What a dissapointment.
It was pointed out many times here that other parameters in CDex program are ignored when "alt-preset" settings are used. However, as I found out they are not.
I didn't bother testing most of my rips I did in the last couple of weeks and now when I did I'm very very angry. By default aps and ape are limited by 224kbps and
all my rips (I riped a lot of albums recently) are in fact limited to 224kbps. :mad: since I assumed that these parameters are ignored.
I did like CDex but not will use only EAC, since I'm not sure what else CDex does to
my rips. Hell, now have to reencode a music again which on my slow PC is pain in the a$$.

I am using also CDex and I don't have such a problem. I can use bitrates more than 224kbps in - alt preset standard.

I am using - alt preset standard between 128kbps and 320 kbps and I have a lot of mp3's that are over 225 kbps:)

Use lame.exe as external encoder.

Parameter string
--alt-preset standard %1 %2

For on the fly
--alt-preset standard -x %1 %2

Did you look at your files with Encspot ?

A spot check on one track I ripped/encoded last night...
Bach~Branderberg 5.mp3
Av bitrate - 186 kbps

kbps %
32 <1
128 3
160 37
192 43
224 9
256 4
320 3

CDex 1.50 Beta 3 using Lame.exe [3.92] as an external encoder
--alt-preset standard -x - %2

I was surprised to find CDex using 3.93 alpha as internal coder - this could still be buggy:eek:

ß

Download the latest version of cdex. It switches back to lame 3.92.

Hmm.. I seem to have this same problem. All MP3 files encoded in CDex using the Lame DLL ( latest beta ) and --alt-preset standard are restricted to the maximum bitrate specified in the options - which is of course the default setting of 224 kbps. However, when run through the external lame encoder, the bitrate has hit 320 kbps before.. Encspot has confirmed this...


So is this a bug or what ? I would have thought that the minimum and maximum bitrate fields would have been ignored when APS was used.. but this seemingly isn't the case. Does anyone have an explanation? ..

Guess I'll switch back to Audiograbber and using the external LAME commandline.. until this .. bug/feature is resolved.

I actually made the original amendments to the CDex source for 1.40 release that included the alt-presets, and they worked exactly as you describe. However, within a couple of days, my implementation of the ABR and CBR presets disappeared, as did the code that ignored all other settings when the alt-presets were selected!!

It seemed to me that there was a lack of understanding/interest in how the alt-presets worked by the CDex crew and I gave up at that point! It was brick wall time, I think.

I thinks this is a bug! Why? Because the Quality preset (V0 - V10) does not affect filesize even though you can change it.
I wish I could find stable 3.92 library for CDex and not to use the 3.93a2 one with
this bug. I think that 3.93 library in beta 2 or 3 didn't have this problem since I checked some of my older files and they don't have bitrate limits.
Also I have found out that dbPowerAmp program also has the same bug, but this time it is even worse! dbPowerAmp limits your bitrate to 224kbps even when you change bitrate levels, in fact it ignores them completely and uses 128 - 224 limits, this is very unfortunate since otherwise dbPowerAmp is a fine piece of software.
And another bug or limitation in dbPowerAmp is that it doesn't use qX.XX quality scale for OGG files, therefore files encoded with let's say 64 or 128kbps level sound horrable, when compared to the one produced with q0 and q4 correspondingly.

John33,

can you please recreate the CDex 1.5 with all the changes you consider appropriate and also use LAME 3.92 as a base library. Unfortunately your older "unofficial" version is no longer available at RareWares and I have deleted it when you wrote that CDex has implemented the changes (or may be it was not you who wrote this).

Thanks a lot in advance!

If you want the stable 3.92 dll, it's part of the bundle here: http://www.benjamin-lebsanft.de/files/lame-3.92.zip

I'll take a look at amending the 1.5 sources, but don't expect anything too quickly. If you want the alt-presets correctly implemented now, I still have my own CDex 1.40 Release using lame 3.92 stable. I'll upload that to my temporary mirror.

.. it seems that setting minimum bitrate to 32kbps and maximum to 320 kbps will alleviate this problem... ???

Still.. it shouldn't be this way... Perhaps someone would care to submit a bug report to the CDex development team again ?

I'll be going back to Audiograbber for normal ripping after this experience.. ugh ..

John33,

correct me if I'm wrong, but I think CDex uses different kind of DLL. In fact I'm almost 100% sure that it is different since lame_enc.dll kills CDex at startup (even when renamed to in_mp3.dll).

And thank you! We all will be waiting for your release of "unofficial" CDex 1.5 and for now use your 1.4 release, thanks god CDex is open source.

I don't think the bitrate limiting in CDex is a bug. The reason is that for me, anything above 224 (and most of the time even 192) sounds very very good. Since I am ripping LOTS of CDs, that little change in bitrate amounts to lots of hdd space I save. I use -APS and limit from 128-224.

On the other hand, most people expect it to go all the way up to 320, so I think the bitrate management should stay in (for us people without golden ears) but the default should be 320 and not 224. That way everyone has a choice.

The later betas (4 and 5) use lame 3.92 as a dll. Also, a ceiling of 320 in the other versions once you set it (as well as this one) *sticks*. Save your settings and the ceiling in your selected preset will always be 320 under that profile. Nex

Hmm.. just ran some tests on the output between DLL and commandline versions ... and .. quite a number of discrepancies turned out! :eek:


Seems that when using unrestricted mode ( CDex options min bitrate set to 32, max set to 320 ), the output from CDex's included DLL ( v1.30 v3.92 ) .. is different from the standard v3.92 dll ( v1.28 obtained from mitiok.cjb.net )...

Bitrates: ( for v1.30 DLL from CDex )

32 - 0.1
40 - 0.2
48 - 0.4
56 - 0.1
64 - 0.0
80 - 0.1
96 - 0.5
112 - 3.9
128 - 12.0
160 - 43.4
192 - 30.7
224 - 6.0
256 - 1.6
320 - 1.0


Compare this with

Bitrates: ( for v1.28 DLL from mitiok.cjb.net )

32 - 0.1
128 - 19.1
160 - 41.6
192 - 30.6
224 - 6.0
256 - 1.7
320 - 1.0

-----------------------


Odd indeed...