Music-Burning/Ripping music-continued(655 total words in this text) (1000 Reads)  <u>Burning/Ripping music</u>
The bitrate dilemma: Which one do you pick?
Music available on CDs and other similar media can be digitally encoded into
various music formats-from WMA to Ogg Vorbis to MP3. But all of them follow a common digital coding convention called bitrate. This defines how much of detail (number of bits) is to be stored per second of a song in an encoded file. Bitrate decides the quality of the encoded file, and its size too. Does it really make a drastic difference in terms of sound quality when you encode files with different bitrates? The more details (more bits per second or high bit rate) you store into a file, the better the sound quality. Storing more information per second of music builds a larger MP3 file. If you are sensitive to subtle musical details, and are finicky about sound reproduction, you should opt for a higher bitrate encoding (greater than 192 Kbps). The usual encoding level that audiophiles choose is 128 Kbps. Encoding at this rate offers a perfect balance of small file size and quality of music.
Music encoding can be done in three ways-constant bits, average bits or variable bits per second of music. In constant bitrate (CBR), the same number of bits is added to each second or frame of music. Whether it's a scream or silence, the same number of bits is added into the encoded file (which is actually a waste, since periods of silence don't require more bits to be stored). Average bitrate (ABR) lets you choose an average number of bits that are to be added to each frame. Variable bitrate (VBR) is an intelligent method introduced by Xingtech, which decides on how many bits are to be put into a frame or second depending on the complexity of the sound. Software that employ the VBR encoding scheme use lesser bits for periods of silence and more bits according to the frequency (sound) level of the music.
The next time you rip your music CD, don't forget to use VBR and encode at high bitrates. You might end up with a smaller file size than if you used CBR or ABR. The only caveat is that if you are into portable MP3 players, most do not play bitrates higher than 192 Kbps. Check your player specifications before you encode your MP3s.
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Utilizing CDDB
You will never have to type in your disc and track names again. The CDDB (Compact Disc Data Base) is a free database that stores the disc and track names for thousands of audio CDs. Using the software listed below, users can log onto the CDDB and download the track information. The CDDB is most likely to have your audio CD. Several utilities across all platforms, from rippers to burners, to ID3 tag editors utilise CDDB.
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Broken Cross v3.13a
This is a fast and easy-to-use disk-cataloguing tool available at www.broken-cross.com. The interface is based on Windows Explorer. Disks can be updated easily, and it can read and catalogue contents of CAB, RAR and ZIP archives. Descriptions for the MP3 files can be generated from ID3 tags. It is also good for managing audio CD collections.
Audio CD information can be queried over the Internet from CDDB. This information can then be used to generate descriptions for the CD and audio tracks. The program is multi-user capable and has several other useful functions.
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Tag&Rename
Tag&Rename is a powerful, easy-to-use program for organising and archiving your library of music files from MP3 to .vqf music formats. With Tag&Rename, you can quickly and easily rename your music while editing the embedded tag data used by popular music players-both ID3 and ID3 v2 formats. It simplifies the boring and time-consuming task of updating tag information for your music by allowing you to quickly access information from the CDDB1 database.
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