I need two or three sites that explain recording tracks from several
different audio CDs onto one CD that can be played on a standard CD
player. I am very interested in sound quality. What methods/software
preserve the best sound quality? Second, what software is the easiest
to use (both PC and Mac). |
Request for Question Clarification by
supermacman-ga
on
16 Aug 2003 08:40 PDT
Hello!
I would suggest splitting the question into two - one for Mac, one for
PC. I have provide a very detailed answer for the Mac (since I know
exactly how to do it), but not for PC.
Thanks - supermacman
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Clarification of Question by
tsukimitim-ga
on
16 Aug 2003 20:33 PDT
actually I am happy with Toast on my Mac, but a friend has only a PC.
What should she do? She has Easy CD Creator, but it seems very
cumbersome and requires here to put each source CD into the computer
twice.
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Clarification of Question by
tsukimitim-ga
on
16 Aug 2003 20:42 PDT
What about MusicMatch? It was recommended by a friend of mine, but I
don't know about the quality.
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Request for Question Clarification by
supermacman-ga
on
17 Aug 2003 08:12 PDT
Here, I'll give you the lowdown.
MP3 is a lossy format, which means that the compression to create the
MP3 files throws away some music data. This loss can be minimized by
choosing a higher bit rate.
MP3 files at 128 kbps are considered by most listeners as "good". 192
kbps is often considered "CD quality", but there are many cases where
192 kbps fails to provide such quality. For the discriminate listener
who has plenty of hard drive space, iTunes can encode at up to 320
kbps with variable bit encoding (VBR) to provide maximum quality.
Nevertheless, quality is not 100% theoretically perfect (though the
loss of data is unnoticeable at 320 kbps). Note that 320 kbps files
are larger than the common MP3 file (15 MB per song of 5 min?).
Therefore, if your demands for quality are so high that you dismiss
MP3 as inferior (because of its lossy nature), then you need to look
to other, non-lossy formats.
AIFF is a sound format that is exclusively used on the Macintosh. Its
reach has extended to professional studios demanding high quality, but
compatibility with AIFF on Windows has remained sketchy. However, its
strength is high quality audio - it can provide encode sound in an
uncompressed, raw format. Therefore, no data is thrown away when you
create AIFFs from a CD.
I strongly recommend the MP3 alternative, because uncompressed AIFF
files are *huge* and the quality benefit from 320 Kbps MP3 is
indistinguishable. 90 seconds of audio takes up 14 MB (I just tried
it), so a CD would take up 700 MB. (In fact, that makes sense - CDs
can hold 700 MB, and what AIFF is doing is copying the stereo data
straight from the CD into the AIFF data file.) Of course, you can try
encoding files in both formats and attempt to find a quality
difference between the two.
You need to find if your PC friends' utility has the ability to encode
high-quality MP3s (320 Kbps) or AIFFs. If it can, then - there you go!
As for the Mac - I can give you step-by-step walkthroughs for iTunes
4. If you really want, I can try and get my hands on someone who has
Toast, so that I can walk you through.
Sources
http://service.real.com/help/faq/rjbvbrfaq.html --> about VBR
http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/GeneralInfo/Oracle/appdev.920/a88786/mm_audfm.htm
--> about AIFF
http://howto.lycos.com/lycos/step/1,,8+46+26051+23786+16165,00.html
--> about AIFF
Search
variable bit encoding
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Request for Question Clarification by
supermacman-ga
on
17 Aug 2003 08:22 PDT
As for MusicMatch's MP3-encode quality, this site will provide some
insight:
http://ff123.net/notrecomm.html
I forgot a format in my above discussion - that is Apple's AAC format.
It is similar to MP3, but with somewhat higher quality for the same
bit rate. Apple claims that 128 Kbps AAC is equivalent to 192 Kbps
MP3. I somehow doubt these claims, but I don't dispute the fact that
AAC is higher quality than MP3 - I just don't know by how much.
Therefore, you can also consider encoding at 320 Kbps AAC in iTunes.
(PCs don't usually support AAC - check with your media program.)
For your curiosity, you may want to look at the quality provided by
various formats at 128 Kbps (which you won't use since it's lossy):
http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html
Here is a similar page discussing quality of the same format provided
by different codecs:
http://audio.ciara.us/test/aac128test/results.html
Finally, here is an indepth comparison between MP3 and AAC - consider
this!
http://www.recordstorereview.com/misc/aacmp3.shtml
Search
AAC MP3 OGG test
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