Which bitrate when ripping CD's?

[phillai]

I'm about to rip all my music from my CD's to MP3.

I've always done 160 using some software called Goldwave but my mate reckons I should have it at 192 whereas my other mate reckons 128.

What bitrate do you guys use and what can you recommend to me?

I noticed that a typical track ripped at 160 is 5mb yet at 192 it seems to be 10-11mb!

Also, what sortware do you guys use or can recommend to me?

Thanks to all replies...

[Rossco]

192 at least for me! But I do everything at 256 now. Its really up to yourself though if you want to have better quality music or more space on your hard drive/mp3 player free.

[phillai]

Isn't 160 CD quality anyway?

[marcus]

128 lol

Nah man, 192 for sure, I also find anything above this is generally wasted space. I use EAC, "Exact Audio Copy' and the Lame codec when I ripped my CD collection to hard disk.

[demon9k]

Isn't 160 CD quality anyway?

Pretty sure its over 1000.

[phillai]

Is Exact Audio Copy free software?
If so I'll give it a try...

[phillai]

****, just found loads of versions of Exact Audio Copy...
Which version of Exact Audio Copy are you guys using?

[Corrupt Rose]

I stick to 192 as standard. It's a good spot for both quality and space consumption on your hard drive.

[Fei Fong Wong]

CD audio (uncompressed WAV) is 1411kbps.

For best results I swear by EAC as Marcus said and encode to MP3 with LAME. Rather than a constant bit rate, of say 192kbps, though I always rip using the APX setting (-alt preset extreme). This creates a variable bit rate MP3 file that is far superior to a 192kbps CBR file.

As a guide a recent CD I ripped came out with these file sizes:

2.5 minute song = 4.4mb
3.5 minute song = 6.3mb
5 minute song = 9.4mb
6.5 minute song = 11.5mb

If these are too big you can reduce them by using the APS (-alt preset standard) setting which will still sound better than a 192kbps CBR rip.

Check this site for EAC and LAME settings: http://www.bestmp3guide.com/

EDIT: Oh one more thing. Make sure you use EAC in secure mode. If you use burst mode there's no real benefit in using EAC.

[Kotatsu Neko]

192 for me. I can't really hear the difference in going any higher.

[phillai]

CD audio (uncompressed WAV) is 1411kbps.

For best results I swear by EAC as Marcus said and encode to MP3 with LAME. Rather than a constant bit rate, of say 192kbps, though I always rip using the APX setting (-alt preset extreme). This creates a variable bit rate MP3 file that is far superior to a 192kbps CBR file.

As a guide a recent CD I ripped came out with these file sizes:

2.5 minute song = 4.4mb
3.5 minute song = 6.3mb
5 minute song = 9.4mb
6.5 minute song = 11.5mb

If these are too big you can reduce them by using the APS (-alt preset standard) setting which will still sound better than a 192kbps CBR rip.

Check this site for EAC and LAME settings: http://www.bestmp3guide.com/

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

[Fei Fong Wong]

If you follow that guide the config file you download and use should put EAC in secure mode for you but I don't think it sets the LAME compression setting up for you. If not all you need to do is hit F11 for compression options and half way down the window is an "additional command lines" option. In the box type: --alt-preset extreme

This will override whatever CBR bitrate you may have selected so it doesn't matter if you have it set as 96kbps or 320kbps in the options.

EDIT: In fact check this thread for all you need to know about setting up EAC for use with LAME: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...howtopic=28124

[gizmo1990]

Ok I'm very confused.

I've followed the guides posted for EAC but using the '-alt preset standard' line I'm getting a bit rate of 484kbps when I look at the files properties??

Whats going on?

Also how do you change between vbr and cbr!

[Fei Fong Wong]

I assume you mean you're examining the bit rate using Windows. If so don't - it can't report the correct bit rate for VBR files like you have. No MP3 can have a bit rate of over 320kbps, be it VBR/ABR or CBR. Check it in your media player for the correct bitrate. If you're using APS it should show as VBR with the average bit rate being shown.

As for changing between VBR & CBR you don't have to if you're using the APS command line. It overides whatever settings you have in EAC. In very basic terms by using the APS/APX commands your just giving LAME the ability to use a higher bit rate where its needed and when its not lower bit rates are used. This way you get a great trade off between quality and size of your file. If you watch the command dialog box when LAME encodes a MP3 you'll get the idea of what it does i.e. the spectrum shows what frames its encoding at what bitrate.

[segages]

+1 for 192kpbs.

Before I ripped my collection I listened to the same track, with different pairs of headphones, ripped at 128 all the way upto 256. When I got to 192, I couldn't here any differences anymore so I went with that.

And deffo go with LAME.