# How to make good quality MP3



## natt (May 15, 2002)

I recently re-did my CDs to get better MP3. Believe it or not I first did them so long ago I did them at 56K.

So this time I did them all again at 224K, but they sound worse!!! At first I thought it was the speakers, so I tried new speakers (which I took back) then a new sound card. Until I worked out the files were dodgy.

Yesterday I tried playing a CD version then a 192K with some normailising done, then the new 224K (no normailising done directly), then a wma version.
I can't find any settings that will record without distortion. The normailising helps but not enough.

I'm using audiograbber with the LameEnc 1.32 codec at 224Kbits per second.

Any tips on getting good Mp3?

PS my test track is Reverence by Faithless, about half way throught the track his vocals are really bassy and this seems to be the most apparent test of the conversion.


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

What are you useing to play them back? Windows Media sux at mp3 playback - use WinAmp or something similar that can support proper mp3 codecs.


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

ah yes always Media Player. I'll try another player


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

nope not that.

It's not my sound card. That's external and works fine with my laptop.
Same with speakers.

Now I've just ripped the same track, with the same Audiograbber settings and same codec on my Laptop and my PC.

The Laptop file sounds great but the PC created one is still Sh*te.

Could it be conflicting codecs or my CD drive??


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

What sound card do you have for the pc? It might be if its AC'97 onboard there is interference from the PCI bus etc etc and those chips ain't that great anyway.


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

I've an onboard sound card that came with the motherboard about a 6 months ago.

Suspect it could be that. But now I've got a HiFi Link USB sound card and ripped a file since with that with no improvement ???


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Try dbpoweramp? might be your encoding software is dubious.

Another thing is to try ripping without encoding. Do you test track as a WAV and see if it makes a diference. Then encode THAT file, rather than direct from the CD.....


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

I'll try both thanks JampoTT


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

OK now I'm getting somewhere....

I made a wav file on my home PC.

It sounds distorted on my home PC but sounds fine on my laptop.

Meaning my Home PCs can make a good wav but can't play one. And playing a wav must be what it does when putting it through an MP3 codec, meaning the MP3s are poo.

So what do I do to get my PC playing wavs properly again?


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

sorry got a bee in my bonett on this one :

Winamp on my home PC plays the wav fine. 
Media player 9 plays it badly.
Obvioulsy the Media player codec is used by Audiograbber. How do I stop this?


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

Play the mp3s in winamp only - its far better at mp3 playback than windows media. Its not the mp3 compression codec that is causing the problem - its the codec support of Windows Media. If you however wish to continue playing mp3s through WM please make sure you download the codec packs from the microsoft windows media site - this though might not entirely solve the problem.
You could of course try a diff program to AudioGrabber however for whats its worth AG is a decent program and I really doubt the its the compression codec - as lame is used extensively


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## natt (May 15, 2002)

thanks Saint. What I've done is select winamp as the player in Audiograbber.

AG now makes good quality mp3 which:
play well in Winamp on my home PC
play well in MP 9 on my laptop
but still bad in MP 9 on my PC.

I thought I had all the codecs, might be a dodgy Divx codec mucking things up for MP9. Either way I can set about the lengthy process of re-ripping my CDs.

Shame cause I like MPlayer libraries and stuff


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## Andy_TT (Jun 5, 2002)

I use the Easy CD-DA Extractor suite of software for ripping CD's and the reuslts are excellent. It's also really quick taking just a few minutes to rip an album.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Copy of the text from the start-up screen along with the download addresses.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Easy CD-DA Extractor is shareware, which means that you can evaluate the software before buying it. The software now runs in evaluation mode.

Easy CD-DA Extractor software package includes three programs (shortcuts can be found under Start Menu / Programs / Easy CD-DA Extractor 5.0):

Easy CD-DA Extractor, copies audio tracks from music CDs to sound files, supports many different output formats including MP3, Windows Media Audio, and Ogg Vorbis. 
Audio File Encoder/Decoder/Converter, converts music files from one format to another, also supports many different formats as input and output. 
Audio CD Creator, creates music CDs that can be played in any standard home or car stereo from WAV and MP3 files 
The Online Help section at http://www.poikosoft.com/help.html contains examples that will help you to get started.

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