Guide to Ripping & Encoding High Quality MP3s

Hello Moguta,

is the LAME V2 better than LAME CBR 192? Many/Most files which i encoded with LAME V2 have an average bitrate of ~160; only few reach an average of 190+. So those 160-VBR's, are they indeed better than a potential CD-rip to 192-CBR?

192-CBR (=average is 192) is higher than ~160 (=average is 160). Isnt higher better? That's why i am asking..

Thanks, best, Lousy

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Wow, great explanations. I'm enlightened. Thanks for the splendid replies!
Ah, me too i have a foobar related question... Does a plugin (component) exist for converting to Windows Media Audio (*.wma) instead of to LAME V2 (*.mp3)?
Some of my sets and rips are in *.wma, so i would want to convert the inet ape/flac's to wma ... just for the sake of homogenity of file extensions *g*
i googled. and i think that foobar2000 doesnt support the conversion TO wma.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Moguta

I did find a guide to do exactly what you ask

that's exactly what i was searching for (even on that forum) but never detected in the WWW. you got the better nose and eyes Thanks for your kind help. I've saved that page to HDD, downloaded the specific encoder, and will follow the instructions (test at home). Excellent resource. both hydrogenaudio, and you nice guys

THANKS!!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Lousy

that's exactly what i was searching for (even on that forum) but never detected in the WWW. you got the better nose and eyes Thanks for your kind help. I've saved that page to HDD, downloaded the specific encoder, and will follow the instructions (test at home). Excellent resource. both hydrogenaudio, and you nice guys

THANKS!!

Just to let you know, i did that conversion (lossless ape -> 128kbps WMA) following the options given at that hydrogenaudio page, and i am very pleased with the resulting files. I really have the impression that WMA's at low bitrates are superior in (subjective) sound impression than MP3's (FhG) at the same CBR-bitrate.

LAME V2 is as good of course, since it is VBR, and some files are as small as the low-bitrate-but-great-sounding WMA-CBR's. It all depends on the lossless source audio material --- i guess.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Wow Moguta, that was interesting.. Thanks!

[...]

I'm still trying to encode (=rip from FLAC *images*) MP3's (LAME V2 v3.97) with foobar2000. I guess i must delete the downloaded FLAC-image if the accompanying CUE-image sheet is pretty much wrecked, am I right?

Well, I dont know much about correctly working CUE-sheets, but I do know that CUE-sheets (produced by ExactAudioCopy rips) sometimes need minor editing, e.g. the .WAV" WAVE needs to be edited to .APE" WAVE for APE-images, or CDImage.wav" WAVE needs to be edited to CDImage.flac" WAVE for FLAC-images.

But let's assume that the CUE-sheet is absolutely not working -- i dunno why -- (inside the CUE-file, the single tracks are labelled as APE's...for my huge FLAC-image); question/FLAC-images: Is there any good way to extract the single tracks WITHOUT ANY EXISTING/VALID/WORKING cue-sheet?

(If the image file were in *.NRG-image format, i would mount the image with Daemon-tools (virtual CD drive) and then rip the single tracks with foobar2000, Nero, etc.)

Thanks for hope or help!!

ADDIT: i'll be happy to post a sample §$%&! cue-sheet. i deleted most non-working downloaded flac/cue-pairs, but...

I was speaking idiomatically.

unexplained instructions for LAME VBR with EAC are given as:


explained instructions for LAME VBR with EAC are given as:


1. observation: the two 'LAME VBR with EAC'-commandlines differ in length: the 3rd hydrogenaudio-commandline is much longer. side question: Is it preferrable to the gff-commandline, for EAC-users?

2. EAC is not foobar2000, so the above screenshots could be "invalid" for me, since i am a foobar2000 user (EAC?? Too complicated for my little brains ) and am really missing a webpage which shows clear full commandlines to enter for 'LAME VBR|CBR with foobar2000'. The installed mp3 vbr preset looks like this, and here again, the commandline differs from the above two 'LAME VBR with EAC'-examples. :


Well, what i need is simple; view me as a PC-newbie who wants to have 2 (and not 1) mp3-options with his foobar2000:

[1] conversion/ripping to "LAME newV2" with all automatic tagging included (written tags sourced from e.g. CD-TEXT, cue-sheets, mp3-tags, wma-tags, or even freedb.org, etc.) and no normalization. (i guess that "--noreplaygain" means "no normalization". but i dont understand the "-S" parameter..)

[2] conversion/ripping to "LAME CBR 192", again with all automatic tagging etc. included, i.e. the same as [1] except for CBR 192.

Question: what should i enter in the "Parameters:"-line of foobar2000 as the full commandline for [1] and [2]? --- the foobar2000-commandline, obviously, must look different from the EAC-commandlines since all three screenshots show different lines for the same case, namely for "LAME newV2". Confusing!!

i googled the inet for a webpage which exemplifies the usage of LAME encoder with foobar2000 in explicit different full "Parameters:"-commandlines, i.e. for case[1], case[2], and further popular cases, but didnt find any..

Thanks for some help!!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Janice1423

i just like constant bitrate!
"VBR stands for variable bit rate". i was not aware of that, sorry.

is it impossible to make the bitrate constant (with foobar2000)?

Hi Janice, yes it is possible with foobar2000 to make the bitrate constant. I've tried to figure it out how (by reading .. etc. .. ) but i dont know how (step-by-step procedure). Indeed, foobar2000 has no exposure for LAME constant bitrate settings (and the manipulation of its settings/options/configuration is pretty hairy). Foobar's GUI is optimized for LAME VBR, no doubt on that. (otherwise we would have found out WITHOUT READING ANY MANUALS *RTFM* how to set it to CBR).

And i use LAME V0.

FELIPE NO