I plan to rip my CD collection, but I am not sure what format. I have a few hundred CDs so I need something that is good a low bitrates. I also want a format that is easy to rip. And of course, it has to sound good.

MPC, Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and AAC.

You're going to have to be more specific than that around here. All of these will do everything you asked to varying degrees.

It would also help if you took a look around at these forums and read up on the discussion to see what is what.

What you've asked is the equivalent of me going into a restaurant and asking the server, "I'm hungry. I want a meal that is cheap, easy-to-make, and has an excellent taste."

I think the best thing to do is go and try a load of different formats and see which one you like. What sounds good to you might not sound good to others.

Okay sorry. I am looking for a format that is:

- easy to rip (no requirements of command line kind of stuff)
- fast to rip
- low in filesize
- sound good at low bitrates
- supports tagging of artist, album, track, title
- playable in Winamp

Check this guide for mpc: *

1) Easy to rip, no command line stuff required after first config.
2) Goes to 16x realtime or more on my Athlon XP1800+
3) Use --quality 5 for 160-180 bitrates
4) transparent
5 & 6) are supported with no problem


MOD: * no links or names to ripping group guides please.

Here, technically MP3 is the winner. There is a Lame compile in Rarewares that will encode --alt-preset standard by default. The rest are all a close second, however, since if you properly set up Exact Audio Copy, you can have it input the commandline and run the compressor for you.


MPC wins here. MPC takes less than 30 seconds on my systems, often less than 15. MP3 and Ogg Vorbis take about a minute or two per song for me.


This is a tricky one. At bitrates considered transparent, MPC wins. At low bitrates (under 128kbps), Ogg Vorbis shines, but some people have suggested that AAC is better.



MP3 plays in Winamp out of the box (I think Ogg Vorbis may as well, I'm not as sure on that). The rest all have plug-ins readily available (right off this site no less).


In all seriousness, I think you'll want MPC --standard, but the files are larger than 128kbps, which tends to be the standard on whether something is low-bitrate or high-bitrate.

camote:

This is lengthy and involved, but it may help you decide. And since you're preparing to do your whole collection, taking the time to use this approach may be justified...

ESI: The way to find the best encoding format

low bitrate & low filesize isn't enuff details. how much space do you want a 74min CD (~700MB) to occupy?

Answer this stuff and I'll see what I can get.

1) What do you think of a 128k CBR MP3? Does it sound good, horrible, like the CD at all?

2) Do you need to use the stuff you rip for a portable? If so, does that portable support anything BUT MP3 and WMA(like the new iPod that supports AAC)? Or will you be listening on your computer only?

You don't need any command line knowledge. You just need to set up EAC for ripping, quite easy, then hit F11 to go into compression options, and put the info in, quite easy. Like with MPC, just put in --quality with a number, and --xlevel, and if you want tags on the files just look at the thread in MPC general. With MP3, you just put --alt preset with the name of the presets, listed in a sticky in MP3 general.