I lost all my MP3s and need to reencode - where to go?

sabregen

sabregen

Fully [H]
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Jun 6, 2005
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In 1997 (yes, this is the last time I encoded MP3s) I bought a lifetime sub to MusicMatch Jukebox. Then Yahoo bought them, and in Sept. 08 it went bust. Now I managed to lose all my MP3s in an accidental format when reloading my WHS, so I am going to be forced to reencode, which may be a blessing. The previous encoding run was all done at 128kbps. I would like to maintain the MP3 format, even though I know someone will try to lead me astray, it's not going to happen. However, increased bitrates this time around, are in order. Suggestions on what to use, and why, would be appreciated.

Also, I don't want to have to manually enter 250CDs worth of ID3 tags into a ripping program, so I need something that does CDDB lookup for ID3 info, and I need it to not suck and pull down bullshit info, either. A simple interface would be appreciated.

Help a guy out?
 
If you want an MP3, I'd follow this guide,

http://www.chrismyden.com/bestmp3guide.php

It's a guide for "ubernet" underground music sharing network which requires high quality rips to join them.

Although, I'd rip in lossless, FLAC if I was you, for database storage purposes, then after that you can convert that flac into anything you want.
 
Guys, I just want to go straight to MP3. I need something that will query CDDB for ID3 info. I also need to know what a decent MP3 bitrate is these days. I know you guys want FLAC for lossless, but I do not. Can you help me get to where I want to go?
 
I usually encode with 192kbps and I use audio grabber it has the options you want and it is totally free :D
 
holy shit i totally forgot about audio grabber. that sounds like a winner. where do i set the CBR / VBR and bitrates? The rest is easy-peasy
 
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Filtrator said:
If you want an MP3, I'd follow this guide
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If you plan to create MP3s, download the best MP3 encoder on the planet, LAME 3.90.3
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LAME 3.90.3 is not the "best" version of LAME. LAME's seen a great deal of optimization to the VBR profiles and the underlying perceptual model in the past several years.

sabregen said:
Guys, I just want to go straight to MP3. I need something that will query CDDB for ID3 info.
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CDex still supports CDDB, if I recall. EAC uses freedb. For what it's worth, freedb is excellent.

sabregen said:
I also need to know what a decent MP3 bitrate is these days.
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These days, it's not about constant bitrate encoding but variable bitrate encoding. If you want the highest quality VBR, use the -V0 switch (~245kbps). If you want to save room, -V3 (~215kbps) and V2 (~195kbps) are both good options.

Recommended versions of LAME are 3.97 and 3.98r2 (aka 3.98.2).
 
Hadrien said:
What about ripping to FLAC? Is storage an issue?
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well he specifically stated he does not want FLAC.


OP, you may even try CDex. That's what I always used. Pulls down artist and track info, but sometimes there may be more than 1 listing for a particular album, so you may need to find the "correct" one. But it works well, and the VBR setting on it works good too.
 
if your cd's are clean and scratch free, cdex is fantastic. if you have damaged discs, exact audio copy is what you want (can take forever though)

i would use cdex if you can, its wayyy too easy and reliable.

i would use 320kbs constant bitrate, there is no reason to use anything less.
 
Use Cdex. Download the latest beta version, which has the LAME 3.97 codec.

Under the settings menu, make sure you configure LAME to use alt preset standard fast, and make sure the max bitrate goes up to 320 (the default was 224k the last time I installed, which was strange). This will produce perfectly transparent tracks that won't use any more size than they need, and will play anywhere.

Cdex can also create m3u playlists automatically if you're into that sort of thing.
 
j-sta said:
well he specifically stated he does not want FLAC.


OP, you may even try CDex. That's what I always used. Pulls down artist and track info, but sometimes there may be more than 1 listing for a particular album, so you may need to find the "correct" one. But it works well, and the VBR setting on it works good too.
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Oops. That what I get for not reading all the way down.

Have you looked at dbpoweramp? It should do the CDDB lookups you want. I used it to rip my collection to flac recently and it worked great, only took about 4 days to do.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/
 
is there a ripper that can download album art as well as the tag info ?
 
I just thought I'd chime in to express my sorrow at the tragedy that is about to take place. So much time and effort is about to be spent ripping CDs to a lossy format when you could be making bit-perfect FLAC copies... sad.
 
he already has bit-perfect copies though... theyre on pressed metal cd's. very reliable.
 
dBpoweramp also does album art downloading during the rip as well.
 
thanks guys. sounds like CDex is a good place to start, and maybe i should checkout dbpoweramp, and mediajukebox if i decide i want album art as well (don't know).

i don't want FLAC because i do have a storage issue currently (anyone want to trade SAS setup for 1TB+ drives?) that I am trying to solve (read sell high speed stuff, get large stuff) that I don't want to contribute to. Also, I don't want to reencode audio to put onto portable devices. All of my audio listening will either be on a portable device that does not support FLAC format, or will be playing in the background while playing a game on my PC (like GTA IV radio stations). I just dont want the hassle.

I am not an audiophile. I think my Klipsch ProMedia v2 4.1's (RIP) were great, and that my G35s are the best headset I have ever heard. Video on the other hand....I am picky about. I won't even download a movie because i want to control every step of the rip and transcode. go figure.

...stop trying to sway me. thanks for the help! As far as lookup DB's go, the only one I knew of was CDDB, I suppose I should have been more clear and said "ID3 v2 lookup DB."
 
I use EAC / Lame and max bitrate VBR as posted in the ubernet post - 1st reply - that's a perfect guide.

EAC can grab the freeCDDB info or whatever also.

I add the album art afterwards via Media Monkey 's grab-it-from-amazon method.

Just did all of my and my wife's CDs that way this year.
 
+1 for audio grabber + lame.

I have used audio grabber for near a decade. HQ VBR is a little smaller then 320 and you won't be able to tell any difference. VBR tech has come a long ways in the past 5 years.
 
I would definitely use LAME VBR for your re-encoding. Take some test listens to ~160, ~192 and ~224 and see what works for you. If you're just using your iPod at the gym, for instance, you may not be able to tell the difference. Make sure all of your playback devices support VBR.

I'm not a hardcore music guy, but I've always though cdex did a great job and, if you have music already ripped in some format, you can point it at nested directories of music you don't need to rip. I have heard EAC is great for sub-optimal CDs but it isn't as straight-forward to drive. I'd install both and use CDex unless there's issues with the disk, personally.

CBR320 is a waste of space and we've moved on from that with much better VBR techniques. Even if you tell LAME to basically do "lossless" VBR it doesn't need 320kbps in virtually all cases.

If you don't already know, check out hydrogenaudio http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/

Make sure you audit your ID3 tags before finalizing your new library. There's a million ID3 tag editors out there. I've found "Mp3tag" pretty good, but there are many, many others. http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
 
Surly73 said:
Make sure you audit your ID3 tags before finalizing your new library. There's a million ID3 tag editors out there. I've found "Mp3tag" pretty good, but there are many, many others. http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
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THAT will likely prove useful. I just got offered $15/hour to convert 600 CD for a friend to 256-320kbps VBR MP3s and handle all the ID3 tag info. He is setting up a WHS JUST FOR MP3s and backups of PCs. What a dork.
 
sabregen said:
THAT will likely prove useful. I just got offered $15/hour to convert 600 CD for a friend to 256-320kbps VBR MP3s and handle all the ID3 tag info. He is setting up a WHS JUST FOR MP3s and backups of PCs. What a dork.
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thats what my server does... along with other things. once you setup cdex, all of those tasks happen automatically. its just a matter of loading and swapping cd's. load up 3 or 4 cdroms and get r done quick, and still charge the idiot $100
 
I think the "holy grail" answer to your (OP) question about MP3 ripping/tagging is all detailed and outlined (includes step-by-step instructions) here:

http://www.uberstandard.org/index.html

Doubt it? Read this:

http://www.uberstandard.org/encoding.html

E'nuff said. In fact, I'm about to follow their "uber standards" myself! (My music library needs a serious demolition and rebuilding anyhow!)

Hope I've helped. My work here is done =)
 
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I use Exact Audio Copy for ripping, it uses freedb for lookups and it's generally very accurate in tagging (and nothing else compares when it comes to actual ripping). I add album art with MediaMonkey... It uses Amazon's database and it's worked far better than anything else I've tried, it's also what I use to actually manage my collection (the filters and auto-organize rules are invaluable, it's so powerful/versatile yet so easy to use).

I actually found a handful of CDs in my collection that were in pristine condition but poorly mastered or something... These are the types of CDs that some other programs would've failed to rip repeatedly, EAC took a long-ass time on those in particular but it got 'em all done. EAC's also got a neat function where it compares the integrity of your rip to others and tells you how many people got identical results (gives you a confidence score), kind of re-assuring tho it was hit-or-miss w/some of my less popular or latin music (different pressings of CDs, or simply not as popular so not a lot of results in the database).

I'd go VBR (rather than a constant-bit rate) and as high (V0) as you've got storage space for, if it's not a big concern... Personally I rip to FLAC and I re-convert to MP3 (VBR V2) afterward (using MediaMonkey, it's convert tool is now multi-threaded and works very well)... That way I can re-convert it to other formats in the future, or work off the original files if I want to do something like create a ring-tone or use the song in a video or whatever.

Nothing wrong w/going straight to MP3 if you don't think you're ever really gonna use your music as content in any other work tho (and MP3 as a format seems like it'll last us thru the foreseeable future). MediaMonkey lets you add art to the file itself or the directory or both btw, it's very slick, very customizable, can't recommend it enough for managing your library, tagging art, or even just browsing/playback.
 
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sabregen said:
Also, I don't want to reencode audio to put onto portable devices. All of my audio listening will either be on a portable device that does not support FLAC format, or will be playing in the background while playing a game on my PC (like GTA IV radio stations). I just dont want the hassle.
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What hassle? The storage limitations I understand, if you can't get around those then FLAC is not an option... But actually converting a library from FLAC to MP3 is like a three-click process in MediaMonkey, doesn't even take all that long if your system isn't ancient... Ripping's gonna take many times longer anyway. Just saying... If you're gonna invest the time, might as well make it count for any and all eventualities.

The filters in MediaMonkey keep my two collections (FLAC rips and MP3 conversions) straight, so I only see the MP3s when I'm sync'ing with my iPod, phone, or other players, and I only see the FLAC files when I'm playing music on the PC... It's very intuitive, I've also got it set up so my downloads/online purchases folder content shows up in either instance as well, takes all of 5s to do any of that in MM. FWIW
 
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Can any of you actually hear any differences between say high quality 256k VBR mp3 and FLAC, even on high end audio? I thought they were virtually indistinguishable in blind tests.
 
I sure as heck can't, but that's not why I ripped to FLAC anyway... As I said in my post, I ripped to FLAC because it gives me the peace of mind that I can manipulate the file or re-convert it in the future to other formats w/o any loss of quality. The second you modify the MP3 file and re-encode it you're incurring a hit in quality.
 
oh god yes... you can still hear that slight tinge in the high end, no matter what encoder you use. i have super clear speakers though, for most any HTiB or anything normal then mp3 is fine.

i think if OP already has pressed cd's, there isnt much reason to go flac especially if he doesnt want to. too many programs dont like flac natively (well, windows programs that is) and i sometimes wish my entire collection was straight mp3's... however ive been using flac for years now because the software i use encodes on the fly, so i never even notice what format im using besides the sound quality. again, its just times when you use things like orb or various applications that you have to modify just to see flac's, and it takes away some of the convenience.
 
Syric said:
I think the "holy grail" answer to your (OP) question about MP3 ripping/tagging is all detailed and outlined (includes step-by-step instructions) here
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"Drive is capable of retrieving C2 error information" should always be left un-checked.
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Some drives are plenty capable of correctly reading C2 error pointers. If that's the case, then disabling it only serves the purpose of slowing down the ripping process on damaged CDs.

MrCrispy said:
Can any of you actually hear any differences between say high quality 256k VBR mp3 and FLAC, even on high end audio? I thought they were virtually indistinguishable in blind tests.
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I haven't come across a normal sample I can distinguish, no. That says nothing of the occasional "killer sample".

krupted said:
too many programs dont like flac natively (well, windows programs that is)
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That's what FLAC Directshow filters are for :)
 
Go with 320 bitrate! Sorry I don't have a suggestion on the program..
 
Originally Posted by MrCrispy View Post
Can any of you actually hear any differences between say high quality 256k VBR mp3 and FLAC, even on high end audio? I thought they were virtually indistinguishable in blind tests.

I haven't found an MP3 encoder/bitrate that doesn't totally eff up the sound of cymbals. WMA and OGG seem to be able to pull it off OK at higher rates. Whether you can hear the difference depends on a number of things, all the way through the reproduction chain. It starts with the original source, most commercial CDs use heavy dynamic compression to make them sound louder, this will destroy detail. Higher quality releases from MFSL or MasterSound will have more detail over a wider range to start with. The type of music also matters, if you listen to rap or hiphop, you have less "music", if you listen to classical music, you have a much wider range of sounds to store and reproduce. You playback equipment will matter as well, $50 computer speakers reproduce less detail than a $5000 amp/speaker combo. Then, there's the listener. Some people ears are alot more sensitive than others, what may be "transparent" to one set of ears may not even be close to another set of ears. Also, some people just pay less attention, some won't notice the tinny artifacts left by MP3 compression until someone points it out to them, and then of that group, some won't care, and some will be driven nuts by it. It's all individual preference, and not as simple as saying "256k MP3 is transparent", it's just not that simple.

Dustin
 
very good explination dustin. i would also add that your ears (just like your eyes) adjust to whatever environment theyre in, and your brain does 'postprocessing' which can actually change what youre really hearing.... for example, i can tell 320kbs lame mp3 from a flac usually, so when i get in my car and listen to music over internet radio it sounds pretty bad. however, after listening to the same quality for 20min or so it actually becomes bearable and it doesnt seem that far off from a regular mp3 or something. your listening system is always 'fixing' itself so you basically hear just as much as what you think you should along with what is actually there.
 
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