What Bit Rate Do You Rip Mp3's At?

[markyb 0]

My new laptop has arrived from PCDJ.co.uk, complete with pcdj red mobile!

 

My old laptop had all my CD's ripped at 160bps, but as I am now using better speakers (Mackie SRM 450's), I thought it would be better to rip my cd's again at 320bps.

 

So, I have started using Audiograbber to re-rip my songs at 320bps, with the "high quality" box ticked. My question is, is 320bps noticably better or am I wasting my hard drive space by ripping at a higher quality than I need?

 

My hard drive is 250GB, with 160GB for storage, which I estimate will hold 20,000 songs at 320bps.

 

Am I doing the right thing?

 

Cheers, Mark

[fester 0]

Definitely go for 320kbps. I ripped all my own cd's to 320kbps.

 

I can't tell the difference on my speakers between 256 or 320 but on a really top quality pa the difference would be noticeable.

 

For the little bit of space you will save by reducing bitrate it's really not worth it to go any lower, especially when storage is so cheap now. I bought a backup drive (external 500gb toshiba) a few weeks ago for £40.

 

If in the future you get the chance to work with or upgrade to a high quality pa you'll be glad you ripped at a decent quality.

 

If you don't mind me asking did you buy an oodj? I wasn't aware that pcdj sold laptops other than the oodj/oovj.

 

Craig

 

 

[markyb 0]

Hi Craig,

 

Thanks for the advice - that was the answer I wanted to hear, bearing in mind I have already spent a few hours ripping CD's ;o)

 

No, it wasnt OODJ, it was the package where they procure a laptop from ebuyer, remove all the uneccesary software and install PCDJ etc. It comes with a Maya 44 sound card and connecting cables etc.

 

I know I could have saved money by buying everything separately from different places, but I like the support from buying it all from one place. The laptop is an Asus, and so far it seems a good machine!

 

Do you use pcdj mobile? What are your thoughts? Ive not really had a play around yet, but it seems like it will take a bit of gettign used to as it is quite different from my old PCDJ pro!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[deejaymitch 0]

I guess the simple guideline is that if you start with poor sound quality, the best you can hope for after going through the mixer and amp is the same bad quality, so it makes sense to go for the best quality possible. I'm no expert, but I guess that would be FLAC or WAV, but the sheer size of those files makes them impractical. So that takes us to either VBR (Variable Bit Rate) or a CBR (Constant Bit Rate) of 320kb/p/s. I was always a big fan of VBR, but a lot of hardware has trouble reading that, so I'm noe a convert to CBR, and it has to be 320, or an absolute minimum of 256. The difference is definitely noticeable in most cases.

[dj.silver 0]

I don't mind what I rip/download at. I then, without fail put them through this and they all sound great ... http://www.platinumnotes.com/

[vokf 0]

I don't mind what I rip/download at. I then, without fail put them through this and they all sound great ... http://www.platinumnotes.com/

 

 

I'm sure its good- but $98?!! I'd be interested in how this works, but its not going to make a 128Kbps MP3 sound like a 320Kbps!

I also assume its re-encoding? Tweaking levels is ok, as that should not alter the MP3 encoding, but pitch and/or any other filtering will need to decode/process/encode. Fine for Lossless codec (WAV/PCM/FLAC etc), but a bit no-no for MP3/AAC

 

Best thing is a blind test with good headphones- CD player on Ch1, MP3 on Ch2.. get yer missus to mess with the cross fader and then try to work out which is CD..

 

 

[DJMickeyk 0]

I always use 320 where possible, I do use i-tunes alot however, which means they are downloaded at 256kbit, I can't hear the difference to be honest, I do mostly parties and weddings, which are noisy event without any music so I doubt punters would know the difference either. It's not something that bothers me, getting the tracks in the right order and filling the dancefloor is far more important, however it does make sense to have quality tracks.

 

BTW mark if you are thinking of upgrading your soundcard to a midi player at any stage I bought a Denon DN-HC 4500 at xmas and it has made my life alot easier, very little fiddling with the laptop now except to cue tracks, don't know what I'd do without it at this stage.

[fester 0]

Do you use pcdj mobile? What are your thoughts? Ive not really had a play around yet, but it seems like it will take a bit of gettign used to as it is quite different from my old PCDJ pro!

 

Hey Mark,

 

When I decided to make the change over to a laptop based playout I also bought a Hercules RMX midi controller with built in soundcard.

 

I downloaded every trial version of DJ software I could find and installed them to my desktop machine to play with and test out.

 

In the end I settled on Virtual DJ, it's a quality program that I found integrates seamlessly with my rmx and does everything (and more) that I need.

I'm by no means any kind of Tiesto but I find mixing with the rmx and vdj an absolute pleasure.

[superstardeejay 0]

I rip at top rate if it's for archiving, but for general listening or playout 160 is fine.

 

Different rippers sound very different, so I'd try a few.

Edited May 27, 2010 by superstardeejay

[gadget 0]

I rip at top rate if it's for archiving, but for general listening or playout 160 is fine.

 

Different rippers sound very different, so I'd try a few.

 

 

Agreed. My favourite is LAME encoder. The itunes encoder is a bit pants sounding imho..

 

Of course, what one person thinks sounds great could sound really bad in another...

 

 

David, 320k CBR, extreme mode enabled (whatever the top quality setting is in LAME) here

[markyb 0]

Thanks for the advice guys,

 

As I can probably fit over 20,000 tunes on the new laptop at 320bps - and this is double the 10,000 tunes I actually have, I think I will rip them all at the highest quality. If it gets full, I can always delete a few or get an external harddrive.

 

On the subject of midi controllers - I would like to get one, but cant really justify the cost at the moment. I wasn't expecting to need to buy the new laptop, software and sound card quite yet but I had no choice as my old system started playing up. Once I have some spare cash (and more bookings!) I might consider one though, as I prefer the hands-on feel. Has anyone got any thoughts on the Numark midi controller? It is cheaper than the ones you mention, and the PCDJ guys speak highly of it.

 

The ripper I am using is audiograbber - I think it is a free programme but it was pre-installed on my laptop and I find it easy to use.

 

Thanks again for the advice! I have a gig tonight where I was hoping to give the new machine a trial but Ive not had time to familiarise myself with it yet so it will be a 100% cd night.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark