EAC&Lame problems

Message

Slickmike · #1 Post by **Slickmike** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:15 pm

I've been passing e-mails back and forth with Manu and Jesse Miner about EAC and Lame set up and problems but I still seem to be getting some problems and general unhappiness with the sound quality of MP3s...

Just recently had a 250gb hard drive die and lost 80GB of music and I'm starting from scratch with 2- 250GB hard drives (one for backup, I learned my lesson)

Problems:

Using EAC with LAME ripping straight to MP3 and deleting waves....I'm finding I still here static on my ripped copies that doesn't exist on when CDs are played. Anyone else get this? I'm using the alt preset extreme setting with 320VBR compression

If the answers are posted somewhere else here...please let me know where they are...I got a little impatient sifting through topics that were similar but not exactly what I was looking for.

-Slick

mark0tz · #2 Post by **mark0tz** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:30 pm

how loud is the static?

CafeSavoy · #3 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:31 pm

It will be quicker to rip to wave and then batch convert to mp3 later.

Yakov · #4 Post by **Yakov** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:21 pm

try ripping without encoding: is that static still there?
if so, try a different ripper, or try EAC with different settings.

it seems impossible that LAME would be adding static to your music.

Slickmike · #5 Post by **Slickmike** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:31 am

The static is not loud...Possible not noticable to most...I'm thinking it could be caused by clipping at loud volumes...it occurs when there tends to be something loud happening (i.e. vocals or a trumpet)

It happens in both the MP3 conversion and also when converted to a pure .WAV Not when the CD is played on a variety of players...Not sure what setting could have been changed...It seemed to be working alright before...and seems to be a newer problem.

Rayned,

Batch conversion would be a possibility...as long as I'm confident that the WAVs are of the highest quality. Then I could use Razor LAME or something.

-Mike

Yakov · #6 Post by **Yakov** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 8:54 pm

well, then, don't blame LAME! (hey, that's catchy!) it takes the WAV and compresses it. if the problem is in the WAV to begin with, you need to address the creation of that WAV as the root of your problem
it's clearly your ripper or maybe your CD drive.
has this drive given you problems in the past with ripping?
is this a problem only to one CD?

Slickmike · #7 Post by **Slickmike** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:06 am

You're right...I think I've ruled out LAME as a possible problem.

It happens with a number of CDs...Right now I'm working on one I know it happens to.

It's a relatively new problem (I never noticed it before and ripped 70GB worth of MP3s on same equipment with same settings)

Has anyone ever seen EAC change settings on it's own?

Today when I have a chance I have the same problematic song and one that I know worked fine Ripped and converted on 3 different CD players on 2 different computers and I'm also converting on a 3rd computer with another CD player.

I have a suspect that it may be one of a couple of things...

1) My sound card in the machine I'm having problems with may be providing the noise while playing MP3s or WAVs

2) The CD player is toast in the machine so it can't rip as well anymore

3) I have no idea what the problem is and will never fix it, but will find a different machine that works and convert my collection there

I'm converting around 2000 CDs so I thank you guys for your help...I want to get it right the first time...I only got through about 350CDs when I started the last time and my external HD died.

-Mike

Titus · #8 Post by **Titus** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:42 am

Slickmike wrote: 1) My sound card in the machine I'm having problems with may be providing the noise while playing MP3s or WAVs

2) The CD player is toast in the machine so it can't rip as well anymore

3) I have no idea what the problem is and will never fix it, but will find a different machine that works and convert my collection there

What are you using to play the files? Many music players play mp3s & waves differently than CDs. Check the files with Foobar, as well as with a different sound card if you can.

If you think it might have to do with clipping, try using replaygain with Foobar to losslessly normalize your file. You might find the static unnoticable afterwards.

If you are using EAC in secure mode (the only reason to use EAC) then it will error if the CD player is too poor to rip the CD.

Slickmike · #9 Post by **Slickmike** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:40 pm

So turns out not to be...My sound card (echo Indigo DJ) or playback program (Tracktor, Atomix, Music Match, Sound Forge, or Windows Media Player) All have the same results.

It is something that I think is happening in the EAC ripping of the WAV file.

the two versions made at home on two different players (A lot slower than my work machine for Compressing the MP3 to LAME) seem to be just fine. Don't think it's the CD player at work either.

Now I have to go through and see what settings are different...

If I figure it out I'll let everone know.

CafeSavoy · #10 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 2:21 pm

You could try these products and see if you get better results.

http://dbpoweramp.com/

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

I haven't used cdex but it has good reviews. I've used dbpoweramp for slow cds and for batch conversion.

Slickmike · #11 Post by **Slickmike** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:36 pm

So after trouble shooting the best that I can here is what I came up with:

Drummmmmm Rrrrrrollllllll.........

It was the CD player....My CD player at work is crap....this Samsung DVD-ROM SD 616T is just not good. Most likely causing the static. So far the Yamaha & NEC I have at home are much better...The one in my laptop is pretty good too but slow.

One of the Dell machines at work with the really nice NEC DVD burner rocks (about 12s for a rip to WAV + 35s to convert to MP3) The 1GB of RAM helps

So my solution: Coming into work on Saturday...firing up the 2 Dells with identical specs and rip my whole collection should only take me around 150 hours or so

Other conclusions:

CDex and dbPowerAMP software...Works nice...easy to configure LAME and all that...just don't have the secure option of EAC dbPowerAMP has that really cool mouse over option that allows you to see an extended ID3 tag or something. Rayned did you see this too?

CafeSavoy · #12 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:42 am

Slickmike wrote: dbPowerAMP has that really cool mouse over option that allows you to see an extended ID3 tag or something. Rayned did you see this too?

Yeah Plus you can right click to convert files.