Music CDs and the MP3s that love them

Max-Violence · Post by **Max-Violence** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:34 pm

So I burned my first CD yesterday and every song sounds like ass compared to the same song off of the original CD. Obviously, this is because all the MP3s I have I ripped them from the CD at a measly 96 kbps.

My question: What's "normal" for a studio-produced CD? 128 kbps? 256?

And yes, I know I'll have to re-rip every single MP3 I have in order to make it sound better, and that's why I'm asking what's the dealie-o, yo. I don't want to re-rip and burn them at 256 if I could do it at 128 at save some space on my 120 GB hard drive :p

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:50 pm

how do i rip cds because im not hax0r enough

well between 128 and 256 I can't really taste the difference anyway?

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 10:08 pm

I believe your average CD is at either 128 or 192 kbps. You can get fine quality at 128, though.

Gimp Mask · Post by **Gimp Mask** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 10:50 pm

You can easily notice the difference between 128 & 192 kbps, try listening to the same track @ different qualities and you'll notice that the latter sounds a lot clearer (unless you have ear cancer or something). I'd say rip them at 192, but you should trust your ears instead, maybe try ripping a few songs off some cd at both 192 and 128 and maybe even 256 and decide what's best for you and your HD 8)

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:02 am

I use some winamp plug-ins to make it more better, though space isn't much of a problem? I think most of my mp3s are like 128 or something, crasy.

I don't really listen to music, I just have it on in the background?

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 12:37 am

Yeah, Gimp, you can tell, but I don't find that 128 is bad enough to bother ripping at 192.

Max-Violence · Post by **Max-Violence** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 2:45 am

Well, the difference between 96 and the regular CD is pretty freakin' noticeable, so I'm going to go with the "same song in 128 and 196 flavors and then go from there" method. Cheers m8s!

...Eventually...

BTW, Megapyro, I use the CDex tool that somebody here recommended a while ago (forgot who it was, though) for ripping MP3's. I forget the earl, however, so jus' Google it.

EDIT: Oh, and I finally managed to grab some software to actually burn some CDs (obviously). I got Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5 Starter Kit. Only 40 greenbacks and since I've used the version 4 of the same software, I already know what I'm doin'

Neon Dingo · Post by **Neon Dingo** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 3:04 am

If you want clearer CD quality the only real way is to not convert the tracks to MP3s and convert them to WAVs.

WAVs are the file format used on real CDs but the size of a song that normally would be 5 MB in MP3 format is 20 MB in WAV format.

You probably already knew this, but I'm saying this just in case.

I like to put hundreds of MP3s on a CD-R and play them on MP3 compatible CD Players. The problem? You have to cycle between like...140 songs not knowing what the song is (unless you have a kickass iPod).

MP3s are nice, but I love the quality of purchased CDs so much so I usually purchase a CD for a band that I really like. I honestly think that the RIAA is fooling themselves when they say that people are stealing because I usually delete what I hate and buy what I like.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32731.html

Here's a story about how the RIAA sued a 12 year old girl.

Die, RIAA.

Does anyone know how an MP3 stacks up to say...a cassette tape or a vinyl record?

Max-Violence · Post by **Max-Violence** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 8:15 am

Neon Dingo wrote:If you want clearer CD quality the only real way is to not convert the tracks to MP3s and convert them to WAVs.

WAVs are the file format used on real CDs but the size of a song that normally would be 5 MB in MP3 format is 20 MB in WAV format.

You probably already knew this, but I'm saying this just in case.

Yep, I did, but thanks anyways

Technically, though, CD audio formats are .CDA, but that's just technically.

I like to put hundreds of MP3s on a CD-R and play them on MP3 compatible CD Players. The problem? You have to cycle between like...140 songs not knowing what the song is (unless you have a kickass iPod).

Well, I'm stickin' to good-ol 80 minute CD-Rs so I can play the disc on pretty much anything. BTW: How'd you get "hundreds" of MP3s on a CD-R?

MP3s are nice, but I love the quality of purchased CDs so much so I usually purchase a CD for a band that I really like. I honestly think that the RIAA is fooling themselves when they say that people are stealing because I usually delete what I hate and buy what I like.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32731.html

Here's a story about how the RIAA sued a 12 year old girl.

Die, RIAA.

Yar, I buy CDs too. What I'm going for now is burning my own mix CDs for two main reasons: I can listen to the songs I like without having to listen to the whole CD, and I can listen to a mix of bands/albums without having to listen to the radio (of which I do quite often, just not when the reception sucks or the commercials get on my nerves... which is actually quite often).

Anyway, I'm going to play it safe and re-rip/burn all mah MP3s at 192 kbps. "Play it safe" meaning I don't feel like doing all this over again...

Thanks gents.

BTW what do you fellas think of WMA's? I heard they're supposedly better than MP3 and WAV. Haven't really heard any WMA's yet m'self, so I can't comment.

Kizmiaz · Post by **Kizmiaz** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 11:53 am

Max-Violence wrote:How'd you get "hundreds" of MP3s on a CD-R?

I rip them with 96 kbps then I'll have 200 mp3:s on a CDR-80.

Max-Violence wrote:BTW what do you fellas think of WMA's? I heard they're supposedly better than MP3 and WAV. Haven't really heard any WMA's yet m'self, so I can't comment.

What about Ogg Vorbis?
I've only read about it, never heard it.
Btw, I usually rip music at 160 kbps. 8 hrs aint bad on 1 CD and it don't sound too bad.
I use Audiograbber with lame's mp3-encoder. Easy.

And I still buy CD:s, but only on sale. 15-20 $ each hurts so I'll wait 'til they have a sale.

Jimmyjay86 · Post by **Jimmyjay86** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 1:46 pm

You might as well burn at the highest quality and store them on cds. A 20Mb song is standard and is comparatively small on a standard Cd. You can always transfer ones you are listening to more frequently on your HD.

Vinyl still will give a greater dynamic range than cd but you will need very high quality equipment to get that quality.

Bridgeburner · Post by **Bridgeburner** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:01 pm

Max-Violence wrote:What about Ogg Vorbis?
I've only read about it, never heard it.

http://www.cdburner.ca/digital-audio-fo ... ormats.htm

ogg rewls, but it's still under construction.
maybe in a few years or so it'll gain ground but untill than mp3 is the way to go.

Max-Violence · Post by **Max-Violence** » Wed Sep 10, 2003 10:10 pm

Bridgeburner wrote:
Max-Violence wrote:What about Ogg Vorbis?
I've only read about it, never heard it.
http://www.cdburner.ca/digital-audio-fo ... ormats.htm

ogg rewls, but it's still under construction.
maybe in a few years or so it'll gain ground but untill than mp3 is the way to go.

That's nice, but I didn't ask about OGG. I asked about WMA. Kizmiaz asked about OGG (...Kizmiaz... Kizmiaz... :idea: Oh, I get it!

). I've never heard of OGG until right now.

Anyway, I'm steadily re-ripping everything at 192 kbps MP3s. Works for me

Speaking of 192, the difference between 192 and 96 is... well... noticeable

P.S. Bring back Mr. Green!

LlamaGod · Post by **LlamaGod** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 6:09 am

The first Serious Sam game used .ogg format music and sounds, if I remember. I think one or two newer games use it too, there is a WinAmp plug-in to listen to .ogg files also. It's pretty decent, nice quality and sorta low storage space.

So yeah, I imagine it'll pick up within time and became the current standard, sorta like how Cassettes evolved to CDs and such.

Grey Fil · Post by **Grey Fil** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:31 am

Dont forget the speakers. Without good speakers the sound will always suck. But you new that already right?

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 1:52 pm

Winamp can play .oggs out of the box.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 8:14 pm

If you're using something like Kazaa, it says what the quality is in the "Quality" column (natch). The higher the number, the better the quality. Most of the ones I've downloaded are 128 or higher, and they sound mighty fine.

But if you're going to rip files from a CD and save them as WAVs, don't use Media Player to burn them onto another CD. The volume goes way down for some reason.

Gimp Mask · Post by **Gimp Mask** » Sun Sep 14, 2003 10:03 pm

LlamaG0d wrote:The first Serious Sam game used .ogg format music and sounds, if I remember. I think one or two newer games use it too, there is a WinAmp plug-in to listen to .ogg files also. It's pretty decent, nice quality and sorta low storage space.

Yeah, it seems to sound a lot better at higher compression rates than mp3s , so if you're low on hd space you might want to consider ripping to .ogg?

Subhuman wrote:Kazaa, it says what the quality is in the "Quality

are you voodoo?
yes, I think you might as well be, you watch shitty tv and listen to shitty music

Insane-Lark · Post by **Insane-Lark** » Thu Sep 18, 2003 7:40 pm

Your love notes to KCP have been redirected to the Wasteland. Take it up there or better yet, drop it.

NachoMonkey · Post by **NachoMonkey** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 5:42 am

hey, talkin bout .wma's is there anyway to take off the protection from them ? a while ago I burnt a bunch of music from a friends computer but most of it was .wma format meaning it would only run on the computer of origin... any way around this ?