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[Van T Tran]

Having recently discovered the wonderful world of digital music, I am planning to encode my entire CD collection soon.  Before I do, I am unsure as to whether to encode the mp3 files by CBR or VBR.  I am more concerned about quality than size, which should I choose?  Also, I understand that 128kbps is standard but is there a discernable improvement with 160kbps.  I appreciate any feedback.  Thanks in advance.

[Doof]

If you're primary concern is quality, then you should use APE.

[dragyn]

ape if size doesn't matter

vbr cause it's cool

do not do 128 whatever you do. At LEAST 192 if anything.

I use ape and vbr high.

[Cmagic]

As already mentioned go APE if HDD space is not a problem for you.
In case you need more compression use VBR.

I personally use APE and MPC/MP|PLS| (VBR Only format).

[Van Tran]

Wow, I am glad I asked!  Where do I select this APE encoder on MJ.  The only options I see are WMA, LAME MP3, Org Vobis and Wave.  Also, can I play this APE format on portable digital players, such as RioVolt? Thanks for all your feedback.  This forum is a great learning tool!

[Doof]

Well, here's the thing.

APE is pretty much only supported by MJ and Winamp.

But it's a lossless encoder. So all of your digital music will be a bit-for-bit perfect copy of the CD it came from. Once it's in APE, MJ can very easily convert it to any other format you wish.

I use APE for playback through MJ on my good speakers. If I burn a CD, then the tracks are CD quality. If want to use my portable player, I convert down to mp3 or wma since I'm usually not as concerned with quality at that point.

If you start with APE the first time, you never have to worry about re-ripping & re-encoding your music later when some other format comes along. Because you can always work directly from the APE file and it will be just like you started with the CD every time.

APE's are big. They're typically around 10-15 MB in size (roughly half the size of the wav file that they come from) so they probably won't be supported by portable players anytime soon. Since I use MJ to transfer files to my Nomad, I also have it automatically convert to WMA. So it's all seemless to me.

You can get the APE encoder from the Plug-Ins page. (Accessories - Plug-ins up above).

[KingSparta]

Van Tran

If you wish to stream them APE is not the answer, If not then you better get a 120gig drive

I think there is a way to figure the amount of hard drive space needed with wav (10 megs a min) MATT should know for APE, and you can make sure you have the right size hard drive.

[kitfox]

Van T Tran

yes, what Doof said. Ape has saved many of us from the constant re-ripping that is inherent with mp3. You see, with mp3 (or wma, or any other lossy [read lousy] format), your hearing will soon adapt and you will begin to notice what is absent from the music that you love, so you will then re-rip your CDs at a higher bitrate, and then repeat the process another half dozen times, before switching to ape anyway. Save yourself the time and effort, and do it right the first time. Unless you have 75,000 or so songs--if that's the case, I'd consider just sticking with mp3s. Yes, you will need more hard drive space with ape than the others. No, ape isn't good for streaming or for portable players. I rip to ape, then convert a copy to mp3 in another directory for that purpose. That's where your cdr v. vbr question fits in, and opinions vary (vbr is probably the best). The benefit with ape is that you will really have CD quality sound and if you want to burn music CDs, you don't have to dig the original CDs out. After I rip a CD, the CD doesn't come back off the shelf--the original is my "archived" copy, if that makes any sense at all.

[Charlemagne 8]

Another good thing about APE is the copy speed. It copies to APE about as fast as it would copy to a WAV and then you're done. With MP3 (CBR or VBR) you copy to WAV and THEN convert to MP3. Slow.

[Darwyn]

On the APE subject:

From my experience with Rock and Pop music, size after compression is somewhere between 50% to 75%. So a 4 minute song (40 MB wav file) will compress to 20-30 MB or about 25 MB average. This means 250 to 350 MB per typical 10 to 15 track CD. You will get maybe 3 to 3.5 CDs in APE format per GB or HDD. So a current cheapo 60 GB drive may hold maybe 180 to 200 CDs. Double that for a high end 120 GB. Quite an impressive library though instantly at your fingertips. (Remember those tediously hard days of old when you had to actually get up from the chair and walk to the CD shelf!!)

Darwyn

[zevele1]

Van T Tran
All the answers you got are about sound quality.And you got very good answers
But there is  other  things you need to think about
_do you want to be part of Music01?
do you want to do cds with mp3 on it for your car,your DVD ?
do you want to give to friends mp3cds.And maybe they will burn some songs on a redbook cd?Or play them on they discman
do you use "Napster clones"?
how much music do you wish to put on your mp3 player,the most you can?

If you answer yes to all or almost all,you have to choose CBR,notVRB-128 or 192 kps mp3
THIS IS NOT THE BEST SOUNDING FORMAT,but the most convenient.kind of "one size fit all"

listening to  The Frost-live at the grande ballroom! very so-so