please help - which format do I use?

A

alexpos

New member
hi everyone...I'm fairly new at this so please bear with me. My new computer has Windows media player ver9 installed, as well as Nero 5.5 (express).

I want to do two things: record songs from my old cds onto cdr's, "compiling" them with the best sound quality possible. What would be the best way to do this? I don't mind at all only having the normal number of songs on the cd (ie 12 or so). Are wav files the best for this and if so how do I use them?

Secondly, I'd like to compress songs onto my hard-drive and cdr's - what would provide the best quality sound for this - mp3pro or wma files? I don't mind them taking up a bit more space for better sound quality.

Well, thankyou and hope you all aren't too exasperated with me!
 
L

LTR12101B

1
I'd reject proprietary (and DRM-infested) formats in favour of:
OGG Vorbis, MPC or LAME MP3 using (alt-)preset extreme or insane

You won't fit a FULL Audio CD onto a DATA CD in WAV format, as the data CD uses more error correction (so it's actually a good way to archive). You can compile tracks to an Audio CD, and then it will play in any normal player.

Another option, is to use LOSSLESS compression, such as Monkey's Audio - that probably would let you archive an audio CD to DATA format WAV files, but don't expect even 50% compression ... the penalty of lossless audio compression is poor compression ratio - but still WAY better than ZIP would do on it.

I don't want to direct people away from our forum, but go take a look at www.hydrogenaudio.org - everything you (N)ever wanted to know about audio compression.
 
weboneando

weboneando

1
alexpos said:
record songs from my old cds onto cdr's, "compiling" them with the best sound quality possible. What would be the best way to do this? I don't mind at all only having the normal number of songs on the cd (ie 12 or so). Are wav files the best for this and if so how do I use them?
Click to expand...
For this porpouse I think you´ld want to clean/edit your tracks so wav is the way to go as for quality it all depends on your hardware a normal audio card would let you record at 16 bits/44.1kbps wich is cd audio quality and it works fine for almost any editing porpouses, in the case that you have a better audio card then use the bigger bitrate possible, 24bits/96Kbps is the best quality possible in consumer cards like the Audigy2 if you have one of this then try recording at best quality possible.

As for compression I can´t tell because never use compression for audio.
 
C

celtic_druid

1
No need to record, just extract the tracks using DAE, which although you can do using Nero, I would suggest that you use EAC.

For compiling actual audio CD's, yeah stick with wav, anything else and you waste time encoding and decompressing.

For archival as said any lossless format, monkey, flac, optim frog, etc.

--alt-preset extreme might be overkill and insane if I recall correctly is just 320 CBR.

mp3 only really makes sense if you care about hardware players, otherwise I would go with MPC. Vorbis and AAC also have some hardware support though, as does WMA, but not pro or lossless I don't think.
 
A

alexpos

New member
next question...how do I record using wav files?

and what's better, quality-wise...MP3pro, or WMA using mathematically lossless?
 
A

alexpos

New member
just a few more questions...

sorry bout all the simple questions...but here goes nothing...

when I record saved wma lossless tracks onto a cd, it seems I can only record the usual 12 or 13 songs... when I thought wma format meant I could record a lot more onto a cd. Is it just that I'm recording them using too high a quality or what?

secondly, how do I record songs of cd's into wav files? the only options I seem to have on nero are Mp3pro or wma on media player. Which program should I use to do this, and where do I go to set this up? Wav files are a mystery.

Thanks again for your patience with me
 
L

LTR12101B

1
www.exactaudiocopy.de - EAC is the finest CD ripper on the Windows platform - BAR NONE - even those you have to BUY!

Which bit of Nero are you using - I've never used anything but EAC, particularly as I'm usually trying to recover a CD that is already reading badly, and EAC gives me the best shot.

As for fitting data-mode tracks.....

You LOSE 15% going from audio (2352 usable bytes/sector with only C1/C2 correction) to data (2048 usable bytes/sector with the remainder used for an extra layer of error detection/correction).

Lossless audio compression has pretty miserable compression rates
http://www.monkeysaudio.com/comparison.html
- actually, any of those probably beat WMA lossless.
The (no longer developed) MediaXW Directshow allows many programs to handle Monkey's Audio. Some other players also have plugins for it.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
alexpos said:
the only options I seem to have on nero are Mp3pro or wma on media player. Which program should I use to do this, and where do I go to set this up? Wav files are a mystery.
Click to expand...
like LTR told, best way is EAC;
however Wave is an option in Nero too: the ripping dialog is called "Save Tracks", there choose "PCM Wav file" as "Output file format" (additional settings: Stereo, 16 Bit, 44100 Hz);


Greetings from
Duracell
 
C

celtic_druid

1
Hey, I suggested EAC first.

Actually there have been two working monkey dshow filters released since MediaXW. One by radlight and the other by DSP Worx who also have a mod dshow filter (not related I know, but cool none the less).

CoreCodec also have a flac dshow decoder. You could rip to a single flac, convert the CUE to chapters and store an entire album complete with cover art (which shows up as a thumbnail) in a single MKA file, which when loaded up in Foobar I believe shows up as seperate tracks, each with its own tags.
 
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