Ripping Cd's? What Software do I use?

Exact Audio Copy is also the only program that can get perfect ripps from damaged Cd's. Cdex's newer versions are getting better but still cannot get the perfect ripps like EAC can.

EAC is slower and a little harder to set up but worth the learning curve

A good tip that will help all ripps with EAC or CDEX is to set the priority level to low. This will do wonders if working with another app "browser/winmx/etc" as even mouse clicks can cause artifacts.

[goldie]

Yea, I'm

Before I became aware of the benefits of file sharing , I bought MMJB+ w/lifetime upgrades.

This latest upgrade actually pleased me!

SmartSplit, SuperTagging and wholesale Volume Leveling are features I really like!

Check out MM 7.0.
Musicmatch 7.0

[AweShucks]

Bloatware I do believe is the term associated with MMJB.

Does the new MusicMatchJunk box offer any type of error correction for ripping yet?
I haven't tried it since version 6 something or another. I did like the library features but the general ripping encoding didn't compare to Exact Audio Copy and the Lame codec. Not to mention the resources needed to power it and the countless times it locked up.

[schmooky007]

>>>'Does the new MusicMatchJunk box offer any type of error correction for ripping yet?'<<<

musicmatch's ripping program doesn't have any kind of error correction

[AweShucks]

musicmatch's ripping program doesn't have any kind of error correction

I didn't think so Even if it did there is a real good chance I probably wouldn't care anyway. But curiosity did kill the cat and the first version of the MMJB I tried

[goldie]

Originally posted by schmooky007
>>>'Does the new MusicMatchJunk box offer any type of error correction for ripping yet?'<<<

musicmatch's ripping program doesn't have any kind of error correction

Oh yes it does!

Error Correction

During the recording process, drive-seeking errors may cause clicks and pops to be heard in the recorded song. To minimize noise, select Error Correction. This option is found in the Recorder Settings screen.

Recording time will take longer, but distortion will be minimized. Some drives will record excellent quality sound without this option selected. We suggest you try both settings to decide which is better for your drive.

To enable Error Correction go to the menu Options/Settings/Recorder, and click the Error Correction box under CD Recording Mode.

This is taken from the help files of my copy of MMJB 7.0 Help.

GR

[goldie]

Originally posted by AweShucks
Bloatware I do believe is the term associated with MMJB.

Somethings don't change - bloated is a rather accurate term to use here - even more so with 7.0.

[JackSpratts]

wow. somebody sure likes a mystery!

- js.

[schmooky007]

Originally posted by goldenrod


This is taken from the help files of my copy of MMJB 7.0 Help.

GR

so it does have error correction eh? hmmm..... do any other versions of musicmatch have this feature? i'm gonna head over to irc and see what kind of information i can get on it. maybe mmjb hasn't outlived its usefulness after all

[AweShucks]

Well well Will give it a try after all doubt it can out perform EAC but it may or may not come in handy for something.

[schmooky007]

after asking around (mainly asking people who HAVE actually installed musicmatch as there is absolutely no way i'll be installing it on my system) i found that musicmatch's ripping program does_not_have any kind of error correction. musicmatch calls it "error correction" but in fact its nothing but a fancy name for a function that all it does is reduce the speed of the extraction

the real difference that separates EAC from all the other rippers like musicmatch, audiograbber, audiocatalyst, etc. has to do with the fact that none of these programs have any kind error correction routine. all they do is just rip the data as it is. they do not check sectors to see that the data match, they do not report what types of sync error occur or even when and where they occur. while EAC will do error correction and give you a detailed report of where errors might have occurred, musicmatch does none of that

the only two ripping programs actually have jitter correction as a part of their routine are EAC (for windows) and CD paranoia (for linux). the ripper/encoder combo "Cdex" also has some kind of jitter correction code though rumours have it that it is not as precise as the error correction you get in "secure mode" with EAC

[petriburg]

I agree wholeheartedly with those who endorse EAC (Exact Audio Copy); I haven't found anything which comes close to it for accuracy.
But encoding is another matter; it surprises me that I see no mention of dbPowerAmp in this thread. It's free, it offers encoding into any of the media currently in use, and it has a really good support forum, moderated by, among others, the designer himself.
The homepage is a good read, and a few minutes spent here will enable you to download and select whichever programs seem most appropriate to your needs.
www.dbpoweramp.com is the url for those interested.

[Snarkridden]

Definately on my favourites list EAC, CDDEA99 thats nice, The New DBPowerAMP converter, too.

But NEVER NEVER try to rip straight from CD to MP3 agree totally with that restriction.

Nice feature of CDDAE99 is you can create WAVs with almost complete file & track names, by presetting the download path
so less editing to do in the end, to correctly title the tracks in the reccommended form.

Encoders: Audio Active Production Studio Pro 2.04 best for speed and Fixed bit rates

Razor Lame (the LAME encoder the the Razor Front end)
DEfinately the tops for VBR and ID3 preservation etc.

Snark.

[indiana_jones]

i use cdex and lame encoder with r3mix setting
the results are even better than 192 and filesize is reasonable between 128 und 160 coding.

since i use it, i love that vbr and only d/l and reshare files with r3mix in the comment field, because of my limited disk space.

so i kindly ask all, who use lame with r3mix,please enter
the keywords LAME version r3mix EAC or cdex into the ID3 TAG comment field,
that i can find them.

i think this quality could become a certain standard with reasonable filesize
and download time on the one hand and state of the art encoding with near
cd quality on the other hand.

indy

[AweShucks]

Originally posted by schmooky007


the only two ripping programs actually have jitter correction as a part of their routine are EAC (for windows) and CD paranoia (for linux). the ripper/encoder combo "Cdex" also has some kind of "jitter correction" mechanism though rumours have it that it is nowhere near as precise as the error correction you get in "secure mode" with EAC

Well there is another lesser known newer shareware ripper out that boasts secure extraction with error correction. Authors claim you MUST use a drive that doesn't have buggy firmware to get results. I have a LiteON and a Plextor with latest firmware and EAC still did a better job. But it is new only 2 releases so far and it did get alot of mixed feedback on the r3mix/cdrw.org forums.

http://www.compactgear.com/

features include

Accurate and reliable digital audio extraction (DAE)
On-the-fly jitter correction, defective sectors overread and adaptive speed selection based on realtime subchannel reading
Super fast lightweight adaptive DAE engine with realtime subchannel analysis written in Assembler
One click MP3 encoding using third party encoder DLLs: BladeEnc, Lame , GoGo (very high speed, MMX optimized)
Batch ripping/encoding
Optimization for error free DAE on the latest high performance drives
Two level CD drive capabilities detection
Flexible auto adjustable drive specific DAE levels
Support for both manual and auto selection of DAE levels
Support for both MMC and selected SCSI-2 drives
ID3 tag creation
Accurate and intelligent pre-gap detection
CUE sheet creation
Track/album information retrieval from freedb
Full support for authenticaing HTTP proxy so that freedb queries can be tunneled through a corporate proxy/firewall
Advanced diagnostic logging with on-the-fly compression of generated log files
Built-in CD player
Intuitive 'Appliance-like' GUI

[AweShucks]

Originally posted by indiana_jones
i use cdex and lame encoder with r3mix setting
the results are even better than 192 and filesize is reasonable between 128 und 160 coding.

since i use it, i love that vbr and only d/l and reshare files with r3mix in the comment field, because of my limited disk space.

so i kindly ask all, who use lame with r3mix,please enter
the keywords LAME version r3mix EAC or cdex into the ID3 TAG comment field,
that i can find them.

i think this quality could become a certain standard with reasonable filesize
and download time on the one hand and state of the art encoding with near
cd quality on the other hand.

indy

r3mix is currently outdated try this in your command line encoder with the 3.91 Lame

-------------------------------------------------
CBR 320 (highest possible LAME quality):
-------------------------------------------------

--alt-preset insane
(bitrate: 320 kbit)

-------------------------------------------------
VBR (variable bitrate) settings:
-------------------------------------------------

Very High Quality +

--alt-preset extreme
(bitrates 220-270 kbit/s -- usually averages around 256kbps)

Faster (Very Slightly Lower Quality):
--alt-preset fast extreme
(bitrates roughly the same as above)


Very High Quality

--alt-preset standard
(bitrates 180-220 kbit/s -- usually averages around 192 kbps)

Faster, slightly lower quality possible:
--alt-preset fast standard
(bitrates roughly the same as above)


High Quality

(Due to the new "--alt-preset standard", the "--r3mix" setting is obsolete.)

--r3mix
(average bitrate ~190kbit/s (150-230kbit/s)




-------------------------------------------------
ABR (average bitrate) settings: (128 kbit ABR: roughly the same filesize as 128 kbit CBR)
-------------------------------------------------

ABR Setting tuned from 320 kbps down to 80 kbps

--alt-preset <bitrate>

Example:
--alt-preset 200


ABR averaging at 128 kbit/s

--alt-preset 128

or (see http://www.ff123.net/cbr128.html ):

--abr 134 -h --nspsytune --athtype 2 --lowpass 16 --ns-bass -8 --scale 0.93



-------------------------------------------------
CBR (constant bitrate) settings:
-------------------------------------------------

320 kbit/s CBR

Highest Lame Quality:
--alt-preset insane
or
--alt-preset cbr 320


256 kbit/s CBR

--alt-preset cbr 256


192 kbit/s CBR

--alt-preset cbr 192


160 kbit/s CBR

--alt-preset cbr 160


128 kbit/s CBR

--alt-preset cbr 128
or
-h --nspsytune --athtype 2 --lowpass 16 --ns-bass -8 --scale 0.93


96 kbit/s CBR

--alt-preset cbr 96


80 kbit/s CBR

--alt-preset cbr 80


You can find the same list at the Project Mayhem forum

[indiana_jones]

thank's a lot for the info

lame 3.91 standard EAC or whatever
could be a new standard then, which i can search after.

but i can only search after it, if its clearly stated in the ID3 comment field

so its even part of rip quality, that one could see if a song's available,
encoded with a new version of coder and which settings were used
and which ripper was used.

indy

btw - if i entered "lame standard" into search the only thing i got was:
"Seven Mary Three - American Standard - 06 - Lame.mp3"
i hope this is a good omen for a start either - LOL

[schmooky007]

>>>'lame 3.91 standard EAC or whatever
could be a new standard then, which i can search after.'<<<

i think the setting he's referring to is "--alt-preset standard" (without the quotes)

[indiana_jones]

the problem is, that id3 v1 comment field has only about 30 character width
and since this --alt-preset seems to be some kind of redundant information
i thought it could be just missed. otherwise you have cut off some other info.

indy

[AweShucks]

Indiana if you like to know what codec was used to encode you should try this if have not already

http://www.guerillasoft.com/Encspot/

It is a Mp3 checker reads bitrate/encoder version/stereo,jstereo etc. awesome tool. I use it to check a file shortly after it starts and if I don't like the codec I cancel and look for a good one

And thanks schmooky yes I was referring to
--alt-preset standard as a replacement for --r3mix