What settings do you recommend for CDex? (an mp3 ripper/encoder)

[Phokus]

I ripped a few songs, and i notice that there's a slight 'hiss' to them (barely noticeable, and only if you turn the volume up loud). What settings do you guys recommend? I want my mp3's to be as compact and high a quality as possible.

 

[kmmatney]

Wish I could help you, but I just use CDex to put Wave headers on my MP3's for making DivX movies. My setting on the encoding page are:

Mode: Stereo
Encoder: Lame MP3 encoder version 1.29, Engine 3.92
Quality: Very High Quality (q = 0)
VBR Method: Disabled
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Output sample rate: 48000

You may just need to increase the bit rate to improve the sound quality.

 

[PliotronX]

If you want the highest quality files for the space, use a different ripper, one that will use the CLI version (backend) of LAME with its --alt-preset switches. I personally use Exact Audio Copy for getting bitperfect rips and used to use LAME with --alt-preset standard (I now use Psytel's AAC which is the AAC equivalent to LAME for MP3s). For a wealth of information, run searches at the Hydrogen Audio forums.

If you wish to stick with CDex, try enabling the CD paranoia option in it and see if it makes a difference. Also, for the best efficiency, always use VBR. It runs the music through a psycoacoustic model based on audiophiles' ears to get the best quality out of a bitrate. Also do not use 48KHz sampling rates for music as music from redbook audio CDs is sampled at 44KHz. It would be a waste of space and could reduce sound quality by upsampling to 48KHz. However, 48KHz audio is what DVD movies are sampled at so it should be used only with movie files which will be later joined with their respective video files (not movie soundtracks on CDs though, they are sampled at 44KHz just as any other CD).