CD Ripping

[Shaun]

Help a noob out please. :o

I'm about to start ripping the cd collection in anticipation of the new Denon multimedia players release. I'm a complete newbie when it comes to ripping cd's. I'm guessing the higher bitrate the better...should 320 kbps be enough?. Variable bitrate or constant bitrate?. Any other tips or things I should know or look out for when ripping?

Thanks in advance :) :beer1:

[Dragonfly]

320 kbps no less or you will notice a difference in the sound.

[Danno13]

Seconded. 320 or WAV if you have the hard drive space.

[Dragonfly]

400 gig hard drive pc world £100 ripped about 75% of my cds and used about 150 gig

[Corabar Steve]

400 gig hard drive pc world £100 ripped about 75% of my cds and used about 150 gig

Dave only has 10 CDs http://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gif

Seriously though, how many tracks was that roughly?

[BeerFunk]

320 kbps no less or you will notice a difference in the sound.
Incorrect. He may notice a difference, but unlikely. The general consensus is that anything encoded at 192kbps or above will sound like CD quality.

However, as has been pointed out many times before, you might aswell rip at 320kbps, with hard disks being cheaper than ever!

You also cannot make MP3s at a higher bitrate than that anyway...

Also, VBR MP3s are a pain for current Denon MP3 players (DN-S5000/3500 D4000/4500/6000 etc), but the HD-2500 will have full support for VBR, which will be a first for an MP3 DJ deck. Despite this, I would recommend sticking to CBR, as you will not run into any problems using the MP3s with anything else (laptop etc)

[Sapphire Disco]

I ripped all mine at 224 when I did it for the 3rd time :mad: but to be honest I think 192 is good enough for a laptop , I only keep it all on an external hard drive as back up in case something goes wrong with the laptops.
I guess if you are using a Cortex or something like that you may as well get the biggest hard drive you can & rip at the highest rate, but personally I don't fully trust external hard drives, had one once that just decided it didn't want to work with my laptop but was fine on the PC .

[BeerFunk]

but personally I don't fully trust external hard drives, had one once that just decided it didn't want to work with my laptop but was fine on the PC .
I had a similar experience, it was a USB hard disk caddy, very temporamental :mad:

[Dragonfly]

Incorrect. He may notice a difference, but unlikely. The general consensus is that anything encoded at 192kbps or above will sound like CD quality.

However, as has been pointed out many times before, you might aswell rip at 320kbps, with hard disks being cheaper than ever!

You also cannot make MP3s at a higher bitrate than that anyway...

Also, VBR MP3s are a pain for current Denon MP3 players (DN-S5000/3500 D4000/4500/6000 etc), but the HD-2500 will have full support for VBR, which will be a first for an MP3 DJ deck. Despite this, I would recommend sticking to CBR, as you will not run into any problems using the MP3s with anything else (laptop etc)


i ripped half of mine at 192 half at 320 ..... definate difference in sound !!!!! so did them all again at 320.

[Dragonfly]

Dave only has 10 CDs http://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gif

Seriously though, how many tracks was that roughly?


5000 just shy

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Incorrect. He may notice a difference, but unlikely. The general consensus is that anything encoded at 192kbps or above will sound like CD quality.

However, as has been pointed out many times before, you might aswell rip at 320kbps, with hard disks being cheaper than ever!

You also cannot make MP3s at a higher bitrate than that anyway...



Although I agree that there's very little difference betwwen 192 and 320, I'm not sure that 'incorrect' is the right phrase really. Different people hear different things.

Personally, I think it depends on the production and quality of the track to begin with. I have some ripped at 128 that sound better then CDs that have been ripped at 320.

[Dragonfly]

fair play daz id go alng with that fully apologies if my response was a little agressive. no offence intended daz is right i did hear a difference but then not the same track just different kbps

[Shaun]

Also, VBR MP3s are a pain for current Denon MP3 players (DN-S5000/3500 D4000/4500/6000 etc), but the HD-2500 will have full support for VBR, which will be a first for an MP3 DJ deck. Despite this, I would recommend sticking to CBR, as you will not run into any problems using the MP3s with anything else (laptop etc)


That's what I wanted to know. Cheers mate.

Thanks to everyone for thier input.

[BeerFunk]

320 kbps no less or you will notice a difference in the sound.

Incorrect. He may notice a difference, but unlikely.

I'm not sure that 'incorrect' is the right phrase really. Different people hear different things.
When I said 'incorrect', I was referring to Dragonfly's statement that Shaun will notice a difference in the sound, where in actual fact, Shaun may notice a difference :)

[Dragonfly]

was the way the post read but no matter moving on have heard more people say they have noticed a difference than those that have not but no matter now.

[sleah]

I ripped all mine at 224 when I did it for the 3rd time :mad: but to be honest I think 192 is good enough for a laptop , I only keep it all on an external hard drive as back up in case something goes wrong with the laptops.
I guess if you are using a Cortex or something like that you may as well get the biggest hard drive you can & rip at the highest rate, but personally I don't fully trust external hard drives, had one once that just decided it didn't want to work with my laptop but was fine on the PC .

I do mine at 224 these days and it's OK, it's not like you're playing through a hifi, even if some are using Bose:D
Not sure what you mean by "good enough for a laptop"?? An mp3 is an mp3 is an mp3 where ever it may be!
I agree about external hard drives, especially USB, I've lost a couple of drives in USB boxes.
A modern PC can take any size internal drive, and 120Gb internal are readily available for laptops.
If you must use external, firewire is a better option.

[Sapphire Disco]

Quote.

Not sure what you mean by "good enough for a laptop"?? An mp3 is an mp3 is an mp3 where ever it may be!
I agree about external hard drives, especially USB, I've lost a couple of drives in USB boxes.

Answer

What I mean is if you've got a 500 gig external hard drive you may as well rip at 320 , but if you then decide you want to put it onto a laptop , you may find it wont all fit on , as in my case one lappy is 40 gig & other 80 gig, so in future I'm going to do everything at 192 which I think is good enough.
It's true what Darren says's there are some Cd's that play back very well and some that sound rubbish , that also goes for downloads, you can generally see see which ones are bad by the movement of the VU meters.
Hope that makes sense cause I've had a few pints now :beer1:

[sleah]

Quote.

Not sure what you mean by "good enough for a laptop"?? An mp3 is an mp3 is an mp3 where ever it may be!
I agree about external hard drives, especially USB, I've lost a couple of drives in USB boxes.

Answer

What I mean is if you've got a 500 gig external hard drive you may as well rip at 320 , but if you then decide you want to put it onto a laptop , you may find it wont all fit on , as in my case one lappy is 40 gig & other 80 gig, so in future I'm going to do everything at 192 which I think is good enough.
It's true what Darren says's there are some Cd's that play back very well and some that sound rubbish , that also goes for downloads, you can generally see see which ones are bad by the movement of the VU meters.
Hope that makes sense cause I've had a few pints now :beer1:

Ah yes, I see where you were coming from. Answered my own question if you think about it :D
That's one reason why I stick to 224. Pity bigger drives aren't available yet for lappys, although they'd cost a bit if they were.
I'm currently just on 40Gb for around 7,800 mp3 files that vary from some early attempts at 128k, which are passable, to 224k.

Alot of the quality does depend on the original track as has been mentioned, but not just quality of the CD version.
Many 60's motown can be ripped lower 'cause the original recordings wern't that great anyway, especially in the bass department.
Most modern dance and r'n'b has alot of deep bass and high notes, so is noticeable if ripped at lower rates, really 224 just about does it.

[Thames Valley Discos]

i rip at 224, and have no problem with sound. plenty of bass, good enough for me.

[soundlad]

just calculated my collection (all pukka i must stress) 207 gb roughly 59,094 files, 4424 folders!:cool:

[spin mobile disco]

Yeah but how many repeats?, I have gloria gaynor i will survive for example 12 times on 12 different albums lol. If I added all my tracks including double I would have about 18 - 20 thousand. But remove doubles, cover versions etc and about 6000 unique maybe 7000

[Sapphire Disco]

just calculated my collection (all pukka i must stress) 207 gb roughly 59,094 files, 4424 folders!:cool:

Why so many folders ? I've got one for each decade & then one for certain types of music ie, Reggae , Country, Nothern Soul etc.
Probably about 25 in all.