Hi...

I'm completely new to audio ripping, mp3 and LAME... I just read satcp's tutorials to EAC&LAME...

I am a Jazz and Blues lover and decided to rip my CD collection to mp3's. the 5th cd I decided to rip (with EAC and LAME, alt preset standard) did not give the usual bars in Lame (majority 192 kbps or higher), LAME encoded it 99.9% on 128 kbps...

Is this because it's a remastered very old cd and there's no need to encode any higher than 128%? (the cd in question is a Muddy Waters remaster from LP, 'The Real Folk Blues' and 'More Real Folk Blues')

I would like the best possible quality rips, do yo think I can trust these 128 kbps rips?

Thanks...

d.

You'll probably find the CD is mono i.e. both left and right channels are the same.

Try a search on this topic - it's been discussed before, and is probably in the FAQ.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
David.

I tried a search and checked the FAQ, but to no avail... probably using incorrect search terms or so...

When I look in Winamp (file properties), I get 'joint stereo'... doesn't look like mono to me... I'll rip some more CD's, see if it happens again. Could it be an issue of the algorithm used to decide the optimal bitrate?

(it's also the first cd rip Winamp (+ MAD codec) decides needs 'clipping' - whatever it is - first song: 36 clipped samples - resulting in annoying noise while playing back)

"Joint stereo" doesn't say anything about whether the source was real stereo or mono - it just says there were 2 channels!

What do you hear? Are right and left channel very similar?

They're very similar, yes... (so probably mono) and horrible quality too, when played back in Winamp5+MAD (the source cd appears to be better, though nothing as good as my other blues cd's of course) (the mp3 has many clicks etc, just like downloaded mp3's often have)

I'll try to re-rip it, and if it gives the same problem again I'll just have to leave it at that... I probably won't be able to get decent quality mp3's from that cd.

Or will I?

d.

EDIT: I found another track with similar behaviour - 'Drifting' on Eric Clapton - From the Cradle.

It's not mono, though... I think... it encodes to an average of 146 kbps, instead of more than 192 (like most other songs on the disk)

Can anyone explain this behaviour?

In theory the mp3 should be ok then. It's just a recording that hasn't much audio data to store.

I've checked again, and at least with most of the Muddy Waters songs, CD quality is as abominable as mp3 quality.

thanks for your help.

No, you're right - I thought this would be somewhere obvious, but it's not. Sorry!

Previous threads include...

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....topic=13809&hl=
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....f=15&t=3883&hl=

None of them make particularly good "FAQ" entries, but this issue should still be put in the FAQ.

Cheers,
David.

K, thanks... You were very helpful. Good forum, think I'll come back

d.