2009 ripping/encoding general poll Options

[carpman]

For complete collections (albums, suites, symphonies etc ...)
Lossy: LossyWAV + TAK (for most)
Lossless: TAK (mainly for solo piano)

For individual loose tracks:
MP3 LAME 3.98 -V 2

Always 1 file per track.

C.

This post has been edited by carpman: Jan 1 2009, 23:13

[Agent69]

I just finished ripping my entire CD collection, and I decided to go with Wav+Cue for the inital ripping, but I am considering switching to a lossless codec with individual files so that I can take advantage of Replay Gain. The difference in volume from CD to CD can be incredible.

[DreamTactix291]

TAK 1.0.4 -p5m for lossless (will move to -p4m with 1.1.0) as single file with embedded cuesheet.

Mainly Nero AAC 1.3.3.0 -q0.40 for lossy which is used on my 4G iPod Nano.

[DonP]

As "main" I voted Vorbis for lossy as it works on PC plus every portable I've ever owned, and FLAC for lossless.

My main DAP plays musepack and speex so I've started trying them for music and audiobooks on that. It records wavepack!

Oddly, for me mp3 comes in slightly behind Vorbis on portability as every time I install a Linux distro it does not come with mp3 and it takes at least a little while to find a decoder.

[punkrockdude]

I really like ogg vorbis the most but the fact that not many players supports it, software and hardware, plus that the development is quite quiet now a days made me affraid of ripping all my stuff to ogg so I went with AAC. AAC/MP4/M4A is supported by most players I have tried and without any ABX to back it up I think AAC competes with OGG very well.

I use FLAC for most of everything I rip now a days. I also use FLAC to compress sessions I record made by multitrack software if I am sending it over the net to other people. Since it nowadays supports metatags like broadcast waves use to know the position of samples makes it a killer choose. Also the speed ofthe codec.

These are my thoughts and believes. Regards

[Neasden]

FLAC (level any) for playback.
TAK -p5m as a second copy backup.

Don't use lossy anymore.

[Silversight]

Independent on playability, I switched from FLAC to TAK last year for archiving purposes. For everyday playback I use a mixture of Ogg Vorbis and Nero LC-AAC. My mobile phone supports AAC, so for that device I transcode the TAKs down to ~96 kbit AACs with ReplayGain hardcoded to 93 dB. Works well enough.

A year ago I didn't even know the difference between LC and HE-AAC...

[DARcode]

Me sigs says it all, still lossy for DAP and lossless for home, always one file per track (with cuesheet and EAC log too tho).

EDIT: EAC log part.

This post has been edited by DARcode: Jan 2 2009, 04:13

[DARcode]

MP3 for playback on PCs (the few ones with small HDs or small quotas), no lossless (just the ripped PCM as WAVE files as backups), one file per track

Since you're a LAME dev I'm curious about your choice of backup (uncompressed): do you keep the metadata in your MP3's only (ID3v2?) or do you store it in some kinda DB along with the WAV's please?

This post has been edited by DARcode: Jan 2 2009, 04:27

[twostar]

I voted MP3, FLAC and one file per track.

Since this is a RIPPING and encoding poll, it would also be interesting to find out the preferred ripper for the HA community.

This post has been edited by twostar: Jan 2 2009, 07:36

[guruboolez]

It would be nice too. But it needs a separate poll because only three questions are possible in a single poll.
I don't have too much knowledge in ripping process to create such poll - I'm sure I'll miss important elements or miss the most pertinent questions if I try to create one.
But anyone could do it, or start a debate about what to put inside this second poll. What do you think?

This post has been edited by guruboolez: Jan 2 2009, 12:37

[DonP]

I haven't been keeping up... I see a lot of people using TAK so went looking. I'd worry about the combo of closed source, no hardware, windows only.

If the developer drops dead (or loses interest) and for some reason it doesn't work on the next release of Windows, you get caught short having to scrounge up an older PC to convert your collection to something that still works.

[Kitsuned]

Lossy - MP3, Lame 3.98 build, -V3 and I only use this for portable use on the go.

Lossless - FLAC, 1.2.1 build, use this for listening on the PC through an external soundcard

One file per track. Simplest method to do.

[seVen]

Ripper: dBpoweramp

Encoding/Tagging: foobar2000

Encoders:

- NERO AAC q0.50 for PC listening and portable (Sony NWZ-A818, iPod Touch)
- FLAC -8 for archive, PC listening and portable (Cowon iAudio 7)

For archive, one single file per disc with embedded cuesheet and covers, which i find excellent to manage for me. Covers are embedded using Mp3tag (waiting foobar support...).

I hope for 2009 a more and better hardware support for AAC (like PS3/X360 starting to recognize TAGs...) but especially lossless support, and as a last note that Cowon and Sony start to learn how to make gapless playback on their players...

Happy new year!

This post has been edited by seVen: Jan 2 2009, 14:31

[collector]

I just finished ripping my entire CD collection, and I decided to go with Wav+Cue for the inital ripping, but I am considering switching to a lossless codec with individual files so that I can take advantage of Replay Gain. The difference in volume from CD to CD can be incredible.

Wav is lossless too and you can also use RG on disc images.

[robert]

MP3 for playback on PCs (the few ones with small HDs or small quotas), no lossless (just the ripped PCM as WAVE files as backups), one file per track

Since you're a LAME dev I'm curious about your choice of backup (uncompressed): do you keep the metadata in your MP3's only (ID3v2?) or do you store it in some kinda DB along with the WAV's please?

I'm simply using the file system with the following naming scheme:
./CD/<CD Artist>/<Year>-<CD Title>/<Track Number> <Track Title>.WAV or
./CD/Various/<Year>-<CD Title>/<Track Number> <Track Title> - <Track Artist>.WAV
Once I'd written a bash script which walks through the "CD" folder and sub dirs. It encodes new found files to MP3 and extracts ID3v2 tags from file names. From time to time I delete the mp3 folder and start the script to encode everything again, using a new LAME version or different encoding settings. My MP3 folder mirrors the CD folder structure.

[BoraBora]

No change since last year :

- MP3
- FLAC
- One file per track

[nyarlathotep]

Too lazy to change, and no reason to change actually:

- MP3 (Lame V5)
- WavPack
- One file per track

- EAC to rip & encode
- foobar2000 + Lame to encode to MP3
- foobar 2000 and Mp3tag to tag and for files operations

[Agent69]

I just finished ripping my entire CD collection, and I decided to go with Wav+Cue for the inital ripping, but I am considering switching to a lossless codec with individual files so that I can take advantage of Replay Gain. The difference in volume from CD to CD can be incredible.

Wav is lossless too and you can also use RG on disc images.

Are you talking about Wavegain? From what I have read on the wiki, it is irreversible, which makes it a non-starter for me.

This post has been edited by Agent69: Jan 2 2009, 22:38

[A_Man_Eating_Duc...]

if your using WAV+Cue you can use replaygain, the replaygain values are stored in the CUE.

This post has been edited by A_Man_Eating_Duck: Jan 2 2009, 22:47

[Agent69]

if your using WAV+Cue you can use replaygain, the replaygain values are stored in the CUE.

Any info on this? I can't seem to find anything in the forums or on the wiki.

[antman]

Flac -5/Lame V5.

I started 2008 the same. Tried WMA because my phone supported it. Tried AAC when I got a Zune. Then went back to MP3.

I think I voted for WMA last year and dropped it shortly after.

I'll doubt I'll play with formats as much this year, but who knows.

[Nick.C]

Lossless: FLAC, image with embedded cue sheet;
Lossy: (iPAQ) lossyWAV / FLAC --portable, image with embedded cue sheet;
Lossy: (Other) MP3 (LAME V2), file per track.

Ripping: EAC from CD to WAV image & CUE;
Encoding / Tagging: foobar2000 from WAV & cue to FLAC image per disc with embedded cue sheet.

[A_Man_Eating_Duc...]

if your using WAV+Cue you can use replaygain, the replaygain values are stored in the CUE.

Any info on this? I can't seem to find anything in the forums or on the wiki.

If you load a Test WAV+CUE into Foobar2000 and replaygain it, open up the CUE file in notepad and you can see the replaygain values.

[Agent69]

If you load a Test WAV+CUE into Foobar2000 and replaygain it, open up the CUE file in notepad and you can see the replaygain values.

Thanks!

This post has been edited by Agent69: Jan 3 2009, 00:25