Kevin, Thanks *so* much for these explanations and recommendations! I've just reviewed my settings and reset options to match what you suggest. I'll admit a couple of things still puzzle me, especially near the bottom of the menu where I can't understand how I might have chosen to go with the average bit rate according to the manual's suggestion, except that there seemed no way to actually choose this option. but if you care about your music as much as you say, which sounds congenial to me, I'll just accept your saying that using the variable bit rate with these high and low settings will work out for the best.
Again, thanks. And just personally, I never would have imagined that metal needed less critical recording. I do think that commercially recorded rock of any sort, as well as other popular styles, a lot of which I do have in my own music collection, usually have considerably narrower dynamic ranges (and frequency ranges, too) compared to some other material, but that's another matter altogether. Just means I need certain qualities in my headphones and speakers depending on what I'm most concerned gets rendered well. I mean using my stereo system. Again, many thanks. I just wanted to settle on one program for ripping, get handy with it, and feel I wasn't doing my music a sonic disservice. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Lloyd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC audio discussion list. " <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 12:59 PM Subject: Re: CdEx settings check Hi Daniel. I'll address some of your questions below by letting you know what settings I use and why. I also have a critical ear and also confess to being a metal head. Despite what some might think about metal, it actually needs a high bit rate to get everything out of the extremes. By the way, any setting I don't mention ain't important and should be left at default value as far as I'm concerned. 1. Thread priority - below normal - I set it here so that I can carry on using my computer without any sluggishness. Normal isn't too bad but above is obviously faster to rip but takes over your computer. 2. Encoder - lame - the best MP3 encoder as far as I'm concerned. 3. Version - MPEG1 - just means MP3 - don't worry about it 4. Bit rate min - 128kbps - yes, this is the minimum bit rate or the floor if you like when ripping in variable bit rate mode. The encoder won't drop below this. The encoder will only go down this far if it thinks you won't lose quality so it's safe to set to 128kbps rather than 192kbps if you're using variable bit rates 5. Bit rate max - 320kbps - as I said, I prefer quality to disc space so let the encoder use as much as it needs to get the best result - that's my personal philosophy. It's interesting to see just how many CD's get ripped with tracks in excess of 256kbps. 6. Stereo - don't use anything else like joint stereo - it'll sound tacky and you'll regret it later 7. Quality - high - if you want the best sound quality for your compressed music there's no other setting worth using. 8. On the fly - unchecked - if you check this box you're telling the program to read and rip to your hard drive in one move thereby increasing your chances of including pops, clicks and jitter errors. By unchecking this you'll be telling the program to firstly extract the data from the CD, create an image on your hard drive and then convert to MP3. This will yield a better result. 9. VBR method - VBR default - this basically tells the encoder that you wish to use variable bit rates. There's little to choose in the individual different VBR methods in my opinion so why not the default. 10. VBR quality - VBR 0 - the highest quality for the VBR algorithm. Kevin E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Yardbird" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC-Audio" <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 7:26 PM Subject: Fw: CdEx settings check > This is the third of the three. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Yardbird" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "PC-Audio" <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org> > Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 4:28 PM > Subject: CdEx settings check > > > I've just read several sections of the CdEx Help documentation, and I'd like > to show how I set things, one option at a time. > > Please comment if I seem to have misunderstood something. My intention is > to use settings that the manual seems to be saying will be adequate and > reasonably high fidelity for ripping music tracks. I have a fairly critical > ear, and while I don't want to lose the advantage of compression altogether, > I don't want to make tacky-sounding files without the detail and timbre > (tone "color") that will satisfy me. > > So here are the settings I've made. I'll mention when I didn't understand > something at all. > 1. convert to ripped .wav file, left checked > > 2. thread priority normal > 3. lame mp3 encoder version 1 > > 4. don't delete ripped .wav file after conversion, checkbox left unchecked > > 5. version mpEGI (version of what?) > > 6. min. bit rate 192 (what does it mean to say minimum here? Maybe this > means if you use a variable or average rate, it's not supposed to fall > beneath this?) > > 7. stereo J-radio checked (what does "radio" have to do with anything > here?)Or maybe "J-radio?" > > 8. Private checkbox not checked Huh? Private as opposed to what? Is the > sighted user seeing things I'm not hearing, maybe? > > 9. checksum checkbox not checked (is this an error correction method that > by default (I left this as it was) isn't to be used? Is that okay? > > 10. original checkbox not checked Original what? Huh? > > 11. copyright checkbox not checked (again, what's that mean?) > > 12. quality high (the manual suggested this for better music high if) > > 13. on-the-fly mp3 encoding checkbox checked (okay, that's the default, but > what's it mean?) > > 14. vbr method disabled > > Here follows the word "quality," then the next press of the tab key brings > you to vbr quality. Then the next line is ABR (KBBS); now this is the > method the manual suggested using, but there's no control or input here, it > seems, just the words. > > VBR method (no idea what this could be; again, there's nothing to set or > check) > > 15. rate 44,100 default > > 16. > That's it. Can anyone tell me if these settings are legitimate for the > purposes I spoke of? Good quality music ripping? > > Thanks. Sorry to do this, but I found no step by step explanation of this > options tab, or any other, in the help manual, even when clicking on the > help button in the tab. What I got was very perfunctory, not an explanation > of any of this. > > Many thanks, > Daniel > > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.7 - Release Date: 5/9/2005 > > > _______________________________________________ > PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.7 - Release Date: 5/9/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.7 - Release Date: 5/9/2005 _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
