The "Encoding CD's to MP3's" discussion thread (cd, itunes)

Whatsitoosit · 09-18-2008, 11:12 AM

Not sure if a thread like this already exists.. if so, my apologies to the mods.

Basically I was wondering what everyone encoded their music collection with and at what rate. iTunes settings can be pretty complex (variable bitrate, smart encoding, frequency filters, etc...) has anybody played around with what works and what doesn't?.

I've heard that using iTunes to encode is a bad idea... a lot of people use the plugin "LAME". For anyone familiar with LAME, I just downloaded the script to run it with iTunes. I set it to the highest quality (320kbps) and the conversion (for one song) takes a lot longer then a 320 mp3 w/just itunes. Just wondering what exactly are the differences... is it just a more detailed conversion making it sound clearer? would it be worth my time to import my cd collection using LAME or should I just stick with iTunes alone?

09-18-2008, 11:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
Whatsitoosit Bringer of Carrots Join Date: May 2008 Location: New York, NY Posts: 648	The "Encoding CD's to MP3's" discussion thread Not sure if a thread like this already exists.. if so, my apologies to the mods. Basically I was wondering what everyone encoded their music collection with and at what rate. iTunes settings can be pretty complex (variable bitrate, smart encoding, frequency filters, etc...) has anybody played around with what works and what doesn't?. I've heard that using iTunes to encode is a bad idea... a lot of people use the plugin "LAME". For anyone familiar with LAME, I just downloaded the script to run it with iTunes. I set it to the highest quality (320kbps) and the conversion (for one song) takes a lot longer then a 320 mp3 w/just itunes. Just wondering what exactly are the differences... is it just a more detailed conversion making it sound clearer? would it be worth my time to import my cd collection using LAME or should I just stick with iTunes alone? __________________ "It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face."