I like to use the following rip preset in Media Monkey when converting lossless audio files to MP3:

Medium: VBR ~160 kpbs - High Quality+

I like it because for most music, it will go as high as 224kpbs to keep the sonic level high, but will also drop as low as 128kbps when the music becomes less demanding. The result is an average size equating to 160kbps while keeping excellent sound quality.

However, I prefer to use CDex 1.51 for ripping CD's since it has full paranoia mode that results in very few skips, pops, etc. And it seems to rip much faster than Media Monkey's jitter-corrected mode. But the problem is that I can't seem to figure out the MP3 rip settings that equal the MEDIUM VBR (listed above) in Media Monkey. I tried setting VBR quality to 2, min bitrate to 32kbps and max at 192kbps, but it just seems to peg out at 192kpbs, occassionally dropping to 160 for a split second. This results in larger files than ones created by Media Monkey.

What are the specs on the Media Monkey Medium mode (listed above), so I can emulate them within the rip options in CDex? For example, what's the min bitrate, max bitrate, VBR quality level, etc.

Thanks!

the setting is called --preset medium ...if Cdex doesn't allow you to choose that setting (since Cdex hasn't been updated for quite a while) you might try a program called EAC, which is similar to Cdex (but even better)...

Also, if you need higher quality than --preset medium you could try --preset standard instead. It works the same like --preset medium but it targets for CD-Quality. When using LAME 3.96.1 the average bitrate of a song will be around ~196kbps. If you are looking for something in between these 2 settings, try -V3

I hope this helps

It helps me! Thank You jojo

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have tried using the preset standard, and it always produces a file significantly larger than the VBR ~160 setting in Media Monkey. Even setting VBR quality to 9 makes little difference to the size.

Interestingly, using the R3Mix preset setting produces a file size nearly identical to the MM version. Is it possible that MM is using the R3Mix to encode at the VBR ~160 preset?

Has anyone used R3Mix and can vouch for it's quality or lack thereof? I've seen reports that it can falsely brighten the highs in some instances.

Time for you to read the FAQ.

Here is the FAQ <- click

Take a look at this This Thread Rod.

please read my post gain...it says what you have to do...

Don't forget about the pinned post at the top
pinned post


Try using -V 3 or -V 4 then.