In Windows, my process in ripping CD is from EAC to WAV image + .cue to CDex to Lame MP3. On my Mac, I've been using Max to rip my CDs to WAV image + .cue, then XLD to encode to Lame MP3.
Max CD ripper is okay, but the musicbrainz tagging is close to useless. It never recognize any of my CDs. Now, XLD can rip CDs! Even better, people are saying it's secure, similar to the gold standard EAC. That means I can use just 1 program, XLD, to rip and encode CDs to MP3. I do notice that ripping speed is a bit slower vs Max. Another excellent thing about XLD is you can set the number of threads, useful if you have dual/quad-core processors. Setting it to 2 means XLD will encode 2 tracks at the same time, utilizing 2 cores, saving quite a bit of time. XLD seems to get frequent updates lately, which is good. Plus, it can patch itself now, no need to uninstall/re-install manually. Great program, and XLD is free!
Showing posts with label lame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lame. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Sony NWZ-S616F pink
Guess what I bought.
My sister wants larger capacity DAP than the 2GB nano I gave her, and something with FM radio. The Sony player is perfect, especially with its super easy drag-n-drop file transfer. I guess transferring music to the nano is not "easy" enough for her. :p Plus she doesn't need gapless playback.
The NWZ-S616F comes with minimal accessories. A stock bud (looks like the crappy E808), USB to WM-port cable, and a dock adapter. The body is plastic, but build quality seems okay. The buttons (especially the volume and hold switch) feel really cheap though. The FCC label looks like a cheapo sticker. Unit is Made in Malaysia. Obviously thicker vs the 2G nano (pictured above).
Drag-n-drop from my iMac is straight forward. The Sony is recognized as a UMS device. Drag-n-drop files using Finder is super easy. The only weird issue is that I cannot seem to eject the device. Every time I eject it, it will reconnect almost right away. Unplugging the USB cable when it's not writing doesn't hurt the content, but Finder yelled at me. I connected it to my WinXP machine, and it's recognized as UMS device just fine. The fact that a Sony audio device can be as easy as this is mind boggling. :D
Oh, gapless? Since I don't see anybody doing it, I conducted a test myself. Here's the video:
In short, gapless only on WAV files. Even at 4GB, using WAV files is not practical, unless you only listen to very few albums.
My sister wants larger capacity DAP than the 2GB nano I gave her, and something with FM radio. The Sony player is perfect, especially with its super easy drag-n-drop file transfer. I guess transferring music to the nano is not "easy" enough for her. :p Plus she doesn't need gapless playback.
The NWZ-S616F comes with minimal accessories. A stock bud (looks like the crappy E808), USB to WM-port cable, and a dock adapter. The body is plastic, but build quality seems okay. The buttons (especially the volume and hold switch) feel really cheap though. The FCC label looks like a cheapo sticker. Unit is Made in Malaysia. Obviously thicker vs the 2G nano (pictured above).
Drag-n-drop from my iMac is straight forward. The Sony is recognized as a UMS device. Drag-n-drop files using Finder is super easy. The only weird issue is that I cannot seem to eject the device. Every time I eject it, it will reconnect almost right away. Unplugging the USB cable when it's not writing doesn't hurt the content, but Finder yelled at me. I connected it to my WinXP machine, and it's recognized as UMS device just fine. The fact that a Sony audio device can be as easy as this is mind boggling. :D
Oh, gapless? Since I don't see anybody doing it, I conducted a test myself. Here's the video:
In short, gapless only on WAV files. Even at 4GB, using WAV files is not practical, unless you only listen to very few albums.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Max, CD ripper for Mac
Max is a CD ripper program for MacOS X. Couple nice things:
- cdparanoia gives you more accurate rip. Probably not as extensive as EAC though.
- ability to rip from CUE sheet + .wav image file.
- uses Lame MP3
The ugly:
- MP3 ripped tracks have a 1 to 2 seconds silence in the beginning. I compared them with tracks ripped with CDex on Windows, and no such silence. :(
- Minimal control over drive configuration compared to EAC
- Minimal control over MP3 encoder setting. Cannot specify the various presets, although the Transparent setting is presumably equal to -preset fast standard.
- One ripped track had the last second of the previous track in the beginning. WTF??
Not perfect. I'll stick with xld for my CUE+wav into MP3 solution, or use my windows PC and enjoy the magnificent EAC and CDex.
- cdparanoia gives you more accurate rip. Probably not as extensive as EAC though.
- ability to rip from CUE sheet + .wav image file.
- uses Lame MP3
The ugly:
- MP3 ripped tracks have a 1 to 2 seconds silence in the beginning. I compared them with tracks ripped with CDex on Windows, and no such silence. :(
- Minimal control over drive configuration compared to EAC
- Minimal control over MP3 encoder setting. Cannot specify the various presets, although the Transparent setting is presumably equal to -preset fast standard.
- One ripped track had the last second of the previous track in the beginning. WTF??
Not perfect. I'll stick with xld for my CUE+wav into MP3 solution, or use my windows PC and enjoy the magnificent EAC and CDex.
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