Question regarding bitrates and Ripping programs.
 

I'm sure it's been a discussion, but I have questions about certain things...


I just received the Ace Combat Zero OST from the link in the AC thread. When I dl'ed the tracks, they were in VBR quality. However I have a 20 gig iPod, and I like to save space on it...so with all music I get that's higher than 192 kbps, I use iTunes' CDripper to take the music that's higher quality and downsize it to 192. However, since i've been doing this i've noticed the tracks that i've re-encoded into 192 have had a sort of...well I don't wanna say static sound, but they have a "chhhhhh" noise, but it's hardly noticable unless you truly LISTEN to it. It bothers me however, and I was wondering...is it the iTunes? Should I just use another CD Ripper or Mp3 encoder? If so, which?


Thanks for helping if you reply.

It isn't iTunes or your software or anything. Whenever you recompress a lossy format (VBR MP3) to another lossy format (192kb MP3 in your case), you will lose quality (the hissing sound is thus a byproduct of the converson). Your best bet is to not convert them.

Also, why are you even bothering? VBR MP3s hardly take up any more space than CBR 192kb MP3s.

And the amount of time you're spending converting music is probably comperable to the amount of time you'd have to spend swapping out the music on your iPod occasionally (I mean, you've got 20 freaking gigs to work with).

Yea, I know...i'm just so anal about saving space on the ipod, so I can fit as much music as I can on it. So you guys are saying...I shouldn't even worry about turning the re-rncoding the files? VBR is perfectly fine? Hmm.

Lemme ask you, should I rip my CDs into VBR then if that's the case? Also, what about mp3s that are 320, should they turn into vbr and not 192?

I would say yes, but in the end it comes down to preference. Many people prefer CBR, VBR, Lossless, etc etc. For some background info, check out these Wikipedia links:

Bit Rate
VBR
CBR
MP3

Also check out this thread.

There's no point converting VBR to CBR, because VBR doesn't have same frame sizes (bitrates) converting it to CBR means losing detail on high bitrate frames and adding extra and pointless space to low bitrate frames. If you really must save space, transcode the VBR to a lower bitrate VBR; i.e. from --preset extreme (~220kbps) to --preset standard (~192kbps). Use MrQuestionMan to see the your mp3's VBR profile.

If you use Razorlame with Lame 3.97 Beta2, and this command line [-m j -h -V4 --vbr-new], it gives you 160 CBR size, with at least 192+ CBR quality. I did VERY significant testing and this is pretty much the lowest bitrate w/o being able to tell the difference between CD and MP3.

Now if you can't figure out what I just said, this might be too complicated for you unless you want to put some time in. But yes, definitely use VBR as the quality is higher compared to CBR at the same filesizes. However, CBR obviously gives you predictable file sizes. It's a trade off, but I prefer quality over quantity, so VBR it is.

Hmm well i'll use vbr from now I guess, but here's my new question...at what should the quality of the CD rip be at? Let me explain, since I use iTunes to rip the music [Yea, it's not the greatest ripper, but work with me], and when it comes to VBR ripping, it has multiple selections such as "HIGH, MEDIUM HIGH, MEDIUM, MEDIUM LOW, LOW] My question is, which of the selections would be used to give great quality, but without space on my iPod being all used up. I'm listening to my mp3s more and more, and I hear the quality and it's bothersome now. :/

It really comes down to how well you can hear certain frequencies. Without knowing that about you, I'd have to reccomend Medium High. That has a good balance of quality:filesize, and it seems to work well for the average listener.

Don't iPods support MP4/AAC playback? If so, you could re-encode the MP3 files to say, 96 or 128 kbps AAC and you'll still preserve reasonably good sound quality while saving a lot of space. I do this occasionally for music on my PSP.

Using AAC is not a bad idea, however, a great LAME VBR rip is much better than an equivilant sized AAC at CBR (IMHO). I use AAC all the time for movie encoding because it does 5.1, but I use VBR settings for that too.

I will second Free.User, and recommend MEDIUM HIGH settings. Most people consider 128kbps CBR to be average, and I wouldnt be caught dead ripping at that. So I imagine Medium High to be about 160kbps average bitrate.

I'm gonna say this one more time, and then get off my soapbox. If you want to go MP3, LAME 3.97b2 is the way to go. LAME works with almost any ripping program, and Razorlame does wonders if you can get your CD's as WAV on your hard disk. If you want more info, I can step-by-step you through the set up.