OK, so I have ordered a player, it is delivered waiting for me to get home and collect it (I work abroad) so now I am starting to think about what I need:

Can anyone recommend some decent, good value (cheap is not the right word but you know what I mean) Windows based software for encoding my CD's

Also, I have the player, I have the car, I can plug in wires, but what should I be looking at in the way of amplifier? I am not an ICE junkie so do not really know what I am looking at, I hope I can get something good for less than 100gbp - there, that gives you an idea of what I know!

My car is a TVR Tuscan, it loud and fun, not the ideal place for top quality ICE hence I dont intend spending loads, plus I am not convinced I would notice the difference!

Thanks for any help, and sorry for what must be the most basic question, but hey, we all need to start somewhere!!

Hate you? Don't be silly!

I recommend MusicMatch. You can get the Basic version for free. It rips and encodes in one step and is pretty nice for the price! There is even a MusicMatch employee who posts here from time to time in case you have any questions. The popular solution seems to be a LAME enocoder, but it is not as easy to use. I have way too many cd's to be bothered with a 2 step process like LAME, but the sound you get is great. Many people on this board can help you with LAME. Just do a search on it.

As far as an amp goes, there was a recent thread here ...http://empeg.comms.net/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_general&Number=62596&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=2#Post63782

Congrats on the new RioCar!

First, read the FAQ. Much good info there.

Second, I like EAC (free) for ripping. But there's a brand new version out that I haven't tried that some people seem to be having some problems with. Other people here seem to like AudioGrabber, as well. I can't think of anyone here who doesn't use LAME (free) for encoding to mp3, except for some folks who use their ripper's built-in encoder.

I'll let someone else answer about the amps.

*musters up best tfabris voice*

Congradulations on your new toy! Definantly check the the FAQ. It has a ton of great stuff in it, including everything you just asked. As for value, you can't go wrong if you want the best quality with Exact Audio Copy and the Lame encoder. I hear some others (musicmatch, audiogalaxy/lame) are good as well though. Good Luck with everything, and definantly spend a ton of time getting your tags right the first time, it's worth it.

john

edit: dang, two minutes late

£100 aint gonna get you much in the way of an amp. But for a little more money, you'll get something good! I spent £180ish on an Alpine (many others available at that price point too) - If your upto the install yourself, there are a number of good online ICE dealers (do a search on the forum they've been posted recently). If not, expect to get stiffed for about 2 hours labour on the fitting of the head unit and the amp (£50ish).

Put your name down on the tuner list ASAP too!

Enjoy your new toy when you get it installed, I know I still am!

I personally like Media Jukebox with the Lame encoder plugin set to VBR high.

The stuff I started ripping recently with that program, sounds infinitely better than the stuff I ripped previously with musicmatch. Could be just because of the Lame encoder, but I like some of the other Media Jukebox features too. They (also) have a great online community, and the developers post and listen to the customers.
And I'ts only 24 bucks.
http://www.musicex.com

Just my .02 cents USD.

Z~

I'm not sure how using Lame as an encoder makes it a 2-step process.

I use Lame from Grip and it's as simple as

• Insert CD
• Correct CDDB info
• Press "Rip and Encode" button
• Upload to empeg

I've been using Media Jukebox, and I love it: it uses the LAME encoder, plus all sorts of database management features. It's like an EMPLODE on steroids. I only wish someone would write a plugin to interface MJ to the EMPEG, then my world would be complete

Im not sure how picky you are with your car soundsystem, but I'm of the opinion that road-noise kills the benefit of real high-end systems. I got a 100W blaupunkt head unit that I bought for $120 american that does great in my opinion.

Good luck and enjoy!
-T

I'm not sure how using Lame as an encoder makes it a 2-step process.

I use Lame from Grip

Exact Audio Copy will run lame, too, making rip-and-encode a single operation. In fact, the installer for the latest EAC says something like "Now, you'll probably want to install lame too", or words to that effect.

Peter

First off, I gotta say, YOU LUCKY BAR***RD.
TVR Tuscan and all....
Although most of roads around here would take out the sump, so I will have to stick with my truck.
For ripping etc I use either MusicMatch for all out speed and a great jukebox to boot or an EAC/LAME combination for stuff like Pink Floyd.

How much is Media Jukebox? I used the first public version and didn't like it... but that was years ago.

too bad you can't get a LAME plug in for MM

Media Jukebox is beta testing version 8 right now. The offical release version is 7.2.
It's about 25 bucks US.
And its gotten a LOT better since version 5 which was about a year or two ago.
The Lame encoder is now built in too. Used to be a seperate license.
Z~

For ripping and encoding in Windows, it doesn't get any easier than CDex. It's an easy interface, it uses the LAME encoder (and supports the r3mix option), and is very quick. Best of all - it's free!

Use the 1.40 beta version, it's much better and I've never had a problem...

SE Sport Driver: You can get a free version of MJ 7, MJ 8 will be pay only (about $25). It's well worth it: I switched over from Music Match, and I have no regrets. LAME is built in. MJ also has hooks for your own encoder, so if you want to specify command line options to LAME, you can do that as well.

-Ted

I am speachless! I just downloaded MJ 7.X and ..... wow. To think I paid for life time updates of MusicMatch...

Is there any way to point the CDDB info that MusicMatch has compiled to MJ? I popped in a CD that MM always recognizes and MJ had to do a new lookup... I am only online during the week mostly. I am also going to miss the defered CDDB lookup of MusicMatch.

I offically take back my recommendation for MusicMatch. It is a good product, but MJ simply rocks. I love how it will rip and THEN encode allowing me to eject the CD. The psuedo WinAmp interface is nice too. But having LAME built in is amazing. I'm going to go sit in a corner now.... I am on my 3RD!! re-ripping of my entire collection...

1st: 160kp with MusicMatch.
2nd: 160kps with MusicMatch set to "Very High" processing.
3rd: 192kps with MusicMatch set to "Very High".

I have over 600 cd's, and am at "N" for my 3rd run.... My poor poor laptop's DVD drive.. I think I am just going to continue from N to Z with LAME MJ and maybe go back for an album here and here... ouch.

Yeah, it's pretty slick.
Not sure about re-pointing your existing CDDB lookup data.
You could try posting to the Media Jukebox Interact community.
I've posted fairly often in the past, with good response.

Should I set it to "Digital Large Buffer" or "Digital w. Error Correction"?

(doing a search on that board now for the CDDB lookup)

I have mine set to Digital Large Buffer.
But I think thats the default, and I've never changed it.
Never really had an issue with error correction.
I suppose if you had some CD's in bad shape it could help though.

Z~

I'v been using musicmatch and riping everything at 320kps. and it seems to be working great.

I've had problems with MMJB on ripping. I switched to EAC with Lame with the --r3mix option. Very nice. I suggest a review of the r3mix site (r3mix.net) Analysis section for anyone interested.

if you're feeling bold, check out the beta 8 version. it's getting pretty mature (although less robust than the current EMPEG beta). Lots of new features. Enjoy!

Oh yeah.. digital large buffer seems to work best and fastest, but dont mess around your computer while it's ripping

-ted

I've been using MusicMatch for all my encoding until now. I'm trying to use Media Jukebox but when I attempt a rip & encode it says: "Open drive failed. Failed to find CD in drive." MusicMatch, WinDAC & Windows Media Player all rip without any problems. Has anyone else had this problem with Media Jukebox?

Wow, what can I say? Here I was thinking I would get bl;asted out of the water for asking the obvious, yet within hours I have a great bunch of recommendations - thanks and keep em coming!!

I already have the Radio addin, well, a maye in the USA bought it and posted it to Holland for me (Brit abroad) and it is yet to arrive, so maybe I should say I have bought it and am awaiting the Dutch postal service (lovely people, honest) to deliver it to me

If you are interested (or wondering) I have a bunch of pictires of my TVR Tuscan at www.gameplan2000.co.uk

Thanks to all who have and intend to reply, I take back all the "techy geek" thoughs I had before I came to this site ;o)

Cheers
Graham

[homer simpson voice] mmm... TVRs [/homer simpson voice]

Here I was thinking I would get bl;asted out of the water for asking the obvious, yet within hours I have a great bunch of recommendations

Welcome to the best online community on the internet.

We'd never blast anyone for asking an honest question. We only get upset if someone is being deliberately mean or insensitive. And if someone is genuinely dense, it's hard to talk with them on an intelligent level. And we won't tolerate trolling. But if you're here to ask honest questions and get straight answers, you've come to the right place.

HOLY COW!!!!!
When you said Tuscan I assumed one of the old ones! Now I know why you can only afford 100 quid for an amp.
Oh how I wish TVR had more dealers in the US.
TTFN

I suggest you not look at Audio Grabber then. Because you'll just end up switching apps yet again.

Bruno

I'm running the latest version of EAC with the latest LAME but it seems EAC isn't the friendliest when trying to customize ID3 tags. For example, it won't write to ID3v2 tags (even though the option is there and selected) and doesn't write the year after accessing CDDB. Anyone know some work arounds? Or should I just switch over to MJ 7/8b? BTW, anyone have problems with MJ 8 beta?

I'd wait a bit on MJ 8 Beta. Its got some issues, and some of the features, old and new are kind of wonky.
Its only been in beta for about 8 weeks.
Play around with 7.x until your familiar with it. That will also give you a benchmark for when you go to 8. You can see if anything is faster/slower, better/worse.
I had 8 installed only very briefly, cause it seemed to rip CD's a lot slower than 7. Could've been my imagination tho.
Also I'd rather rip my CD's on an official tested release than a beta.
Another .02 cents USD.

Z~

To get v2 tags to work, i went into the Compression Options -> ID3 Tag tab, then check Additionally write ID2V2 tags... blah blah... and change the padding to 15kb. I believe you also have to uncheck the Use ID3V1.1 option. Works fine for me! And as for the year... whenever you access CDDB it will blank the year our because the CDDB doesn't contain year information. So you can just add it after you do the lookup, and it will write it out fine.

If you are in Holland, why don't you drop round for a beer and a chat?

And while you're at it, are you coming to the 3rd European Owner's Meet* in June?

*This relates only to the location, not the nationalities permitted to attend

Emission compliance and crash regs make it difficult to shift them, no matter how fast they drive or how good they look. Given the relative strength of the dollar, you could always try importing one....

I must admit, this was almost exactly what I was going to say... AG (and also, surprisingly given the bandwidth limitations of the DLL they use for the compression, Audio Catalyst) have always done me good, and the great benefit of AG is the CDDB access and the ability to just "drop in" compliant DLLs for the compression dogwork.

It's definitely on par with the quality of the HSX-109 RIPs, which I am now tending to use as my comparison standard.

You can pick up a Caliber 80+4 4-channel amp, 55 RMS per channel, for about GBP 100, new. If not, I can buy one here for you at about that price locally and if you are prepared to pay the shipping costs I'll send it to you.

No, hang on, you're in NL - you could come round and buy it yourself!

Its fairly easy to change the tags in audiograbber, and it does write id3v2 tags. I find it easier to use than EAC. AG will also tag the year if its available from freedb. Download the trial version and give it a try.

Sean

There's actually a total of 6 MUSICMATCH employees with Empegs, two of us are on here pretty regularly.

I would like to address one thing about ripping. Software is obviously going to be subjective, HOWEVER, using a sub par drive while ripping will result in bad rips with any software. Also, the customer problems that we have encountered in the ripping areas have most often been attributed to operator error, crappy drives, low memory configs, and trying to rip while running 50 other apps at the same time. Use a little common sense and most software will get you the results you want. I happen to use MMJB exlusively (not just cause I work there) for all my MP3 stuff and I have NEVER had a problem. Oh, and we asked our CD drive guru about it and he said the the Plextor Plexwriter 16x is the absolute best drive there is for digital audio extraction (you should take his word as that of a God....his entire job is to deal with CD drive support). This was before the latest firmware release for the Plexwriter 24x...so that drive, which had big problems, might be fixed now.

Oh...as for getting the CDDB info out of MMJB and into another program...good luck. Gracenote (CDDB) is one of the most evil companies in the world. They sued Roxio for trying to use a competing service...you think the're going to let us export thier data out of MMJB into another app...you're a funny guy ;0)

...he said the Plextor Plexwriter 16x is the absolute best drive there is for digital audio extraction...

Maybe so, but I stil think the Ultraplex 40max is the best drive you can get. Of course, tastes and colours....

There are discs and tracks that the 40x will positively not handle - or can only handle when the DAE speed has been throttled down to 4x. I know because I have one. Perhaps the 16x doesn't have a problem with those items and can still do a multi-speed extraction.

That said, I wouldn't trade this drive for another. When you get a proper disc, it's amazing to see the speed go from 18x up to 40x - and the rip (complete disc) is done in 2 to 3 minutes.

Bruno

How about renaming it the 3rd [Empeg] Owners' European Meet?

I don't doubt what you're saying, but I haven't encoutered a single CD that won't get ripped at full speed on this drive. (though there undoubtedly are such discs around)
I absolutely love this thing! It has ripped approx. 2000 cd's now and it still performs like a champ. Like you say : ripping an entire disc in 2-3 mins is SWEET!

Okay, I take back my initial glowing review of Media Jukebox. It still has a lot of potential, but a few gripes:

1. The general bugginess of the thing. If I ever cancel a CDDB lookup, it crashes the program. This isn't a beta, so it had better be more stable if they expect me to pay to register.
2. The html ads and windows trying to sell me cd drives and everything else... this had BETTER go away if I ever pay the $25 to register.
3. The CDDB look up is no where near as slick as MusicMatch. Every 5 minutes it is trying to look up the CDDB for a CD even if it has failed the first 3 times (and I can't just hit cancel because it will crash). So I have to wait 20 seconds for it to realize that I'm STILL offline. And then, sometimes, it will erase the CD info I typed by hand.

But, I do like that it uses the LAME encoder and it is way faster than MusicMatch. The HIGH VBR files with True Stereo are smaller than the MusicMatch CBR files at 192kps. I want to find a way that I can rip to WAV say...10 cd's and then have it later encode those to mp3's and have all the tag info correct. That way, I can quickly rip to WAV and set a bunch to encode over night.

But still... if there was some way I could get MusicMatch to use LAME (which I paid for the lifetime updates for), I would use MusicMatch because it is stable, has deferred CDDB lookup, is generally a more pollished product and is easier to edit id3 tags......

So, I realized that wanting MusicMatch to use the LAME encoder is probably a pipe dream (I imagine that there a contractual agreements ?) but maybe oh well.

I want to find a way that I can rip to WAV say...10 cd's and then have it later encode those to mp3's and have all the tag info correct. That way, I can quickly rip to WAV and set a bunch to encode over night.

AudioGrabber.

Bruno

Your point about the quality of the drive is more true than most people realise - we tested many different drives for the HSX109 and discovered serious bugs with most of them. These bugs reduce the featureset available to the ripping application, with a resultant loss in performance or quality.

The end user is usually hidden from these issues and will often blame the front end application.

Rob

So what drive is being used in the HSX-109?


-Aaron

>>So, I realized that wanting MusicMatch to use the LAME encoder is probably a pipe dream (I imagine that there a contractual agreements ?) but maybe oh well.

Something like that...

yes.. it is a beta. version 7 is pretty stable. it keeps getting better with every revision though!

It's a Teac CDW58E CDRW although this has now been replaced with a new model.

Rob

if there was some way I could get MusicMatch to use LAME

As Daniel (redbutt2) said, it ain't gonna happen. I think Fraunhofer would kill us.

I want to find a way that I can rip to WAV say...10 cd's and then have it later encode those to mp3's and have all the tag info correct. That way, I can quickly rip to WAV and set a bunch to encode over night.

Check out the latest version of EAC. There's a setting which allows you to specify an external encoder. Then, there's another setting which allows you to say how many encoding sessions to run in parallel.

So, I have it set to 1 background encoder. This way you can continue to rip your CDs while it's encoding in the background. Or, you could just rip to WAV and then start up an encoding session when you're all done. I'm pretty sure EAC stores the ID3 info somewhere with the WAV.

svferris: Is there any reason to think that ripping and encoding in one step produces better quality files than ripping a bunch and then encoding them over night? I can't think of a reason why that would be the case, but I'm neutrotic, so I have to ask. Also, what specific tools do you use to rip and then encode seperately? I used copy file - uncompressed and then compress files. Is there a better way?

Is there any reason to think that ripping and encoding in one step produces better quality files than ripping a bunch and then encoding them over night?

Ripping and encoding is always two separate steps.

Your particular software might appear to do them as a single step, but that's only because it's hiding what's going on under the hood. The sofware doing the ripping is a different piece of software than what's doing the encoding. Even if the encoder software is a realtime .DLL or codec, it's still separate.

The only difference between the one-step/two-step arrangement is timing and convenience, it has nothing to do with the quality of the resulting files.

The only difference between the one-step/two-step arrangement is timing and convenience, it has nothing to do with the quality of the resulting files

Unless of course doing the two in one go causes the ripper to make bad quality rips, which you have to be careful with on low end machines.

For example when I used to use AudioCatalyst if I selected the option to encode on the fly as it was ripping it often caused the rips to end up bad (even through no ripping problems were reported).

Oh, didn't realize you could do that with AudioCatalyst. Far as I'm concerned, that's a bug in the program.

It works great on machines that can handle it. It results in the fastest ripping/encoding I have ever seen. I think my record was about three minutes for a whole CD.

I stopped using AudioCatalyst though, as I wanted to switch to a better quality encoder, the AudioCatalyst encoder is fast for a reason...

Ok, I ripped a few cds first, then had them encoded overnight, but the ID3 tag data was not saved. Is there a way around this?

Depends on the program...

I'm a new "AudioGrabber" convert and it has a box you can check that asks the program to append an ID3 tag to the uncompressed WAV file for later use when encoding (it will take the info in the WAV's id3 tag and create an ID3 on the mp3).

I'm using the latest version of EAC. Is there a way to have it save ID3 data to wav files with that program?

I don't hate you for the question, I hate you for the car.

Stupid TVR ... won't send me a Speed 12 to the USA. One day that car will be mine, whether US Customs and TVR like it or not.

Greg

Go to the UK. Buy one. Rent a container. Throw it on a ship. Send it to the US. Pay the duties. Now getting it on the road (legally) will be the struggle. You'd also want to order it left-hand-drive. Or buy it from a dealer in Italy that already imports them this way.

Bruno

Nae, ID3 is not containable in the industry-standard.wav file. I'm sure someone has made proprietary extensions, but obviously not done well enough :P

The ID3 tags that Audiograbber adds to WAV files are probably proprietary (because they know you wouldn't be using their program unless you are ripping with the intent of later encoding) but considering that they successfully popular the proper fields in the ID3v2 tags of all the mp3's I make with it, I say they ARE doing it well enough! :P

And thanks again to Bruno for helping me set it up!

No problem. You're welcome.

I don't think there is an official spec for how tag fields should be set within a WAV, but the way AudioGrabber is adding them shouldn't cause a problem when trying to use that WAV elsewhere. I believe the WAV spec does allow metadata of some form to exist. There's info about this on the AG site somewhere or in the AG help file. It would be nice if this info were able to be used by other software. And it would be nice if other software (rippers) also tagged their WAVs in the same way (making interoperability a lot easier - a lot of people have a hard time doing smooth/simple tagging as part of their workflow)

Bruno

I know that with CoolEdit Pro, you can add all sorts of information to WAV files, so maybe there IS a standard of some sorts?

It's good to know that they make left-hand drive. For I while I got the impression that they wouldn't.

They did say they'll never stoop to producing for the US. Something about environmentalists, carbon-monoxide, blah blah blah.

Maybe I can just get the Audi inspected and licensed every year, then move those over to the TVR. I'll tell the cop that the TVR is just a new body on the Audi frame ... think it'll work? ;-)

g

They did say they'll never stoop to producing for the US. Something about environmentalists, carbon-monoxide, blah blah blah.

I think it is more the lack of airbag and ABS that stops them selling them in the US. There are occasionally rumours that they are going to start selling to the US, but it never seems to come to anything.

It's nice to know that there are still some benefits to living in the UK...

Having been in the TVR factory, I expect they'll make nearly anything they're asked for. The place is very, um, "traditional" compared to the high-volume manufacturers like Nissan (to pick another one I've been in).