Convert your Old collection to Gold

To convert audiophile and collectible/rare collection to digital, it has been most frustrating to find a digital audio compression format that doesn't destroy the sonic characteristics of the original recordings/pressings. After ALOT of research as well as discussion with other audiophile enthusiasts and re-mastering pro's come up with this set of standards.

For quality audiophile CD's (such as Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs -MFSL- Gold releases, or the whole slew of Japanese Gold Format Re-masters etc.) use this Open ware program - Exact Audio Copy. It will rip with EXACT DUPLICATION QUALITY to either MS-WAV, or Monkeys Audio - .APE losses format(s). Even though this is an open source program, it comes HIGHLY recommended for this purpose.

Rip the CD to .wav first, archive the files to DVD and THEN convert the ,WAV digital source to one of the following 'Loss-less' formats (below chart). use FLAC , which along with SHORTEN, and OptimFROG have the highest sonic qualities DURING PLAYBACK (without re-conversion to MS-WAV).
__________________________________________________ _______________
COMMON 'LOSS-LESS' DIGITAL AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS
Apple Loss less ALAC - Apple's own Loss less (ALAC, iTunes, iPod) [.m4a]
Free Lossless Audio Codec FLAC - Popular Open Source Lossless [.flac .fla]
Monkeys Audio APE - Great all-round performer [.ape]
OptimFROG High-performance lossless [.ofr, .ofs]
Real Audio Loss less Real Audio Loss less [.ra, .rm, .ram, .rmvb]
Shorten Popular with file traders [.shn]
The True Audio Open source [.tta]
Wavpack WV - Unique loss less [.wv] AND lossy hybrid [.wvc] modes

__________________________________________________ ______________
COMMON 'LOSS-EY' DIGITAL AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS
.mp3 Lame, Fraunhofer IIS .etc [.m2a .mp1 .mp2 .mp3 .mpga .mpa .mpx .mpg]
.mp3 Helix 100x 'lightning fast' encoding speed (2 GHz Dual Core CPU), 4x faster than Lame [.mp3]
.m4a & mp4 Newest mpeg standard (AAC LC, AAC HE, AAC HE v2, SBR, 3GPP, iTunes, iPod) [.m4a, .mp4, .m4b]
Musepack Highest quality lossy codec above 128Kbps [.mpc, .mp+, .mpp]
Ogg Vorbis Open source, high quality using the auToV encoder [.ogg]
Real Audio Helix Real Audio [.ra, .rm, .ram, .rmvb]
Windows Media Audio (WMA) Microsoft's v10 Pro, standard, lossless & voice [.wma, .asf, .wmv]
Wavpack WVC lossy mode [.wvc]
__________________________________________________ ______________

Frankly, without a "golden ear" AND audiophile-pro quality headphones such as.....

Ultrasone iCans (highly recommended):
iCans
or>
Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO (highest studio-pro standards):
beyerdynamic: Home

....you generally can't hear much of difference in the sound 'quality' between the various loss-less format competitors. What WILL be different is the "staging" or "presence" qualities of the playback. These terms refer to the 3-D effect of instruments "standing out" in various "locations" during playback.
SIDENOTE: This is the reason for the argument of (Analog) OVER Digital (CD's-DVD's) for playing back recorded music. Most of us pro-types, as well as the audiophile equipment freaks agree that the sonic staging quality of correctly recorded and mastered vinyl can not be touched, but then it is all subjective to the quality of the pressing, playback equipment and the listeners ears , is it not?
For the regular listeners playing a CD in the car or home/surround/computer systems, any of the loss less formats above are fine.
You can playback .APE files through WINAMP Player by going to:
Monkey's Audio - a fast and powerful lossless audio compressor
Download the STANDALONE & plugin for Winamp there (the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)
You can playback SHORTEN [.shn] files through WINAMP Player by going to:
etree.org | shnamp main
Download the 'ShnAmp' plugin for Winamp there (the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)

SHORTEN STANDALONE at:
etree.org | shorten

You CAN download the .FLAC playback plug for WINAMP at:
Plug-ins for Winamp Media Player - Customize Winamp Media Player

.FLAC STANDALONE at:
FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec

Download the STANDALONE & OptimFROG [.ofr, .ofs] playback plug for WINAMP at:
OptimFROG Lossless Audio Compression
(the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)

Download the STANDALONE & Wavpack [.wv .wvc] playback plug for WINAMP at:
WavPack downloads
(the Winamp site does NOT have the plug)


NOTE: Use FLAC with the least amount of compression, but the files are only slightly smaller then the original .wav file. This is to archive for the bootleg traders I swap with etc.
The other REALLY good format is SHORTEN, which most of the old bootleg tape traders use because it has an even BETTER (sonically accurate) compression formula. and it is more accurate when un-compressed back to the original MS-WAV format. You can hardly tell the difference!.
Monkey Audio's .APE is great also and you can get a really large compression (i.e. smaller size of file) which make it good for transfer over the .net etc. BUT, if you have the (audiophile) playback equipment to warrant it, go with FLAC , SHORTEN, Wavpack, OptimFROG, and for MAC - iPod users, Apple Lossless is good also.

Hear is a site with all the conversion, ripping and playback software & codecs the you will ever need..........
dBpoweramp: CD Ripper & Audio Converter. Secure ripping to mp3, FLAC, m4a, Apple Lossless & WMA
dBpoweramp Codec Central

The last Freeware Version of DbPowerAmp:
FreewareWiki - freeware & free info / DbPowerAmp
http ://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page11.html#dBpowerAmp

AWSoftware - Exact Audio Copy is for the highest quality ripping of CD's (open source to!):
Introduction � Exact Audio Copy

Have fun!

Thanks Kooldeep, some useful thoughts here.

I agree that EAC is brilliant.

One of my pet projects actually is archiving vinyl/ tape that seems to be out of print now. Unfortunately, there's a fair amount of such content and progress is slow, no matter what tools one uses.

Hi,
A few days back I had read a comment by Sanjay Khanna about his digital music converted from LP's. I had some time back tried converting my cassettes to digital, and the output had been so terrible, I had given up.

Sanjay's comments revived my plan and I set about again. Persiflage gave me some pointers on what may be going wrong.

This is what I did. First of all, I moved from my laptop to my desktop. The laptop had a basic sound card, and while the desktop had a built in sound card (P4's motherboard).

I connected the RCA out from my Akai tape deck to the mini jack microphone input of my desktop.

Then I downloaded and installed the Audacity software that Ruenigma had suggested.

I set the microphone input volume at very low and tested the recording. Within a couple of attempts I was getting such nice recordings that it was hard to tell whether I was playing directly from the tape deck or this recording.

Audacity records in .Aup format that can not be played on other software. However, it allows the data to be exported to various formats. I chose WAV. There was one confusion, though. I could choose between 16 bit or 32 bit WAV. I tried both. The output sounded the same ( on the desktop, using headphones ), while the 32 bit output was double in size of the 16 bit output.

I then converted the WAV to apple lossless for my ipod.

Well, thanks to all of you who helped this total newbie get pretty good results . Today I drove to office enjoying Abida Parveen's Kabir.

I do not have audiophile grade equipment. So, differences in quality between different formats etc. of recording will not be exactly obvious. So, if the gurus could point out the best formats and/or other settings that they notice I have overlooked, it would be really nice. I have a large number of cassettes that I now plan to convert to digital.

Hi Prabuddhadg,

Any lossless format should be fine for playback. FLAC seems to be a popular choice because it's open source, however iTunes does not support it.

I use either lossless or 320 kbps, depending on the content. Sometimes there's an audible difference, mostly there isn't (i.e. to my ears, before the flames start).

As for 16 bit vs. 32 bit WAV, export to 16 bit. There's no audible difference.

CD audio is 16 bit, 44.1 khz, for what it's worth. I doubt if cassette tape sources will warrant a higher digitisation standard.

Persiflage

Anybody heard the MT9 format?

"The main difference between MT9 files and other commonly-consumed audio formats like MP3, WMA and AAC is that MT9 is essentially six channels of unmixed audio packaged within the format's own mixer. The advantage is complete flexibility in playback, enabling players to adjust -- or remove -- any channel independently."

New MT9 Digital Audio Format Has Six Channels - HotHardware

MT9: An mp3 replacement? | The Industry Standard

MT9 - Featured on BuzzFeed

BetaNews | Korean music format MT9 tries to replace MP3 - with a karaoke twist

MT9: remove the parts of songs that you don't want to hear | musicradar.com

Best Regards.

unleash_me,

Interesting. No two people ever hear the same song, huh?

:-)

i think Akai tape deck will not be as good as my sony walkman[some model with mega bass..MADE IN MALAYSIA..mega bass not used while recording..]

i used as :

WALKMAN>LINEIN Of PC

i used jukebox ....result was excellent ....!

I didn't know Sony walkman sound was that good!

he he, i don't think there will be much to choose between the quality of the tape decks of Akai and Sony's Walkman. If you want really good quality you're better off using a Nakamichi or a Tanndberg or B&O three-head tape deck. Even a Technics deck would do nicely.

"Technics deck " will cost earth ... n we can instead buy CDs of old albums ...