MP3 or WMA or Ogg Vorbis
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What format do you guys favour when encoding digital audio. I personally have around 4,000 tracks encoded in Mp3 using Xing's Variable Bitrate encoder (all of which are from my own CDs/Minidics etc - bet not many of you can say that!). The other day I was playing with Windows Media Player and encoded a CD using my company laptop to WMA and I must say I was astounded. It took about 4-5 minutes to encode the whole CD (on my personal computer using AudioCatalyst - faster CDROM - it takes 10-20 mins) and it sounded great. However, one reinstall of windows later and media player wouldn't play the tracks because they were 'encoded on a different system'. What a bag of shite. So what about OGG Vorbis or MP4? Anyone used either of these and have an opinion? (Oh and for those of you that use Winamp, here's a shameless plug for my groovy Winamp plugin, AudioAgent, which intelligently chooses music for you to listen to while keeping track of your favourite tracks etc. Check out http://www.lymesoft.co.uk) James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
I use MP3, encoded at 160Kb/s using Lame. I decided to go fixed rate @ 160 vs. VBR after some analysis. 160K appears to give me the best sound vs. size "ratio". If you're interested, check out www.ravib.com/mp3. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
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You get time to listen to all of them? The reason I wrote my AudioAgent tool was to automate the task of choosing what to listen to as I have far too much music now. That helps a lot but it sounds like at 90GB that would be around 24,0000 tracks which at an average of 3 minutes per track would take 50 days of solid listening to hear the lot (I had excel open so I worked it out :)) Actually, 50 days isn't really that long, is it. James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
Perhaps I'll chech out AudioAgent when I'm "finished", but that probably will not happen for a long time. I've been at this for about 3 years and I don't see an end in sight. I've got lots of music left to encode (CDs) and do I really want to mess with records (remember vinyl?). At the risk of getting Christian going again... Thank God I have a job where I can listen to music as part of my quality check process on MP3s. Brad Manske
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What format do you guys favour when encoding digital audio. I personally have around 4,000 tracks encoded in Mp3 using Xing's Variable Bitrate encoder (all of which are from my own CDs/Minidics etc - bet not many of you can say that!). The other day I was playing with Windows Media Player and encoded a CD using my company laptop to WMA and I must say I was astounded. It took about 4-5 minutes to encode the whole CD (on my personal computer using AudioCatalyst - faster CDROM - it takes 10-20 mins) and it sounded great. However, one reinstall of windows later and media player wouldn't play the tracks because they were 'encoded on a different system'. What a bag of shite. So what about OGG Vorbis or MP4? Anyone used either of these and have an opinion? (Oh and for those of you that use Winamp, here's a shameless plug for my groovy Winamp plugin, AudioAgent, which intelligently chooses music for you to listen to while keeping track of your favourite tracks etc. Check out http://www.lymesoft.co.uk) James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
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I can say that not only do I not have any MP3's, but I've never even installed a MP# playeron my machine - even out of curiosity.
You should give it a go. MP3 is not all about ripping off record companies, it's actually a very versatile way of listening to music. I am building an in-car digital audio player at present which will allow me to select any track from my entire record collection at the touch of a button (or the speaking of a word - voice recognition is being implemented as we speak). Guess it all depends how interested you are in music. I tend to forget that not everyone appreciates music like I do. James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
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What format do you guys favour when encoding digital audio. I personally have around 4,000 tracks encoded in Mp3 using Xing's Variable Bitrate encoder (all of which are from my own CDs/Minidics etc - bet not many of you can say that!). The other day I was playing with Windows Media Player and encoded a CD using my company laptop to WMA and I must say I was astounded. It took about 4-5 minutes to encode the whole CD (on my personal computer using AudioCatalyst - faster CDROM - it takes 10-20 mins) and it sounded great. However, one reinstall of windows later and media player wouldn't play the tracks because they were 'encoded on a different system'. What a bag of shite. So what about OGG Vorbis or MP4? Anyone used either of these and have an opinion? (Oh and for those of you that use Winamp, here's a shameless plug for my groovy Winamp plugin, AudioAgent, which intelligently chooses music for you to listen to while keeping track of your favourite tracks etc. Check out http://www.lymesoft.co.uk) James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
I've been using WMA recently mainly because it's there on my system. I use it for transferring tracks onto my IPaq. I was amazed at the sound quality and the speed at which it ripped the CDs. I also like the way it'll fill in the track names and artists if it knows them. The only downside is when I came to try and burn a compilation cd from some of the CD's I own. My CD burner is in a different machine to the one which does the ripping and obviously the licence stuff stopped me from using Media Player to burn the CD. Michael :-)
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I can say that not only do I not have any MP3's, but I've never even installed a MP# playeron my machine - even out of curiosity.
Hmmm... MP# must be the .NET version of MP3? ;) John
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I use MP3, encoded at 160Kb/s using Lame. I decided to go fixed rate @ 160 vs. VBR after some analysis. 160K appears to give me the best sound vs. size "ratio". If you're interested, check out www.ravib.com/mp3. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com
I've been using MusicMatch to do my ripping and conversions, but I keep all my files at 128 kbps. 128 is the most popular rate and frankly, I can't tell the difference between 128, 160, or 256, so I'll gladly take the saved disk space. Regards, Alvaro
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What format do you guys favour when encoding digital audio. I personally have around 4,000 tracks encoded in Mp3 using Xing's Variable Bitrate encoder (all of which are from my own CDs/Minidics etc - bet not many of you can say that!). The other day I was playing with Windows Media Player and encoded a CD using my company laptop to WMA and I must say I was astounded. It took about 4-5 minutes to encode the whole CD (on my personal computer using AudioCatalyst - faster CDROM - it takes 10-20 mins) and it sounded great. However, one reinstall of windows later and media player wouldn't play the tracks because they were 'encoded on a different system'. What a bag of shite. So what about OGG Vorbis or MP4? Anyone used either of these and have an opinion? (Oh and for those of you that use Winamp, here's a shameless plug for my groovy Winamp plugin, AudioAgent, which intelligently chooses music for you to listen to while keeping track of your favourite tracks etc. Check out http://www.lymesoft.co.uk) James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
Just go to the CD Audio tab in the options and uncheck the Enable Personal Rights Management. After that, the files you create won't have licenses.
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Oh right - I didn't know that. Is that strictly legal? James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
Yes, as long as you only use it on your computer. The feature was intended for this purpose. You can also get rid of the licensing from future cd transfers by disabling "Enable Personal Rights Management" in the CD Audio section of Tools/Options (I think, 'cause i've never actually tried that). > Andrew "Do you like my mask, it raises the dead...!" -- Buffy (season 3, Giles)
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I've been using WMA recently mainly because it's there on my system. I use it for transferring tracks onto my IPaq. I was amazed at the sound quality and the speed at which it ripped the CDs. I also like the way it'll fill in the track names and artists if it knows them. The only downside is when I came to try and burn a compilation cd from some of the CD's I own. My CD burner is in a different machine to the one which does the ripping and obviously the licence stuff stopped me from using Media Player to burn the CD. Michael :-)
I have to say I was skeptical of WMA to begin with but when I tried it I was shocked at the sound quality at 128kbps compared to many (if not all) MP3's. Granted, it's not perfect, but it's very good given the size contraints. > Andrew "Do you like my mask, it raises the dead...!" -- Buffy (season 3, Giles)
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What format do you guys favour when encoding digital audio. I personally have around 4,000 tracks encoded in Mp3 using Xing's Variable Bitrate encoder (all of which are from my own CDs/Minidics etc - bet not many of you can say that!). The other day I was playing with Windows Media Player and encoded a CD using my company laptop to WMA and I must say I was astounded. It took about 4-5 minutes to encode the whole CD (on my personal computer using AudioCatalyst - faster CDROM - it takes 10-20 mins) and it sounded great. However, one reinstall of windows later and media player wouldn't play the tracks because they were 'encoded on a different system'. What a bag of shite. So what about OGG Vorbis or MP4? Anyone used either of these and have an opinion? (Oh and for those of you that use Winamp, here's a shameless plug for my groovy Winamp plugin, AudioAgent, which intelligently chooses music for you to listen to while keeping track of your favourite tracks etc. Check out http://www.lymesoft.co.uk) James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
If you've got tin ears like me, try Ogg Vorbis at 80kbits, sounds just as good if not better than 128kbits mp3. (depends on the type of music you encode though of course)
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound. -
You should give it a go. MP3 is not all about ripping off record companies, it's actually a very versatile way of listening to music. I am building an in-car digital audio player at present which will allow me to select any track from my entire record collection at the touch of a button (or the speaking of a word - voice recognition is being implemented as we speak). Guess it all depends how interested you are in music. I tend to forget that not everyone appreciates music like I do. James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
This custom in-car mp3 player... Tell me more! :) I have looked at a couple of the in-car MP3 player offerings available on the market - but not found anything that suites my needs. Ideally I want a system combining a standard 12disk changer and a large harddisk which allows me to copy of any the CDs to the harddisk. Also ability to play CDs filled with actual MP3 files would be nice! I have considered shoving a modified PC in the boot but I insist on a decent control interface in the dashboard and this is the sticking problem. Are you developing such a thing or have you found something suitable? I do lots of driving and get fed up with the same music over and over... I would love to extend my collection to beyond a 12disc multichanger! -- The Obliterator
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This custom in-car mp3 player... Tell me more! :) I have looked at a couple of the in-car MP3 player offerings available on the market - but not found anything that suites my needs. Ideally I want a system combining a standard 12disk changer and a large harddisk which allows me to copy of any the CDs to the harddisk. Also ability to play CDs filled with actual MP3 files would be nice! I have considered shoving a modified PC in the boot but I insist on a decent control interface in the dashboard and this is the sticking problem. Are you developing such a thing or have you found something suitable? I do lots of driving and get fed up with the same music over and over... I would love to extend my collection to beyond a 12disc multichanger! -- The Obliterator
Hi, Yes there are a lot of systems on the market nowadays such as empeg etc but they were either too expensive or just not what I wanted. There are also things like cajun which is an open source software project to provide the functionality needed. However, that's UNIX based and written in perl which didn't suit me either. So, my idea is to use a laptop. Remove the screen from the laptop and embed it in the centre console, then put the rest of it somewhere else in the car. The software is windows based so I can have a flashy full screen display showing not just music info but also visualisations and maybe speed etc if I can hack the speedometer ;) The actual software will allow you to select tracks using buttons on the console (which I need to steal from somewhere) via the com port on the laptop. I'm also considering taking the keyboard out of the laptop and embedding it in the sunvisor so that you can search for specfic songs. I have also dabbled with voice recognition but I guess this won't work too well with other music playing in the background. More experimentation needed. James Spibey "What's wrong with being sexy?" - Nigel Tuffnell
