For iPod: Ripping to FLAC or MP3, volume normalizing and album art?

Sossity · #1 06-05-2012, 05:39 PM

I was looking online about ripping audio cd's to flac. I came across a discussion about converting from flac to mp3, & one poster said to avoid this, & that it is better to use the multiencoding feature of the software I use; dBpoweramp, & rip to flac & mp3 at the same time. They said that this will make better audio quality & results.

I cannot see it making a big difference if one rips to mp3 directly from an audio CD vs ripping directly to flac from an audio CD & then after converting from the flac audio files to mp3 for use on an ipod.

or does it? mp3 is lossless anyway, whether it is ripped directly from the CD or converted from flac correct?

another issue they discussed is volume normalizing, I have never really messed with this, as I did not quite fully understand it. I just turn the volume up a bit on my ipod or car stereo when I come across a CD with not as load audio quality.

I usually want to get a close to exact copy of the CD in it's original from, or rip as the source in my rippers settings when choosing audio settings.

I tried using the volume adjuster to my mp3 files in itunes, & it did not seem to make a big difference to me, so I just left things alone.

Also, a Q on embedding album art into flac albums;

I notice that people use audio players that play digital files like flac, I do not have one of these, they are a bit expensive. I just play the CDs in a CD player, & use my ipod as a portable catalog of most of my music. I embed high resolution jpg scans of my album art into my flac files of my albums, dont know if this would cause playback problems if I did decide to use one of those digital music players. I will probably just concern myself with this if that time comes. I am trying to keep things as simple as possible.

whatever the answers to these Qs are, I have gone ahead with my system of cataloging my music, & it would be very tedious for me to go back now, I have done probably over 300+ CD's.

I use dBpoweramp for ripping CD's to flac, for lossess version. Then use the free mp3 tag app to adjust tag info, & embed my own scanned album art into them, & convert from these flac files to mp3 CBR 256kpbs for my ipod.

kpmedia · #2 06-05-2012, 09:18 PM

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& one poster said to avoid this, & that it is better to use the multiencoding feature of the software I use; dBpoweramp, & rip to flac & mp3 at the same time. They said that this will make better audio quality & results.

That person fails to understand what "lossless" compression is, and is therefore incorrect and giving bad advice.

A FLAC file is essentially the same as the uncompressed PCM audio on the CD-Audio disc. Audio encoded to MP3 will sound the same from either the uncompressed PCM, or from the lossless FLAC. FLAC uses data compression, not sound compression. MP3 has the sound compression, cutting off various frequencies and compressing what's left.

Note: That should NOT be confused with MP3 sounding inferior, as not all frequencies are in the human hearing range anyway, and not all audio samples stored in PCM are music/voice anyway. "FLAC is better than MP3" is an oversimplified conclusion, based on faulty understanding of audio. The best argument is that FLAC files are not unreasonably large anymore, even compared to proper-bitrate MP3, so why not store losslessly? Only use MP3 when required -- that iPod, for example.

EAC is good for rip/conversion. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/inde...rces/download/

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I cannot see it making a big difference if one rips to mp3 directly from an audio CD vs ripping directly to flac from an audio CD & then after converting from the flac audio files to mp3 for use on an ipod.

Yep, you were correct.

At worst, sometimes the quality difference in MP3 is simply one of bitrate choice and the underlying encoder. Fraunhofer vs FFMPEG, for example. Fraunhofer is the official licensed encoder, while FFMPEG is a reverse-engineered freeware.

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another issue they discussed is volume normalizing, I have never really messed with this, as I did not quite fully understand it. I just turn the volume up a bit on my ipod or car stereo when I come across a CD with not as load audio quality.

Normalizing isn't really the same as volume, though they're related. There's also a few kinds of normalization. Since your source is likely commercial CD music, and not something homemade, the levels are already where they should be. Altering audio is something I don't suggest, in this scenario. One common scenario where normalizing helps is when the source has a higher dynamic range sources, like DTS or Dolby AC3 from a movie DVD. Normalizing can help reshape this, and lessen the range.

As mentioned, your stereo/iPod has a volume knob, if there are hearing issues.

Quote:

I embed high resolution jpg scans of my album art into my flac files of my albums, dont know if this would cause playback problems if I did decide to use one of those digital music players. I will probably just concern myself with this if that time comes. I am trying to keep things as simple as possible.

I don't really know. Never bothered. Some of my audio has album art, some does not, and none of if is there from my doing.