Naming MP3 files when ripping CDs

I want to rip about 100 CDs. Is manually the only way to name the mp3 files that are created?

How do mp3 files compare in sound quality to a CD?

I was going to use LAME with Exact Audio Copy.

What exactly does LAME do? How do I use it with EAC?

 

I can't answer all the questions but changing the names on 1000+ songs doesn't sounds very fun to me. I'm sure there's another way of doing so. And the quality between MP3 and a CD isn't very noticeable.

 

EAC can automatically name them using the freedb information it downloads (see EAC/EAC Options/Filename to configure the naming patterns).

Depends on the encoder and quality setting you choose.

Good.

Uh, it's an MP3 encoder.

You want to configure EAC to use it (EAC/Compression Options/External Compression).

Overall it doesn't sound like you've done your homework (at least read up on the basics, skim through EAC's option dialogs, and take a peak at the HA wiki or one of the other countless EAC setup guides), so I'd suggest you do that now

 

Be advised:
Even 320KBit/s MP3 will be worse in quality than a CD/wave (uncompressed).

If you hear it is another question.
You could also consider Flac - while its lossless - thanks Dave (for proof) - the sound qualty still isn't equal between different compressions.
Possibly due to the decoder.

Edit:
Foobar can name CDs too - and works with Lame.

Always check entries from the Internet, for some CDs there are none, for others rthey are wrong.

 

Windows Media Player works great for ripping , and it`s fast , just rip to mp3 at at least 192k , but if you got space 320k

 

Its works great - but its abilit to find CDs ouside most mainstream music is limited.

Try an older CD for example... either it doesn't find the titles or labels them wrong
...and on Classical too...

If you could change the source for Media Information - that would be great.
In the past Gracenote has been better to me.

 

I have always used Media Monkey to batch rename my music files. It will also tag em for ya.

 

* If the CDs are Original and not "Boot Leg" copies, Windows Media Player should automatically name the tracks (once connected to the Internet) as they are being ripped from the CD. If not you can always manually give the tracks names. Tedious yes!

* IMO once the CD is being ripped at at least 160Kbps it would "sound" like CD quality.

Don't know much about Lame.

 

The May 2007 issue of MaximumPC has a good article on how to rip your cd's using lossless codec.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PQIAAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0

 

Well I have a few original, bought in shop CDs that Windows Media Player will not recognize, or recognize as a different CD.
At the same time, Gracenote (another service for Media Information) will recognize them just fine.

Manually naming CDs is (at least in WMP 11) absolute junk.

First I go to the trouble of inputting all the stuff, and then I find that the artist information is only saved in the first song...

 

I see...well I personally never had any issues with Windows Media Player not being able to read the Album/Artist/Song info. from a CD unless I wasn't connected to the Internet. I guess that'll happen sometimes....

In renaming I was talking about doing this in Windows Explorer itself after the files has been ripped....

 

I suspect the databasedfor Windows Media Player is heavily "mainstrea skewed".

Renaming files in Explorer it very, very tedious...

 

If I have an 8 GB Ipod nano, and about 1,200 songs, what is the highest level of encoding I can use and still have room for about 500 songs?

The nano capacity is supposed to be 2,000 songs.

 

Depends on song length too...

I think these manufacturer specs are based on either 128 or 196KBit/s - but I'm not sure.

It should say somewhere in the small print.

 

At 128 kbps (aka not quite compact cassette quality), 1 minute of music takes up about 1 MB. Therefore 2000 songs of 4 minutes will fit on 8 gig.

In other words you can get approx 800 songs on your player at 320 kbps which is the usual maximum compression with mp3.

These numbers are very approximate.

 

These are the specs according to apple.:

Song capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; in 256-Kbps AAC format, song capacity is up to 1,000 songs (8GB) or 2,000 songs (16GB); actual capacity varies by encoding method and bit rate.


Someone in this thread stated about 160 is CD quality. If i go to 128, will I notice a big difference.

 

Assuming your hearing is fine, it depends on how much and how closely you listen to your music.

Trus CD quality is better than 320kbps or even q10 Ogg (500 kbps), but you probably won't notice unless you listen carefully without too much background noise.

Personally I encode at the highest rate I have space for. I think there is a big jump going from 128 to 160, but each further increase brings benefits.

BTW bitrate isn't the only way quality differs, for instance the at any bitrate ogg is supposedly better than aac which in turn is better than mp3, but mp3 is the most flexible.

 

And it depends on the headphones...

....quality of the audio output too...