Hi!

I'm going to buy an iPod mini and am a Windows XP user and was wondering:

1. what software to use to rip to AAC (I use EAC and dbPoweramp today)
2. which codec to use (which AAC)
3. what bit rate is equivalent to APS

I am looking to probably use a VBR AAC of around 160kbps but don't want to faff around fixing tags.

What do most of you guys do?

Thanks,
Fiary

Foobar + Nero codecs (use foo nero) to rip and encode and tag. (or EAC if you want to be sure while ripping)

I suggest Nero VBR quality Normal :: High

Then, iTunes to upload and manage everything.

I would just add that the latest version of foobar has a useful checkbox for the Nero plugin that makes the filenames end in .m4a instead of .mp4 for better compatibility with iTunes.

Thanks for the reply...

Will EAC correctly tag for the iPod? I don't see Nero AAC listed in EAC? Do I use "User Defined Encoder"?

Also I own Nero 5.5 not 6 do I need to get 6 to get the AAC codec?

Thanks,
Fairy

No, when I mentioned EAC, I meant you would rip it to WAV and use Foobar to batch encode and auto tag.



Nope, the foobar plugin works with earlier versions of Nero.

thank you )

Isn't 5.5 limited to 50 encodes? I remember when i tried it ages ago it was. Could be wrong though.

Personally I rip using EAC to FLAC, and then replaygain the FLAC album in Foobar2k before converting to AAC using the nero plugin (and checking the "use replaygain" option in the diskwriter menu on foobar). This has the benefit of retaining tags from freedb (foobar copies the FLAC tags over to the AAC), and fixing the playback gain of the AAC encode, since the iPod might otherwise clip on some samples.

I am not sure how the iPod deals with these tags though, but the AAC tags display properly in Winamp and Foobar.

You can actually make EAC encode into Nero AAC files directly through the use of a file called nencode.exe. A more detailed explanation is here. The locations of the Nero 5.5 .dll files might be a little bit different than specified in that explanation... If so, just do a search for them.

- Matt

Incase you havn't heard (you are already using dBpowerAMP) yesterday the mp4 section recieved a huge update, now you can encode in realtime using Nero AAC (AFAIK the only other program is nero can do this as well, others use temp wave files = slower) as well as a FAAC release.

I hope to have another stab at iTunes integration, as well as adding compaact, I think that covers all AAC encoding bases

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-mp4.htm

'Of course' you forgot foobar.

Incorrect.
Case's foo_nero (foo_neromp4 before) can use any Nero Codec on-the-fly.

Has it been accepted that Nero beats Quicktime/iTunes?
The responses so far haven't given any doubt to this.

Your right it is

Excellent, thanks Spoon. I'll give it a spin as I am a big fan of dbPoweramp. I can also use EAC when I need Paranoid ripping and rip to FLAC then use "Convert" option from dbPoweramp to get the AAC files.

Thank you all you've been a grat help.

Just one last question, will this produce Tags in an iTunes/iPod friendly manner or will I need to fix them somehow?

Cheers,
Fairy

Good question. Previous testing showed QuickTime to have a marginal advantage over Nero, but: 1) it was CBR, and Nero also allows VBR 2) There have been several updates to the Nero encoder since.

But whether Nero VBR averaging 160kbps is better than 160kbps CBR Quicktime is an open question to me.

Applogies to Foobar, I stand corrected (thought it was using Nencode).

AFAIK the only problem with iTunes and tags is if they are in a strange order (ie perhaps Genre before Artist - can happen from various lossless codecs). Ripping from an Audio CD shouldn't have this problem as they are always in a certain order (you would have to try one file).

Apple are being deliberately slow on fixing this bug, the more people that fill up Apples forum the quicker they will fix it.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....howtopic=14447&

it was this post that made me think there was a problem however testing has now revealed that there is no problem with dbPoweramp and Nero AAC. (I upgraded to 6 to get the codec, I know I could have bought just the codec for half the price but Nero has been good to me!).

Keep up the good work Spoon.

Cheers,
Fairy

Why not just use the --replay-gain option when you are encoding with FLAC? Are there advantages to using Foobar to assign the replay gain values?

I don't know, I have never tried on the command line. Is "album gain" applied correctly when you are ripping / encoding via EAC? If so, then I don't think there is really an advantage... either way for that matter.

Beware that the nero 6.3.0.2 aac plugin is broken, regarding gapless encodings.