Hi,

I searched here , but didn't see a specific answer, so here goes:

In the settings for the compression, I notice that no changes really come from changing the numbers (160, 192, 224, etc) so the actual command line in there for the external LAME encoder must be drving the quality. I saw the "128" in there and manually changed it to "160". This works fine, but it seems to go lower than that still. I am not messing anything by changing that am I?

I am new to EAC and love it(switching from CDex), but my two concerns were that I could change the Min rate from 128 to 160, as I prefer the ranges be a VBR from 160 min to 320 max.

Also, I cannot get the file names to be in this preferred format (like in cdex):

track number (space) artist - track name.

When I change them I get the number and track name correctly but the other "%" code shows in the filename generation. Is this a bug?

Thanks,

Scott

See EAC forum for replies ...

If you're new to EAC, I suggest to follow the guide under the following link:
http://www.ping.be/satcp/cd2mp3-en.htm
Hope this helps.

Start EAC. Press F11.



Anything in the Additional command line options field overrides anything in the Bit rate field and also overrides the High quality and Low quality buttons.

Insert CD.

Press Alt-G to load freedb album info (automatically will fill-in ID3 tag fields upon encoding).

Press Shift-F5 to begin extraction followed by encoding/tagging.

The EAC/LAME tutorial link Digga posted is the best I know of for more info. It's what I (and many people) used to learn EAC.

Also, don't bother messing with the minimum bitrate. Trust the ears of the hundreds of people who conducted blind tests during the tuning of --alt-preset standard. Trust me, things'll be just fine

Actually, I thought it was recommended to choose User Defined Encoder as the Parameter Passing Scheme, as that was the only way to be sure that EAC was passing only the parameters specified in Additional Command Line Options to LAME.

Rob

I am archiving cds, to be placed on CDRs and DVDs, the the quality is most important to me. I almost considered CBR 320, but it doesn't seem to make sense with a really high VBR rate.

If you were ripping a disc that you may never be able to lay your hands on again, would you really just use alt-preset standard?

Cool, thanks to all who helped me out here. I have both issues resolved, and am now just trying to decide if I want alt preset standard or extreme. Hard to say for an archive project. I know it is a huge debate already..

What do you all use to get a perfect archive?

Lossless is the only way to get a perfect archive-quality encoding. FLAC, WavPack or Monkey's for example. MP3 even at its best (and it IS pretty good mind you) is still lossy.

If you want archive-quality, use lossless just to be safe. If you want perfect sounding files, use --alt-preset standard. I don't know of any samples --aps fails on that you would need --alt-preset extreme for. Frankly I don't even know how we know extreme is better, since they are both transparent. Extreme just seems to throw more bits at the issue with no tangible benefit.

Use --aps or just do lossless. Also don't mess with the min bitrate you'll just screw it up.

So, with the "User Defined Encoder" options selected (pointing to LAME.EXE), I should have the following in the "addional command line options" field:

For alt-preset standard it should read:

%l--alt-preset 128%l%h--alt-preset standard%h %s %d

And for alt-preset extreme:

%l--alt-preset 128%l%h--alt-preset extreme%h %s %d

Before I had just changed the "128" to "160" on both, but could not tell a difference...

I guess I did ask a dumb question also. "Perfect" could not mean "lossy". I like Monkey's Audio a lot, but it is generally about half the size of a WAV, so I just need th best MP3 option (for portable player options as well).

AFAIK you just need to do this:

1. Select "User Defined Encoder" and point to lame.exe. .mp3 as extension

2. Just put --alt-preset standard or --alt-preset extreme in the "additional comand line options" field


Thats all!