hi everyone, i have some questions
1. i use iTunes-Lame with alt preset insane setting, but 320 kbps takes away a lot of hd space, specially for portable use, so if i change the bitrate, like --alt-preset insane -b 256 or 192, is that fine or the insane preset is strictly optimized for 320 kbps ?

2. there is something like EAC or cd paranoia for Mac, or the iTunes ripper is good enough?(seems to fast to be accurate)

3. adding artwork is a safe thing, or can compromise quality

4. can i add metadata (like: encoded with: iTunes-Lame)

thanks

1. --alt-preset insane is 320kb only
use --alt-preset extreme if you wanna save some space(or better for quality and space saving: try musepack)
2. don't know
3. adding atwork (or long id3v2 tag) can cause trouble in seeking while playback but doesn't affect quality
4. yep,np.

FirestarterFX features paranoia audio cd ripping for error protection. I'm not sure if this app lets you extract the media to the Hard Drive for LAME encoding, or if it's just for making CD copies.

Get it here. FireStarter FX

alt-preset standard is another setting which gives around 190-210kbps and seems generally regarded as the best compromise of size and quality for 'transparent' audio, (hence the not so subtle hint given by the 'extreme' and 'insane' naming scheme).

There are command line apps with the paranoia libs available for secure ripping but the last time I looked the UI was abominable so hopefully they have improved and someone can reccomend one.

Re: Q4, there is a patch available for lame that adds the ID3v2 "encoded with" tag to each file so that it is visible in iTunes. I think funkatron's binary for Mac OS X includes this patch (he is the developer of the lamebrain GUI for lame).

thanks everyone for the help
btw i forgot to say that i prefer to avoid vbr because seems that both my DVD player and my car CD changer can't play them, so to get the best result with cbr i just go with --alt-preset cbr 192/256, no need to add further settings ?

G-Force
i end up with a bin file, so i think is only for making CD copies

bawjaws
where i can get those abominable command line apps, i'm really uncertain about iTunes ripping qualities

Just FWIW, I have encoded many, many, many CDs using iTunes (using the LAME encoder, the Quicktime one, and AAC).

I have NEVER encountered a problem with a resulting file that skips, shuffles, or has those weird squeaky sounds from a bad rip. Contrast this to some non-EAC, non-CDex software I've used in Windows.

It has been my experience, that if iTunes comes across a faulty CD, it will simply bail.

Unlike EAC, which given a faulty CD will diligently keep at it using (I would imagine) some fairly complex error-checking / correcting algorithms, until it reaches a much higher plateau of "I give up on this crap"-itude.

In any case, iTunes, in my experience, has never gone ahead and encoded from a crappy CD. It'll simply say "sorry pal", and spit it back out.

If you ever have that happen, take that crummy CD to EAC and see what it can do with it...

indeed cdrdao makes cd-copies but cdda2wav which uses paranoia too
allows you to extract the wav files from an audio cd. cdda2wav is
included in MissingMediaBurner which you can find at versiontracker.
Cheers
F.