MP3s?

[Chair]

I only ever host audio that I encode myself.

When it comes to audio quality, I am extremely fussy. I only encode my audio on the highest quality settings using 'Helix MP3 Encoder', which often gives better results than it's main competitor 'Lame'. My audio is converted into MP3 format from lossless audio files.

I host all of my audio files on FileDen after I'm finished converting/encoding them.



This song was taken from my own collection:



I doubt you guys like Canadian redneck music, but you never know.

Not bad, actually.

What other audio tools do you use?

When I encode? When I rip? When I convert?

For encoding I use 'dBpoweramp Converter' with 'Helix Audio Encoder' to convert my lossless audio files to the highest possible quality MP3s.

When I rip, I use 'Exact Audio Copy' with the 'FLAC' audio encoder. My settings are set so that I'm ensured to get a 1:1 CD backup, with proper gaps, a proper read offset, and CRCs which match the source audio CD. I also have 'EAC' set to 'Secure Mode'.

If my rips aren't 1:1 copies, I scrap them.

[Stefano]

I only ever host audio that I encode myself.

When it comes to audio quality, I am extremely fussy. I only encode my audio on the highest quality settings using 'Helix MP3 Encoder', which often gives better results than it's main competitor 'Lame'. My audio is converted into MP3 format from lossless audio files.

I host all of my audio files on FileDen after I'm finished converting/encoding them.



This song was taken from my own collection:



I doubt you guys like Canadian redneck music, but you never know.

Not bad, actually.

What other audio tools do you use?

When I encode? When I rip? When I convert?

Yes. Just looking to find out what tools a fellow audiophile uses to find out if I can do better than what I've got.

For encoding I use 'dBpoweramp Converter' with 'Helix Audio Encoder' to convert my lossless audio files to the highest possible quality MP3s.

When I rip, I use 'Exact Audio Copy' with the 'FLAC' audio encoder. My settings are set so that I'm ensured to get a 1:1 CD backup, with proper gaps, a proper read offset, and CRCs which match the source audio CD. I also have 'EAC' set to 'Secure Mode'.

If my rips aren't 1:1 copies, I scrap them.

I also use dBpoweramp. I have been using Lame to convert to mp3 from lossless, but I just downloaded Helix 5.1, and will be using that from now on (thanks).

I use FreeRip2 to rip to 'wav', then dBpowerAmp for 'wav' to 'AAC' lossless. Since I rip into tracks, gaps or CRCs aren't an issue.

A few other things I use are Audacity (mostly for movie soundtrack processing); WinAmp 5 (for playback on PC); and the StereoTool WinAmp plug-in (for volume normalizing and greater stereo separation during playback).

[Chair]

A few other things I use are Audacity (mostly for movie soundtrack processing); WinAmp 5 (for playback on PC); and the StereoTool WinAmp plug-in (for volume normalizing and greater stereo separation during playback).

I also use Audacity, but I don't use it often since I usually don't have to edit any audio files.

I used to love Winamp, but became a Foobar2000 fan after installing it a few years ago. The default Foobar2000 interface is very bland and generic, but it's a bloody great audio player. Foobar2000 has native FLAC support, uses up hardly any ram, is extremely customizable and some people claim that it gives slightly better audio performance than most other software audio players. I simply could not switch to using another software audio player these days.