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What do you use to encode MP3 and create CDs from them?

ChillinBuzz	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 8:20 AM I don't run a lot of software so I don't get much time to test new things. I use Musicmatch to do my encoding when I need MP3s otherwise I use a giant chunk of my drive to store all my WAVs (last count some 18GB used). Thanks to the 16x CD burner I can archive most of it. I have to keep WAVs to do my CDs though - is there a good program that decodes the MP3 to a WAV prior to burning (apart from Easy CD Creator 5 and Nero) ?
dekand	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 2:16 PM www.goldwave.com, its free and i use it for everything. I used to use nero for burning but its been screwy lately so i switched to acoustica mp3 burner. " id="22618">use Goldwave, www.goldwave.com, its free and i use it for everything. I used to use nero for burning but its been screwy lately so i switched to acoustica mp3 burner.
NeoFlash	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 3:20 PM dbpowerAMP with the ogg and wma plug-in is all you'd ever need.
RyanS	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 3:40 PM Exact Audio Copy along with Lame 3.92 to encode my MP3s, and Nero to burn them
RyanS	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 3:43 PM ..and Cool Edit Pro to edit
TranceAction	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 5:02 PM Yeah ! Cool Edit Pro rules T.A.
milladrive	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 5:29 PM Goldwave is free, but I don't think it uses the Fraunhofer encoder. MusicMatch does use it, so that's my suggestion for encoding for free. (P.S. I'd rather fix the screwy than move to the inferior.) I think Lame is lame. I usually encode and decode with Nero. Editing goes on in CoolEdit Pro.
ChillinBuzz	Date: October 8, 2002 @ 7:39 PM Come here, WinMX. You've got some software to find for me to test
RyanS	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 6:21 AM I figured Milla would say something about Lame.. hehe Reason I use Lame over FhG is that VBR support under FhG plain sucks! I'm not gonna say FhG sucks itself, because it doesn't. Standard CBR recording is hard to beat, though. Lame encoder use to suck, but they've come a long way since. When using the command prompt version (or any other frontend that uses it) and using the --alt-preset, you can't get any better. Plus, it's better at handling higher frequency's. FhG tends to filter hard at 16kHz, whereas Lame is around 19kHz (192 or higher bitrates, of course). Major problem with Lame is that most people use crappy default settings, and would rather encode fast instead of quality. Also people use crappy encoders like Blade, Xing (Audiocatalyst), and a few others. Just my $0.02 (waiting for the pennies to come flying back at me ) Just a quick note too.. Cool Edit Pro 2 uses the FhG/MP3 Pro codec. Highest settings do sound good, however
Costanza	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 7:11 AM Sound Forge has excellent codecs. But Cool Edit Pro has the MP3pro codec! Which rules. Get the same quality with 96kb/s Before I had Sound Forge, I used Mpeg Suite. Free and pretty good.
Wordsense	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 7:14 AM www.dbpoweramp.com thats what i use and you can download every possible codec... peace" id="22749">www.dbpoweramp.com thats what i use and you can download every possible codec... peace
NeoFlash	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 7:31 AM That's where I got mine. Too many options for mp3, I prefer o... ah, I think you know what I was about to say
Fenderbenders	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 10:37 AM For all my encoding and dencoding I use a freewear program called: dbpowerAMP Music Converter, it has lame encoding but hey I cant afford the good stuff so free it is, and it does the job and gives ya lots of options on the encoding side. Found on most freewear sites.
milladrive	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 10:49 AM I didn't know that about Lame's progress Ryan. I must remember to check it out. Thing is, I'm sort of unconcerned w/VBR support, since I never use VBR. But the filtering is definitely sumpm I should give a listen to. For the longest time now, I've lumped Lame in with all those other crappy encoders you listed. Oh, and the reason I use Nero for encoding and not CEP is 'cause I'm usin' CEP 1.0, and there was no encoder in it. I've actually got v2 (I think) but I haven't installed it yet. Nero uses the MP3Pro, too. I'm still not sure I notice the "Pro" improvements.
Costanza	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 12:38 PM MP3Pro offers better results with higher frequencies. And ofcourse a tighter compression. Too bad that it isn't very popular yet.... CEP 2 is a great improvement over CEP 1.
Bruticus	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 1:35 PM I use dbpowerAMP
milladrive	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 2:42 PM Is CEP 2 faster? I really oughtta just install it.
Costanza	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 3:01 PM Faster and sweater. Oh and the noise reduction in CEP2 is far more precise now. You'll only need like 2%, where as with CEP 1 you'd need 15%. It also sounds a lot less hollow now.
NeoFlash	Date: October 9, 2002 @ 3:14 PM dbpowerAMP is the best. It's so far the fastest and the best sounding. But for ogg it's super slow I like dbpowerAMP because it is for everything, and oggdropXPD since I can select exact bitrates and is the main ogg vorbis encoder/decoder. The only thing is many people make the mistake of using ogg vorbis cbr. Ogg Vorbis was meant for vbr, and in my tests always sounds tons better, and you don't see the bitrate on winamp changing when you play ogg vbr. For mp3s, definately dbpowerAMP. And the plugins for it rule, there are so many of them! I never even knew of some of those codecs! Try it out. I used to use dbpowerAMP to make mp3s before I found out my boombox (see front cover) sucked with mp3s. And lame is good actually. It works perfectly. What does musicmatch use for mp3s, cause after 192k everything sounds like 96k and below.
RyanS	Date: October 10, 2002 @ 3:40 AM http://mitiok.free.fr/ Lame 3.92 is the current "stable" version." id="22987">The fraunhoufer encoder with CEP2 is actually fairly fast, even at it's highest settings. Much faster than CE2K/P1. And the fact it does support MP3Pro is alright, but doesn't really interest me. In case you do wanna check out the Lame encoder, you can find the binary's here: http://mitiok.free.fr/ Lame 3.92 is the current "stable" version.
mtbatol	Date: October 10, 2002 @ 4:44 AM Yeah I like dbpowerAMP which is what I use, that along with the cd ripping feature used for naming ripped tracks helps alot. The lame and fraunhoufer plugins are the best. Everything is all gravy at 256k
Psyence131	Date: October 10, 2002 @ 9:26 AM cool edit pro and nero..
princess-angry	Date: November 3, 2002 @ 12:12 AM EZ CD Creator!!!! I love it!!!
NeoFlash	Date: November 3, 2002 @ 12:36 AM some doslike command line burner! :gasp: " id="25090">Hmmm, I gotta find a linux burner fast or I'm stuck with some doslike command line burner! :gasp:
princess-angry	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 1:21 AM windows medai player 9 rules!!!!
RyanS	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 7:30 AM EZ CD Creator .. yuck! WMP?? pukes
RyanS	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 7:34 AM sourceforge.net for some good open source frontends for cdrecord on Linux. There's quite a few of them to try. I know of these two.. kreatecd and cdbakeoven." id="25347">EZ CD Creator gave me corrupted discs, and WMP.. need I say more?? Neo.. try checking sourceforge.net for some good open source frontends for cdrecord on Linux. There's quite a few of them to try. I know of these two.. kreatecd and cdbakeoven.
Wordsense	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 11:18 AM i use dBpowerAMP Music Converter to encode mp3s...and use Nero to burn them to CD...
NeoFlash	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 4:17 PM Same thing as WordSense. I just do this w/ nero. 1) dl the free trial for 30 days. 2) Use it a lot. 3) When the trial is up, I do a windows search(the one that looks through the file and not just the name) and delete anything that looks right. 4) Use regvac, sete on robo vac, and I remove every end key, and anything for nero I delete the entire key not just the end. 5) Use spybot. 6) Use IsystemWiper to clean out the recycle bin and temp files after that. 7) Restart my computer. dl nero burning rom 9) Install it. Paying for programs is overrated dbpowerAMP rules though!!!!!
ChillinBuzz	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 4:51 PM I find the audio ripping feature on EZ CD Creator works great, especially CDs with so-called protection (I just copied a CD for someone and it had some odd blocking, the first track took 20 minutes to rip but then the rest followed as normal after....). dbpowerAMP gets a sneek later today, I need something better than Musicmatch - I encoded a whole album at 256kbps on very high quality and apart from it taking 5 hours it came out ok but nothing special. I also got some distortion in one or two tracks, sorted out when I dropped the normalisation volume to about 97% which quite honestly I shouldnt have had to do.
NeoFlash	Date: November 5, 2002 @ 5:15 PM dbpowerAMP I still have a lot of experimenting to do with. It has so many plug ins for codecs I've never heard of before.
princess-angry	Date: November 6, 2002 @ 12:57 AM I use WMP 9 cause It's so fine!!!
NeoFlash	Date: November 6, 2002 @ 1:05 AM WMP sux it's the worst crap out there. It tries to get licenses for your music. Soon it won't even let you play certain mp3s.
olethros	Date: January 10, 2003 @ 10:25 AM To create mp3s: lame (very good shell tool) grip (provides a nice GUI, also integrated with ripping) cdparanoia (perfect cd-ripper, advanced error correction) To burn cds: mkisofs (to creaet an iso image with files) cdrecord (to record data/audio onto the actual disk - supports BurnProof) x-cd-roast (a very good GUI for cdrecord)
pog	Date: January 11, 2003 @ 8:46 AM I know that most ppl don't use xing, but audiocat does have an encode multiple files function, which is kinda cool
johnnygnote	Date: January 31, 2003 @ 6:55 AM www.aconas.com and Audacity. I also have T-Racks, pretty powerfull mastering software." id="31864">DBpoweramp to convert, Adaptec Easy CD Creator works ok for me, no probs with it. Wav editing, triming off extra time getting rid of count offs, Acoustica www.aconas.com and Audacity. I also have T-Racks, pretty powerfull mastering software.
RasMasta	Date: January 31, 2003 @ 9:15 AM I just downloaded something called TagSmart...for puttings tags and ID's on my Mp3s
johnnygnote	Date: January 31, 2003 @ 3:31 PM Hey Ras, how do you like it? I have Tag MAster by Analog X. It's OK but i wouldn't mind finding something a little better.
Thanos	Date: February 25, 2003 @ 7:11 PM http://www.poikosoft.com/easycdda.html. Its great and uses the lame encoder and encodes to ogg (& other formats) if your into that. This is a full suite but i only use it to encode. I write cd's with Roxio's easy cd creator. works fine for me and i never have problems. I use CDRwin 3 and clone cd to burn images. I edit sound with Sound Forge 6 and Acid Pro 4. Also a I use a great batch IDTag editor and renamer called MP3 collector from www.collectorz.com. I've tried tagSmart. I think this is better. I must second the loathing of WMP especially since there is no uninstaller in them." id="34551">Encode i use Easy CD-DA Extractor by poikosoft. http://www.poikosoft.com/easycdda.html. Its great and uses the lame encoder and encodes to ogg (& other formats) if your into that. This is a full suite but i only use it to encode. I write cd's with Roxio's easy cd creator. works fine for me and i never have problems. I use CDRwin 3 and clone cd to burn images. I edit sound with Sound Forge 6 and Acid Pro 4. Also a I use a great batch IDTag editor and renamer called MP3 collector from www.collectorz.com. I've tried tagSmart. I think this is better. I must second the loathing of WMP especially since there is no uninstaller in them.
Expose	Date: February 25, 2003 @ 7:38 PM Ripping -- Encoding :nod:" id="34552">Ripping -- Encoding
Svensta	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 9:41 AM Wow, Neo AND the Thaspian all on one thread!
ChillinBuzz	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 10:37 AM i'm trying audiocatalyst as a temp solution until i reformat this beast again. its doing a fast job, and quite honestly i am surprised that it sounds ok at 128kbps too, although some sounds phase too much for my liking, but its cool for getting songs MP3d for the net
thumbtack	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 11:50 AM http://gearup.dmusic.com/read.php?contentid=16 " id="34583">I use Musicmatch jukebox, the full version. It's probably the most featured filled Mp3 software out there. It suports Mp3 both constant bit rate and varible, Mp3 Pro constant and varible, you can batch convert from wav, mp3 (c&v), mp3 pro to any of the others, you can batch tag mp3s for whole albums, you can create playlists, create cds from those playlists, save different playlists, it has a music guide and built in streaming radio that you can determine what you want to listen to, it has gracenote cd look up, (so you don't have to edit the track tags for cds you rip), it can do volume leveling for burning cds, it will burn your cd from a playlist in the order of the playlist, let you create cover artwork. When you download an mp3 file and MMJB is associated with mp3, it saves the file to the diretory you specify, adds it to your music library, and plays it. On track tagging it supports both 1 and 2, and supertagging. You can have it search your hard drive(s) to ad music to you library, edit track tags, even tag the tracks by filename.. About the onlything it doesn't do is support ogg...Try it you'll like it. Click on one of the banners on the website to download a free version and try it out (somewhat limited features) and it ripps a little slower. The full version is $19.95 and I often see ripping speed of 10x to 15x . Where else can you get a CD burning program for $19.95. that will handle all of your mp3 needs? I did a tutorial on it a while back http://gearup.dmusic.com/read.php?contentid=16
Elu	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 11:53 AM AudioCatalyst is a wonderful ripper and encoder....they have a trial version on line. The only drawback is the learning curve...you got to know all the settings and what will work best with your system. If you have a fast system, the standard settings will work fine.
Expose	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 3:35 PM You use xing? And thumbtack, I can name one, but since DM gets paid for everyone getting musicmatch, I
ThaCoyote	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 6:00 PM Xing encoders should be banned from society! Xing is the reason I download that many bad-encoded MP3's
Expose	Date: February 26, 2003 @ 6:31 PM Very true! Opennap is full of crap like xing and blade! /me is patiently waiting for Vorbis GT3 and LAME 3.94 to be finished
pog	Date: February 27, 2003 @ 2:07 AM BAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAH SOLD OUT !!!!
pog	Date: February 27, 2003 @ 2:09 AM and there's nothing wrong with xing.... just the ppl using it don't know what they're doing, pereod !
starseven	Date: February 27, 2003 @ 1:29 PM i use iTunes and toast they both rock
Expose	Date: February 27, 2003 @ 6:17 PM hydrogenaudio.org even say so. Xing, sucks. Ok, I'll even make a sexy clickable link to it saying why, click on analysis on that page. "Conclusion: Xing totally mangles up the sound. Artifacts are introduced. This is at the highest possible bitrate and in "high frequency" mode. Lower bitrates will perform even more poorly. In practical terms this means that at some >16kHz tones Xing will introduce serious artifacts audible in the -- "Remarks: Most available encoders produce a straight line (equal distribution), Xing does not and shows a steady decrease of dB's after the 16kHz treshold is passed. It is useful to encode >16kHz because many people can hear past this limit. A 16kHz cut-off produces no cd-quality (x) music by defenition. Conclusion: This shows that Xing consistently mangles up all your >16kHz frequencies, like it does with most music pieces. " {disclaimer; all of the info there at r3mix.net, except for info on very early versions of MusicMatch and xing and what are good encoding programs, is complete bullshit} :nod: " id="34698">That's just not true, the freakin' developers of types of MP3 on hydrogenaudio.org even say so. Xing, sucks. Ok, I'll even make a sexy clickable link to it saying why, click on analysis on that page. 16kHz tones Xing will introduce serious artifacts audible in the -- 16kHz because many people can hear past this limit. A 16kHz cut-off produces no cd-quality (x) music by defenition. 16kHz frequencies, like it does with most music pieces. " {disclaimer; all of the info there at r3mix.net, except for info on very early versions of MusicMatch and xing and what are good encoding programs, is complete bullshit}
Expose	Date: February 27, 2003 @ 6:20 PM Disclaimer 2; Thasp can't make HTML tags for shit
invocati	Date: February 27, 2003 @ 9:18 PM Matchbox and Nero
Thanos	Date: February 28, 2003 @ 7:39 PM yeah i'd have to say xing audiocatalyst is horrendous. Audiograbber is better since it lets you use lame encoders but that crashed on me all the time till i had to get rid of it.
Expose	Date: March 17, 2003 @ 5:35 PM
pog	Date: March 17, 2003 @ 6:53 PM My song, shame, was encoded in xing, just to prove that xing is a working encoder... Im not using it at the moment, but as I've said many time before... most encoders stuff up if you multitask whilst ripping. Those artifacts and errors were caused by someone with the wrong encoder settings... xing drops frames whan set up wrong, and lame crashes in these situations.
leflaw	Date: March 17, 2003 @ 7:01 PM I use mp3 encoder by fraunhofer - the real thing!!!
Expose	Date: March 17, 2003 @ 7:03 PM * the code is buggy, and music will get mangled from time to time (try first few seconds of Rammstein on Matrix Soundtrack) http://users.belgacom.net/gc247244/ns_xing320-bad.png http://users.belgacom.net/gc247244/w_xing320-bad.png LAME and FhG(mainly at lower bitrates), will stay the best, xing, is crap just meant to be a fast encoder that got outta hand that was never fixed... " id="37164">Xing, is not a bad encoder because of that; it is a bad encoder, because it was made a bad encoder. (ripped) Why not to use any Xing encoders (Xing, Audio Catalyst, MpegDJ, ...): * stereo separation problems in joint stereo mode (listen with headphones) * all above 16kHz is mutilated, at any given bitrate (up to 320, and VBR High) * In mp3 you can have long and short blocks. Xing encoders don't use "short blocks", which, by definition, leaves Xing encoding quick peaks and sharp signals not nearly as accurate as with short blocks, which are used in Blade, FhG and LAME encoders. * the code is buggy, and music will get mangled from time to time (try first few seconds of Rammstein on Matrix Soundtrack) http://users.belgacom.net/gc247244/ns_xing320-bad.png http://users.belgacom.net/gc247244/w_xing320-bad.png LAME and FhG(mainly at lower bitrates), will stay the best, xing, is crap just meant to be a fast encoder that got outta hand that was never fixed...
Expose	Date: March 17, 2003 @ 7:13 PM http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?s=1b51824fd2c9a7673984b794a0d6ffe 7&act=ST&f=15&t=6523&st=0#entry66386 There's explanations from a place where most LAME MP3/dBpowerAMP/Ogg Vorbis/MPC/AAC development goes on in the first place..." id="37168">http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?s=1b51824fd2c9a7673984b794a0d6ffe 7&act=ST&f=15&t=6523&st=0#entry66386 There's explanations from a place where most LAME MP3/dBpowerAMP/Ogg Vorbis/MPC/AAC development goes on in the first place...
ChillinBuzz	Date: March 19, 2003 @ 7:03 PM well, i've been really compressing my songs harder lately and Xing (audiocatalyst) isnt sounding as bas when i do 192 or 256, but 128... pah! demo material only. or sites. but then, mp3 was made for that reason, not to replace WAV but to make it quicker at a price (and for some jackass to cream the money outta it )
Expose	Date: March 19, 2003 @ 8:48 PM

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