Hi
Can some help me. I was told to use %d %s in front of any LAME commands such as --alt-preset standard. What does this do, and do I still need to use it.
Thanks

You only need %s %d after lame commandline in EAC if you use lame.exe as "user defined encoder" like this:


For more details about how to set up EAC & lame read one of the guides from the FAQ.

If you're refering to LAME with EAC you should put %d and %s after the lame switches like
--alt-preset standard --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 --tt "%t" --ta "%a" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

%s is the placeholder for the source filename (the ripped wav-file). %d the placeholder for the destination filename.

edit: oops, tigre was way faster than me

thanks guys.
I am using audiograbber. Does the same apply, or do you recommend me switching to EAC

The main advantage of EAC is its secure mode which, if set up correctly, gives you highest possible security against extraction errors caused by scratches, fingerprints and similar damage. You'll either get a perfect rip or EAC will report the suspicious positions. For some sorts of copyprotected CDs that contain things are a bit more complicated - there are some threads about this you'll find using the search.

Audiograbber probably has advantages over EAC elsewhere, so what to recommend you depends on your needs.

thanks tigre.
I generally use my MP3's for listening on my LINN system. Also MP3 Player and for the odd DJ'ing sessions through my laptop.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I had been ripping my MP3's using --alt-preset standard as mentioned earlier, but after speaking to another guy he informed me that a CBR at 192 was better, as VBR gives a wave effect on the sounds, but after reading various threads on here, I am now wondering if he actually knew what he was talking about. Someone else recommended CBR 256 although again reading a thread from here I think a VBR with --alt-preset extreme would be better than this even --alt-preset fast extreme, would be better than a CBR at 256.
Can you confirm any of this, and maybe suggest which would be better for my purposes, with respect to Audiograbber or EAC and the bit rates.
Thanks again

Confirmed.

Have a look at the sticky thread (1st post is updated regularly) "List of recommended lame settings" in mp3 subforum (also linked in the FAQ). There you should find all you need.

In short: --alt-preset standard is tuned for transparency (= no audible differences to original). The few remaining problem cases (-> If you want to hear with your own ears how small these remaining problems are, see the FAQ's parts about test samples, ABX tests or do a search for "problem sample") are improved somewhat using --alt-preset extreme. The highest possible quality you'll get using --alt-preset insane (=CBR 320kbps) which will solve some of these remaining problems, others are improved.

Thanks again tigre

You're right. He doesn't really know what hes on about. VBR will not give you a wavey sound at all!. The idea of VBR is that it decides what bitrate is needed to encode the audio to sound as close to the original as possible at that given time. Thus, if it can encode a section of audio identically at 96kbps, then so be it. If it needs 256kbps to encode a difficult section of music, then it will. You won't be able to detect these changes in bitrate at all. If you limit the bitrate at 192kbps, then you will get a worse sound as it won't use enough bits to encode the difficult stuff.

In short, you were doing the best thing by encoding your music in --alt-preset standard. In very nearly all cases, this command line will sound the same as the original.

It's best to use EAC as it is better at error correction and detection. The only downside really is that its slower than most burst rippers like audiograbber, but at the end of the day, you're going to spend most of your time listing to the music than you are ripping/encoding it. So in my opinion, spend more time encoding it, as you'll spend more time listning to it, and a better sound is more enjoyable.

Hope this helps!

Cheere for that

if you use audiograbber, you can use de lame_enc.dll

kwanbis, you say

how does this differ to referencing the lame.exe file in the file line

Off-topic posts related to tagging preferences (ID3 V2 & co) are split to a new topic. Continue discussion there please.

with the lame_enc.dll you can do rip/encode in real time, instead of riping first to a WAV. I personally use lame.exe but many people are use to the direct approavch, and also is much more easy to set up the lame_enc.dll (graphically) with ag.

FWIW, I just encoded an album both ways - using User Defined Encoder w/ %s %d and using Lame MP3 Encoder. The output files were all exaclty the same size.

I also did a binary compare on the files. Most were exact matches and the ones that weren't, only differed in the first line, which I'm guessing is some header information.

B