If you choose the recommended PRO version you will be able to
covert your existing WAV files to MP3 format and vice-versa. Also
you can play your song from the CD before choosing which tracks to
rip and which to skip. Another advantage of the PRO version is the
normalizing - all the result music files will have the same volume
level.
Variety of Settings
The first setting is the conversion output format - MP3 or OGG.
By default it is MP3. Depending on this setting the other settings
differ. First we will discuss the General Settings.
General Settings:
Output format. The possible options are MP3, WAV and OGG.
We recommend you to use MP3 for this setting because it is with
high compression ratio and is most supported by the different
audio players. This setting is also shown on the main window
because of his high importance.
Output folder. It represents the root folder where the
ripped songs will be stored. Because of its high importance it is
also shown in the main window.
Filename format. This is a tagged expression where the
tags are replaced with their concrete values. After the
replacement is done the result is concatenated to the output
folder. In this way the actual output full filename is formed. The
possible tags are <artist>, <album>, <genre>, <year>, <number> and
<title>.
Playlist format. It is similar to the previous setting
but concerns the full filename of the playlist. Here the same tags
are used except <number> and <title>.
MP3 settings:
Bit rate. The higher the bit rate, the higher the
quality of the MP3 and the file size is bigger. We recommend the
rate of 256 kbps. At this rate the quality is similar to a studio
record and the compression is about ten times.
Maximal bit rate. Used when a variable bit rate
conversion is selected. The upper setting acts as the minimal bit
rate. For maximal bit rate we recommend you 320 kbps.
Channel mode. Here you can choose from Mono, Stereo,
Joint Stereo, MsStereo and Dual channel. If you choose Joint
Stereo the encoder will use the correlation between two channels
to reduce the size of the output file. Dual channel files are made
of two independent mono channel. Each one uses exactly half of the
file bit rate. For example if two different languages are carried
in the same bitstream, an appropriate decoder will decode only the
chosen language. We recommend the use of the Stereo channel mode
setting.
Emphasis. Re-equalizes the sound after a Dolby-like
noise suppression. This is not used very often and will probably
never be. The following noise suppression models are used: none,
50/15ms, and CCITT j.17. We recommend you to choose 'none'.
Variable bit rate (VBR) quality. This parameter is used
when a variable bit rate is selected. The higher the VBR, the
higher the quality of the output MP3 and the files size is bigger.
We recommend you to use an average value of 5(min is 0 and max is
9).
Use of variable bit rate (VBR). This setting lets the
encoder code every frame (piece) of the MP3 file by a different
bit rate. It estimates the bit rate in such a way that the given
quality (the previous parameter) is achieved for every single
frame of the Mp3 file using a minimal bit rate. Thus the file size
gets smaller in comparison to the constant bit rate encoding. So
we recommend you to use a VBR.
Use of low pass filter. This filter attenuates the high
frequencies in the output. So we recommend you to use it only when
you have selected 128 kbps or lower bit rate output (which means a
low quality output).
Use psycho-acoustics analysis. This setting lets the
encoder to dynamically choose which frequencies to suppress or
amplify in order to produce a more pleasant sound for the human
ear according to the scientific researches of the human perception
of sound. We recommend you to use this feature.
OGG settings:
OGG Quality. This is the only one OGG setting. It
specifies the quality of the output OGG file. The higher the
quality, the bigger the size of the file. We recommend you an
average value of 5 (min. is 0, max. is 9)
FreeDB Settings:
FreeDB Server. This is a list of Free CDDB servers. So
you have to choose one of them to which we will direct our queries
about the name of the artist, the name of the album, the year, the
genre and the names of all tracks. Initially there is only one
server in the list. If you wish to receive all the other please
press the button "Refresh servers".
Use proxy. This setting indicates whether we use or not
proxy server while connecting to our FreeDB server (the previous
parameter).
Proxy server. This is the address of the proxy server in
case that we use proxy server.
Port. This is the port of the proxy server in case that
we use proxy server.
Authentication. This setting indicates whether the proxy
server (if we use one) requires authentication or not.
User Name. This is the user name which identifies us to
the proxy server in case that we use proxy and it requires
identification.
Password. This is the corresponding password to the User
Name (previous parameter).
