Guide to music ripping/encoding
Excellent article at
Ars Technica on the various formats for music storage and software options.
bq.
A guide to ripping and encoding music
MP3, MP2, MPC, APE, FLAC, AIFF, WAV, OGG, etc. The list of audio formats out there seems to go on and on, and to the uninitiated, it's a daunting task sorting through them all. Chances are, most of us started out using an all-in-one ripper/encoder. For me, it was MusicMatch JukeBox, back when you had to pay to encode anything higher than 96Kbps. Times changed, and I discovered the joys of p2p, back before the RIAA made a big stink about file-sharing. I am embarrassed to admit that I downloaded MP3s based on their file size... the smaller the better. You see, I had not made the tenuous connection between quality and file size. All that mattered was that I had dialup Internet access, and the quicker I could download a file, the better. Come to think of it, I didn't even know what variable bit rate (VBR) was, and when I saw the bitrate changing in Winamp one time, I deleted the file because I thought there was something wrong with it.
The article then goes on to talk about lossy and lossless compression and preferred software to use. Good overall look.
Posted by DaveH at January 23, 2005 3:07 PM