TechNudge Live's Guide To Music File Formats: Part Six
Part 6: The Odd Yet Interesting
Part 5 introduced you to the current standards. Now you’ll see some mostly and maybe not so mostly mainstream “also rans.” Don’t let that status bother you. Popularity isn’t often based on ability and each of these has at least one particular strength you might be looking for.
MusicMatch Jukebox
MusicMatch Jukebox was one of the first programs to allow MP3 ripping in the free version. They disabled it by limiting the rate of ripping, and you could rip at full speed in the Plus version, a $20 upgrade.
In version 10, their latest, they still limit the ripping speed in the free version of MusicMatch Jukebox to 10x. Most of the latest DVD writers max out around 48x, making this a rather slow process if you’ve have a stack of discs to rip.
The ripping settings are robust. By using the custom quality slider, you can select bit rates from 8 to 320 kbps for MP3’s. You can also rip variable bit rate MP3’s, but the custom quality bit rate slider corresponds to a percentage, not a bit rate so you would have to do some experimentation to figure out the settings for a target bit rate.
Of note, the Jukebox is the only program looked at that will rip MP3 Pro’s, but it is limited to a max bit rate of 96 kbps. MusicMatch needs to rethink its archaic upgrade requirement if it wants to be a serious player. Personally, I’d look at one of the other options because there are just too many other deal breakers out there.
RealPlayer
I always hesitate to download and install RealPlayer, as it reconfigures my file associations without asking. However, there are occasionally web sites that use RealPlayer to stream video, so I do have a copy on my hard drive.
Quite honestly, I never think of RealPlayer to rip audio, but for this guide, I decided to give it a second look, and was presently surprised with version 10. Maybe I would think of it more if they renamed it “RealRipper.”
The popular options are represented including RealAudio 10, RealAudio Lossless, AAC, WMA, and MP3. This is more complete than most of the other programs here. In addition, for MP3, the entire range of bit rates can be ripped, in constant, and variable bit rate settings of 112 to 192 kbps. By taking a fresh look at RealPlayer, I’m glad to have it on my hard drive, and you should too.
AudioGrabber
As far as I’m concerned, this is the true oddball of the group for two reasons. First, unlike the preceding programs, it is more of a dedicated ripper than a reader. Secondly, unlike the slick interfaces of the previous software, it has more of a home brewed freeware interface to it. This program has been around for some time, I remember a friend gave me my first copy on a floppy disk in the late 90’s. I recently rediscovered it and used the latest version, 1.83 for testing.
Audiograbber includes codecs to create WMA’s, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3’s. The MP3’s are encoded via the Lame Encoder, engine 3.96, which many audio experts regard as the best at encoding this type of format. It can rip MP3’s in constant bit rates from 32 to 320 kbps. It can also rip the variable bit rate MP3’s, with 90 to 184 kbps settings. Unfortunately, there is a quality setting for the quality bit rates from zero to nine. A variable bit rate quality setting of five corresponds to 128 kbps, while a two corresponds to a setting of 160 kbps.
Another powerful feature is it can normalize the tracks. This automatically serves to make sure that all of the tracks you listen to are at a similar volume. Otherwise, some tracks will be too low, and others may be too high in volume. This also serves to make Audiograbber stand out in this crowded field.
Conclusion
Now we know the current free offerings for ripping audio tracks. There is no need to settle for constant bit rate 128 kbps recording, when there are better options available. Definitely try the newer variable bit rate encoders, they are the current state of the art.
As to the question of which program to use, I have them all loaded, and use them. For the price, you can have them all. For my future ripping, I’ll definitely be using Audiograbber a lot more with its normalizing feature. Happy listening!
Part One: An Introduction
Part Two: MP3's
Part Three: Windows Media Audio
Part Four: OGG, AAC, and a Preliminary Verdict
Part Five: Popular Software
Part Six: Conclusion & Links To Software
Links To Download The Software:
Audiograbber
iTunes
MusicMatch Jukebox
Real Player
Windows Media Player
Part 5 introduced you to the current standards. Now you’ll see some mostly and maybe not so mostly mainstream “also rans.” Don’t let that status bother you. Popularity isn’t often based on ability and each of these has at least one particular strength you might be looking for.
MusicMatch Jukebox
MusicMatch Jukebox was one of the first programs to allow MP3 ripping in the free version. They disabled it by limiting the rate of ripping, and you could rip at full speed in the Plus version, a $20 upgrade.
In version 10, their latest, they still limit the ripping speed in the free version of MusicMatch Jukebox to 10x. Most of the latest DVD writers max out around 48x, making this a rather slow process if you’ve have a stack of discs to rip.
The ripping settings are robust. By using the custom quality slider, you can select bit rates from 8 to 320 kbps for MP3’s. You can also rip variable bit rate MP3’s, but the custom quality bit rate slider corresponds to a percentage, not a bit rate so you would have to do some experimentation to figure out the settings for a target bit rate.
Of note, the Jukebox is the only program looked at that will rip MP3 Pro’s, but it is limited to a max bit rate of 96 kbps. MusicMatch needs to rethink its archaic upgrade requirement if it wants to be a serious player. Personally, I’d look at one of the other options because there are just too many other deal breakers out there.
RealPlayer
I always hesitate to download and install RealPlayer, as it reconfigures my file associations without asking. However, there are occasionally web sites that use RealPlayer to stream video, so I do have a copy on my hard drive.
Quite honestly, I never think of RealPlayer to rip audio, but for this guide, I decided to give it a second look, and was presently surprised with version 10. Maybe I would think of it more if they renamed it “RealRipper.”
The popular options are represented including RealAudio 10, RealAudio Lossless, AAC, WMA, and MP3. This is more complete than most of the other programs here. In addition, for MP3, the entire range of bit rates can be ripped, in constant, and variable bit rate settings of 112 to 192 kbps. By taking a fresh look at RealPlayer, I’m glad to have it on my hard drive, and you should too.
AudioGrabber
As far as I’m concerned, this is the true oddball of the group for two reasons. First, unlike the preceding programs, it is more of a dedicated ripper than a reader. Secondly, unlike the slick interfaces of the previous software, it has more of a home brewed freeware interface to it. This program has been around for some time, I remember a friend gave me my first copy on a floppy disk in the late 90’s. I recently rediscovered it and used the latest version, 1.83 for testing.
Audiograbber includes codecs to create WMA’s, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3’s. The MP3’s are encoded via the Lame Encoder, engine 3.96, which many audio experts regard as the best at encoding this type of format. It can rip MP3’s in constant bit rates from 32 to 320 kbps. It can also rip the variable bit rate MP3’s, with 90 to 184 kbps settings. Unfortunately, there is a quality setting for the quality bit rates from zero to nine. A variable bit rate quality setting of five corresponds to 128 kbps, while a two corresponds to a setting of 160 kbps.
Another powerful feature is it can normalize the tracks. This automatically serves to make sure that all of the tracks you listen to are at a similar volume. Otherwise, some tracks will be too low, and others may be too high in volume. This also serves to make Audiograbber stand out in this crowded field.
Conclusion
Now we know the current free offerings for ripping audio tracks. There is no need to settle for constant bit rate 128 kbps recording, when there are better options available. Definitely try the newer variable bit rate encoders, they are the current state of the art.
As to the question of which program to use, I have them all loaded, and use them. For the price, you can have them all. For my future ripping, I’ll definitely be using Audiograbber a lot more with its normalizing feature. Happy listening!
Part One: An Introduction
Part Two: MP3's
Part Three: Windows Media Audio
Part Four: OGG, AAC, and a Preliminary Verdict
Part Five: Popular Software
Part Six: Conclusion & Links To Software
Links To Download The Software:
Audiograbber
iTunes
MusicMatch Jukebox
Real Player
Windows Media Player
posted by digitaldoc at 8:00 AM
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