Posted by Mike Archer on 12/05/05 02:43

In article <dmvhgh$4a1$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>,
rodneylowe@roonster.wanadoo.co.uk says...
> I'm transferring my CD collection onto my PC using CDex v 1.51 and as far as
> I can tell everything works well.
>
> Since there doesn't appear to be any specifics on the volume that the final
> MP3 will be at within CDex (with the exception of normalize, which I don't
> want) I decided to see what volumes they were at using MP3Gain (I assumed
> the final volume was relative to whatever the original CD is at).
>
> I was suprised to see that it listed many of the tracks as 'clipping', which
> seems to be a bad thing.
>
> Listening to the tracks, I cannot hear any problems so is it something I
> should be concerned about?
>
> Is CDex a good CD ripper, it appears functional and does everything I need
> it to although it could do tags a bit better as it doesn't seem to always
> add the artists name, is there another ripping program I should use?
>
> I'm about 1/2 way through my CD collection so if CDex is buggering things up
> I'd rather know now than get all the way through!
>
> I am encoding using the Lame MP3 encoder 1.30 engine 3.92, MPEG 1, very high
> quality at 320 kbps.
>
> Thanks for any replies!
>
> Moo
>
>
>
You are correct in assuming that the final volume of the mp3 is the same
as what it was on the original CD. There's nothing wrong with your mp3s
from what you describe.

MP3 gain is warning you that the track hits (or almost hits) the maximum
volume, and may be clipped by some portable mp3 players. It's not
recommended you have mp3s reaching the maximum allowed volume as if the
mp3 player boosts certain volumes (as set by the equaliser) it can cause
distortion. If you can't hear distortion on your MP3 player then it's
not a problem, and if you get a future mp3 player that does clip the
samples, you can just run them through mp3 gain to make them quiter at
that time.

You'll get the same warning from mp3gain whichever ripper you use, as
it's the original CD that hits the maximum volume.

If you want to be reassured download a tool like Goldwave and load into
it your MP3 and the track from the original CD at the same time and
compare them by zooming into the loud bits. You should find they are the
same...

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