[Empeg-general] Re: I've never ripped CD's and I want to do it right

[Henno Putto]

> It looks like AudioCatalyst is the tool to use. I don't mind paying the $30 for it.
Is 128K really CD quality? 

I agree to your first statement: am using (have used) AC to fill just over 60% of my Mk2's capacity (2852 tracks /some 250 CD's I think and am happy with its performance. It is easy to use and has sufficient settings to cope with most of my requirements. I especially like its VBR capabilities that *really* seem to be able to save disk-space while maintaining a pretty good quality. Started out with medium/high settings, when I first got my Mk1. Have moved to 'high quality' ripping, now I have the Mk2. At the high setting, it all sounds a lot smoother. I'm not sure as to why I'm hearing a difference. It could be that the Mk2 is so much more critical than the Mk1, which I dout. It could also be that you develop an ear for the artifacts that creep into MP3 encoding: at first it all sounds pretty impressive, but over time you start to learn what to listen for. Forget about 128, unless you need to cramp a lot of info into a small space. IMHO it is not suitable for music.

Anyhow: AC / high / VBR does it for me (and many others on this board).


> going to take a long time to rip 200 CD's and I *really* don't want to to do it more than once.
My advise: use AC, and use CDDB to retrieve raw track/album info. After ripping, review theID3 tags and make sure they are accurate and complete. The empeg software is pretty powerful, but needs correct/accurate data. For a little bit of tweaking of tag info, you can use AC. When tags are seriously out or inconsistent, you'll need a more powerful tag editor. I'm very happy with Tag&Rename.

Good Luck

Henno 
mk2 > 6 nr 6