Hi!

I'm just beginning to rip my CDs and encode them to MP3 and I'm wondering
what I should do with the pre-track gaps. Per default EAC adds them to the
previous track, so that there's a bit of silence on the end of each song, if
the following one is "gapped". If I do burn these files on CD again (for
which purpose ever *g*), I'll get the GAPs in the WAVs (or MP3s), plus the
standard-2-second-gaps. So it would be nice to ignore those gaps, but what
if I play these files in Winamp for instance, I'd like to have some "space"
between the tracks.
So I'd like to know what you do prefer, are you ripping with the gaps
appended to the files, or not?

My second question regards the lame-options. I've now set them to VBR with a
bitrate ranging from 224 to 320kbps, VBR-Quality and -q are both set to 0,
Stereo-Mode is "joint stereo". I don't want to encode everything in 320kbps,
though I'm a critical listener, but 320kbps compared to 224kbps are a hefty
50%-increase in filesize. Do you think that I can encode all my music with
my current setting, without having to worry that I'd hear any artefacts?
What would you prefer, VBR or CBR? My consideration was, that if some
portions of a file need a higher bitrate they would get them, but overall
the filesize would stay pretty close to the 224kbps. My experiences so far
range from files that hardly have portions encoded higher than 224kbps,
other ones do have a proportioning of approximately 45% 224kbps, 35% 256kbps
and 20% 320kbps.

I'm just unsure which settings to chose, cause I'd not be very happy about
ripping and encoding everything again, if I discover any inconveniences too
late.

Thanks a lot in advance for your answer!

Michael

"Michael Swistun" <m_swistun@maxonline.at> wrote in message
news:bqlo1f$22eu5g$1@ID-59506.news.uni-berlin.de...
Hi.

Remove digital silence at the beginning and end of mp3 files quickly and
easily with this freeware app: http://www.logiccell.com/~mp3trim/index.htm
You can also use mp3Trim to manually trim that silence right down to the
frame. I like to burn my audio CDs with all the silence trimmed, and with
virtually no space between tracks. But that's just my personal preference,
of course.

Regarding your other question: you're asking what deficiencies you might
hear when employing different settings. Think about that for a second.
You're asking US what YOU might notice. Just listen to tracks ripped with
different settings and decide with your own ears what if any difference you
can hear. That said, I rip and encode to stereo, not joint stereo, and
would probably find it impossible to tell the difference between a 224kbps
file and a 320. Your mileage, and ears, may vary.

Regards,
Ian.