality, Bitrate, then the VBR Method...

Then FINALLY, Use bit reservoir or Strict ISO compliance!...

Quite a few options!

Who are the pro CD Rippers out there?

--Sean

Sorry If I was rude here is my RIP Settings hopefully it would be clear now.

Rude? Not at all man! I have no idea why you'd even think that...there was nothing rude about your post at all!

I've got one more question for you...is there a particular Bit Rate that those mp3's come out as when you set it for V2?

Thanks,
--Sean

AFAIK the enocding quality should be set at 2 and not 0 because it has been much more tested and developed. And it's a lot faster too. (Not that speed really matters to me..)

Well, I only rip with EAC.

Don't get me wrong, I love mediamonkey and I think it has a very capable ripper - my girlfriend uses it all the time - but in my opinion why use anything less than the absolutely best ripper available, specially since it's freeware?

As for the encoding settings, that's a completely different cup of tea.
I do use mediamonkey to for example transcode FLAC to MP3.

My recommendation (you can find everything you ever wanted to know on the topic at Hydrogenaudio)
is to use -V2 but NOT the --vbr-new switch. Yes it's much slower, but I found that some portable MP3 players won't play music encoded with the new algorithm properly.

I do't see the point of using -V0 or -b 320.
If I want archival quality, I'll directly go lossless (e.g. FLAC) instead.

Hey Guys thanks a ton for your help...I really appreciate it...

MCSmarties: What you said is exactly what I needed to hear! It was EAC I used to use and I couldn't remember what it is....

Here's what I'm wondering though now -- what the heck do I do with LAME? I downloaded a file titled "lame-3.98b8.tar.gz" -- and I looked around to find out what to do with it, but I have no idea. I also downloaded EAC, and my gut tells me I have to extract lame into a folder on EAC or something....

And then once I do that...do I follow the quality settings that I saw on that Hyrogenaudio wiki site you showed me?

Just a little confused in how it all mixes together: EAC, LAME, and the settings from the Wiki.

Thanks a ton man, sincerely appreciated.

--Sean

@VP sean... no no no. tar.gz is a linux archive file.

Follow the instructions here: http://www.teqnilogik.com/tutorials/eac ... OptionsMP3

Thanks nohitter! I'm all set now!

--Sean

WHOAA!!!

Hey guys -- specifically NoHitter as you'll probably have the answer -- I followed all the settings for EAC and am stoked to have it doing some quality rips...However, I think I went a little over board. When I was using it several years ago it was doing the 'skip prevention,' and took about 30 minutes per CD....Right now it's got an ETA of 3 hours and 45 minutes!!! Yikes!

Are there any settings you would recommend I tone down to give it some better time, but still with no skip?

Right now the CD's I'm ripping don't even have any scratches on them really....and if any, very minor....

Thanks a ton!!

--Sean
Update: I'm doing some minor things on my computer and the new ETA is 4 hours and 20 minutes!

MCSmarties wrote:My recommendation (you can find everything you ever wanted to know on the topic at Hydrogenaudio)
is to use -V2 but NOT the --vbr-new switch. Yes it's much slower, but I found that some portable MP3 players won't play music encoded with the new algorithm properly.

That's really strange because it vbr-algorithm shouldn't affect the compatibility as the format of the MP3 should be exactly the same. If this really happened on your system then I'd report the problem to the lame-devs!

@vpsean: Try a different drive if you have one. If not I'd use the recommended secure mode - should be much faster as burst with test&copy. And if you use AccurateRip in EAC you'll see if you get accurate results.
And have a look at this site: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC . There are also some guides at the end. Btw I'd recommend the use of --vbr-new as it's faster at the same quality (at least it's not worse).
IMHO better because faster and more comfortable is DBpoweramp - but unfortunately it's shareware. But eventhough it's an alternative which is maybe worth a look.

Big_Berny

Agreed that EAC in secure mode is the only way to rip. And as also pointed out, Hydrogenaudio is THE place to go for answers to your audio questions (no doubt everything you want to know is already in the wiki--always go there before the forums).

Looks like you found the info for setting up EAC. As far as the different LAME settings and what to use for what, this link goes direct to that:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=LAME

Agreed that EAC in secure mode is the only way to rip. And as also pointed out, Hydrogenaudio is THE place to go for answers to your audio questions (no doubt everything you want to know is already in the wiki--always go there before the forums).

Looks like you found the info for setting up EAC. As far as the different LAME settings and what to use for what, this link goes direct to that:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=LAME