Ripping HQ Mp3s with proper tags

[Thorolf]

The librarian in me put off the prospect of ripping (encoding) CDs to my hard drive, until I found how I could get the ultimate quality/compactness tradeoff. I only intended to rip my CDs once for everyday use, but as I want to have the benefit of the ones that have already made track tags that pop up whenever I insert a comercially available CD into my computer, I would like a CD ripper to perserve this info in an easy way.

iTunes by Apple does all of this right out of the box, but their encoding codecs leaves something to be desired. I could overcome this by ripping to a silly high bitrate (320 kb/s) using just about any codec, but that compromises the compactness. After searching for an alternative, it became clear that the best Mp3 encoder available is LAME. And on Mac, which I use, there is a script, called iTunes-LAME. However, the version of LAME that is included in this script is not the most up to date one (LAME 3.97), and also the source code that compiles into that version of LAME (LAME 3.97b2) contains an error that makes one of the tags, ripping comments, not display properly.

Fortunately, there is a workaround here, but this requires a certain familiarity with compiling etc.

In the end, I am very happy with my CD rips: They sound faboulous using the (-q 0 -V 0) setting, which creates a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) rip of highest possible quality, all the files are numbered according to the original’s track numbers, tagged properly, and they are relatively compact. One thing should be noted, tho: The ripping process in itself is insanely slow, only on average 2,5 times the actual real-time playing speed, so a full, one-hour CD rips in 15-20 minutes, on my fastest-in-the-year-2003 PowerMac.

If anybody has experiences with this, or want to give it a shot, I can compile the LAME codec for you (Macs only), or you can download the fixed LAME 3.97 source here, and compile yourself.

For true bit-for-bit archival purposes, one should of course use the lossless flac format, but for everyday streaming to your stereo, and for uploading to your iPod, look no further than LAME.

Regards

[Alvren]

Yeah, nearly all my .mp3's are encoded with lame
However, I got my lame_enc.dll from some application I downloaded :X I couldn't really find any other way to get it. That should be easy, I haven't really put much spirit into it.
For ripping my CDs, I used a nice program before. I don't remember its name now, but I know it became liike... more "legal" regarding .mp3 encoding and it suddenly became unavailable. I don't know what that was for, I forgot the exact reason; as far as I know .mp3 is perfectly legal for personal use, only if you distribute a large number of copies (of course, that talking about non-copyrighted work) you need to pay royalties for the use of the compression format.
Thing is now I use another one that'll still work, but it's WAY slower and I miss that old one so much! It ripped around 2~3 tracks in a minute, new one's one track each two minutes. That sucks for ripping... at least it gets the tags correct.
Still I don't have any step-backs with lame encoding (that name is lame! haha), I totally recommend it. (only need to get it to work as you like!)