This post is directed especially to Kevin, Clifford and Bruce, whose earlier explanations about CD ripping and burning programs I've found very clear and helpful.
I submitted these questions to the developer of Easy CDDA Extractor only after reading carefully through the program's documentation, which, though clearly written as far as it goes, didn't discuss or even mention any of the details about bit rate and encoding method about which I'd learned so much when I was learning how to set CDex up with Kevin's help. this is not related to my inability to locate and identify various controls, and even some options lists, in the program due to Jaws not seeing many elements of the interface. In this case, at least so far as I'm aware, I am able to find and make adjustments to all of these groups of settings. The problem is, as you'll see, that I don't know what they are, for the most part, and my previous CDex experience doesn't seem to apply, and the developer's responses to my questions have left me more at sea than I was before I asked them. I'll paste in each of my questions and his answers, then type my comment explaining what it is I don't understand about his answer. Please bear in mind that I asked these questions as responsibly as I could, using all the knowledge I'd gotten from going through the CDex mini-course with Kevin. My suspicion here is that he has left a lot unsaid, and isn't aware of that. As I said, he gives no background in his documentation, even in the section about bit rates and so forth. And at least once, I think he's maybe explaining something (Average Bit Rate encoding) in a way that is counter to what I thought I'd learned, and where his labeling in the options contradicts the definitions I thought I learned from CDex. Thanks very much for your interest and help. The exchange went like this. My questions comes first, then his responses: >> You define ABR (average bit rate) as "variable bit rate," ABR uses Variable Bit rate Encoding. -- what I thought I'd just learned when being taken through CDex was that ABR is Average Bit Rate encoding, wherein the program analyzes the complexity of digitized sound information in a CD track being ripped and then encodes its file, such as an .mp3 file, using a steady bit rate that represents the average bit rate that averages out the potential range from highest to lowest that could be applied to that track. The resulting bit rate will be steady, but not in the predetermined way a constant bit rate would have been, irrespective of the material being encoded. One thing CDex, Kevin et al have emphasized unequivocally, it will definitely *not* be variable. Average is the opposite of variable. Or so I thought I'd learned. So his explanation makes no sense to me and leaves me shaking my head in bewilderment. Next exchange: >> With ABR, what is the average bit rate set to? You can use any of the predefined bit rate settings (150, 175, 200, 225, 250) or you can set the bit rate from the Config button. -- What? I saw nothing in the documentation instructing the user in this manner, did not encounter a configuration button, and don't know where the first selection of bit rates is that he mentions. Perhaps he's referring to some list in the burn tab or options menu that goes by some name other than the phrases he's used here? If so, then where? >> Finally, With the VBR setting at 0, for instance, what are the lowest and highest bit rates between which the recording is permitted to fluctuate Lowest: 8kbit/s, Highest: 320kbit/s -- In CDex, as I learned, you actually *set* the lower and upper boundaries of bit rate to be used in variable bit rate ripping, supplemented (or so I thought I learned) by setting the quality level to be used by the process, from 0 to 9. I confess I didn't quite understand this (intuitively, it seemed that the highest quality level would employ either the widest range of bit rate, or the highest upper level, or something, but I'm just repeating what I thought I learned). But it looks as if he's saying that he designed this so that you don't set the boundaries, but they simply fluctuate depending on the complexity of the material from really rock-bottom low to the upper limit. Now, how this correlates, if at all, with being able to set the quality level, I have no idea. >> what's the meaning of that section of Preset recording settings? They are the standard settings for the LAME MP3 Encoder. "Preset: Standard" creates high quality files with reasonable bitrates (about 200kbit/s). This one is entirely new to me. There's this list of present, well, just presets. And they're listed in terms of speed. Slow, fast, fastest, insane, and so forth. What does this setting affect? What does it set, in fact? I thought maybe it meant how quickly the encoding would take place? If it's referring to bit rate, then what do "slow" and "fast" have to do with that? And if there's a numerical value involved (bit rate, or something to do with time needed for ripping, or whatever) than why aren't the levels described, at least parenthetically, by numerical descriptors? I'm afraid this unfortunate exchange reveals that I don't understand what I thought I'd learned about .mp3 encoding, at all. Is so, fine. But please, can anyone explain if he's using different terminology than I learned with CDex, so that some of the answers are inscrutable for me and others seem contradictory or absurd? I'm really baffled. What I wouldn't give for professionally-written documentation and screen nomenclature on just *one* of these programs. Having written instructional material myself, including end user documentation for some very high end pick-and-place robotic electronics manufacturing systems, and less technical but still exacting things like customer disclosures and higher level marketing information for a major financial institution, I'm not unaware of the difficulty, nor of the vital importance, of accurately defining terms and describing procedures. Daniel The responses are signed by: Jukka Poikolainen - Latest Easy CD-DA Extractor version: 8.2.1 Download: http://www.poikosoft.com/download.html ----- Alkuperäinen viesti----- Lähettäjä: Joel Deutsch [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lähetetty: 13. heinäkuuta 2005 9:11 Vastaanottaja: Jukka Poikolainen Aihe: Questions about the .mp3 ripping settings Hi, Here's a pleasant digression from the problem of screen reader accessibility, about which I hope we'll continue to correspond. I did manage, with some guesswork and a lot of trial and error, to rip one of my jazz CDs (Joshua Redman, if you're curious) to .mp3 files. I used the setting for VBR at 0 (highest quality). The results sound pretty nice both on my computer and on an .mp3 player. Crisp percussion, pretty clean bass and piano, and very nice, realistic tenor saxophone. But I'd like to know some specifics about the available settings. Also, one correction for the wording in the documentation: You define ABR (average bit rate) as "variable bit rate," by accident. You might want to correct that. Okay, here are my questions: I infer that the Near CD Quality setting uses a preset constant bit rate. What is that bit rate? With ABR, what is the average bit rate set to? Finally, With the VBR setting at 0, for instance, what are the lowest and highest bit rates between which the recording is permitted to fluctuate with the complexity of the information? Last, and this is something I don't understand at all, what's the meaning of that section of Preset recording settings? They're described by speed, rather than something to do with sonic quality or bit rate. I have never seen this sort of setting in a context like this. Could you explain, please? If you have time, you might consider adding some text to the documentation to explain this series of settings, unless I'm the only user who's never heard of this. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.8.15/49 - Release Date: 7/14/2005 _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
