iTunes MP3 encoder! Is it good? - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

Jake · 2005-08-14, 09:27 PM

OK I finally decided to encode my favorite 100 CD's to MP3 and dump them onto my aging 6GB MP3/WMA player that has been gathering dust. I am leaning towards iTunes because it can be automated and I can create VBR MP3s giving me some compatibility. Has anyone used the iTunes VBR encoder? I will have to play around with the QUALITY setting but I guess MEDIUM seems to be the way to go. I am still on the fence with what kbps to use. Since this is not serious audio I would like to maximize my space. That being 128 kbps I figure.

This is one of the original Creative Nomad units that weighs in at about 2 lbs! Needless to say it will be sitting on top of my stereo and not sliding into my back pocket

It has 2 line-outputs plus headphones output. I have thought of acquiring a 20GB drive to swap out the 6 GB one. Then I could encode my entire collection and even bump up the encoding to 160kbps. Any thoughts?

PS: I used to use Lame but I have not seen a CDDB interface GUI for it. Is that still the case?

Jake · 2005-08-15, 08:53 AM

Just a follow up to my own message. I have discovered CDEX thanks to this forum. It allows you to pick your CDDB source and uses Lame 3.92 for the encoding engine. The only thing to check out is why it is over 2 years old since the last update. Cheers.

Deckster · 2005-08-16, 09:47 PM

Personally I use Audiograbber. It used to be shareware, but now is freeware. It has a built in normalizer and compressor, uses CDDB info and Lame Encoder.

http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/

2005-08-14, 09:27 PM	#1
Jake Moderator Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Gatineau and Ottawa Posts: 10,175	iTunes MP3 encoder! Is it good? OK I finally decided to encode my favorite 100 CD's to MP3 and dump them onto my aging 6GB MP3/WMA player that has been gathering dust. I am leaning towards iTunes because it can be automated and I can create VBR MP3s giving me some compatibility. Has anyone used the iTunes VBR encoder? I will have to play around with the QUALITY setting but I guess MEDIUM seems to be the way to go. I am still on the fence with what kbps to use. Since this is not serious audio I would like to maximize my space. That being 128 kbps I figure. This is one of the original Creative Nomad units that weighs in at about 2 lbs! Needless to say it will be sitting on top of my stereo and not sliding into my back pocket It has 2 line-outputs plus headphones output. I have thought of acquiring a 20GB drive to swap out the 6 GB one. Then I could encode my entire collection and even bump up the encoding to 160kbps. Any thoughts? PS: I used to use Lame but I have not seen a CDDB interface GUI for it. Is that still the case? __________________ Tip: See an offending post? Don't reply, report it by clicking on the 'Report Post' icon.

2005-08-15, 08:53 AM	#2
Jake Moderator Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Gatineau and Ottawa Posts: 10,175	Just a follow up to my own message. I have discovered CDEX thanks to this forum. It allows you to pick your CDDB source and uses Lame 3.92 for the encoding engine. The only thing to check out is why it is over 2 years old since the last update. Cheers. __________________ Tip: See an offending post? Don't reply, report it by clicking on the 'Report Post' icon.

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2005-08-16, 09:47 PM	#3
Deckster Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sudbury ON, and Red Lake ON Posts: 1,040	Personally I use Audiograbber. It used to be shareware, but now is freeware. It has a built in normalizer and compressor, uses CDDB info and Lame Encoder. http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/