Poll: Are you going to re-rip your CD's into AAC?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Are you going to re-rip your CD's into AAC? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=174&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[mac15]

I've already started doing it, and I'm saving sme HD space too. I usually do 192-256kb VBRs (not all the time) and its saving some space, upto 2mb on some songs and it sounds the same as the original CD. I love it! I'm buying a 10GB iPod in a few weeks so its gonne be even better

[vniow]

Already did.

160kbs AAC, saved me about a meg per file with better quality.

[stefman]

I need to do it, my iPod is already full so I need to make more space. Have already started and already have about 250MB free!!

This could be bad news for Apple, I was going to buy a new iPod because mine didn't fit anymore songs, but if I'm getting all this extra space, I might hold on to it for a while.

[Mr.Hey]

For those that do not know, DRM only applies to the files downloaded from iTunes Music Store. I'm re-encoding all my CD's with AAc.

[ericdano]

I'm wondering what everyone is setting the bit rate at while encoding AAC files? Right now I have it at 192.......

[peterjhill]

I have reripped about 268 Songs out of 4500 that I have on my Powerbook. I like how if you try to rerip something it gives you an option to replace the existing files. What I wish they did is to maintain the playcount history. I liked that feature :(

[MacFan25]

I am currently ripping right now into AAC. I am re-ripping all of my music into AAC. So far I have only done a little over a hundred songs. But, I'm working on it! :D

[WinterMute]

I'll need to listen to it first, it's a smaller file size for sure, but what does it sound like?

Haven't had a chance to play with it yet, too busy playing with my NEW 17" POWERBOOK:D

Given the amount of good press AAC is getting I think it's a matter of time before I have to re-rip everything:eek:

[AllenPSU]

I did rip some in AAC but probably will leave it at he few I did and just go with AAC for the new ones.

[toledOHIO]

I've read that in aac the highest bit rate you need is 128. They say that "audiofiles" can't tell the difference between the original and the aac version @128. This will save lots of space on the hard drive. If you've read different let me know.

[jethroted]

Everything must go! Time to bring in the new. How could I not re-rip everything? AAC is a thousand times better than mp3. I've been waiting way too long for itunes to have AAC to not do it.

[KLFloyd]

Yep, I've already started and finished re-ripping mine. Though my music library was only about 3GB to begin with. I re-ripped all I had and then just left the MP3's for the songs I could no longer find the CD for.

Just a note for all of you doing the same, Apple's "Replace Existing" feature doesn't work for me all the time. The Track Name, Artist, and Album have to be EXACTLY the same in order for it to work. Joel, Billy is not the same as Joel Billy so I found that I had to do a lot of cleanup work when I was done.

So far I've saved some space, though of course ate it right back up with my music downloads, man this could be dangerous!

[RBMaraman]

Yep, I'm re-ripping all of mine into 128 bit AAC. I've already done about half my CD's, and I've noticed that I'm going to save around a gig or more of HDD space.

[centauratlas]

With more than 6500 songs encoded at 320kbps MP3, no way. ;-) It would be way to much work.

[howard]

Originally posted by KLFloyd


Just a note for all of you doing the same, Apple's "Replace Existing" feature doesn't work for me all the time. The Track Name, Artist, and Album have to be EXACTLY the same in order for it to work. Joel, Billy is not the same as Joel Billy so I found that I had to do a lot of cleanup work when I was done.



uhh thats bad news for me...i don't want to lose my playcount!!!

[DrGrip84]

3700 Songs = WAY too much time!

I have done one or two NEW ones in AAC @ 128 though and they sound sooooo good though! It's all AAC from here on out baby... :D

[SilentPanda]

As soon as I got home on the 28th I did a mass delete and just started right at it... I'm pretty close to done now... I'm just leaving it at 128 because it sounds fine to me... plus this way the bitrate is the same as all the songs I purchase... it was sorta weird to have a legal CD-R and not have the original.

[KLFloyd]

Originally posted by howard
uhh thats bad news for me...i don't want to lose my playcount!!!

Not necessarley, just fix the songs so they match prior to importing the new songs and you should be fine. Playcount didn't mean much to me so I just did the clean up work later.

[Xcyridus]

Originally posted by ericdano
I'm wondering what everyone is setting the bit rate at while encoding AAC files? Right now I have it at 192.......


I think that 128kbps AAc is great. You probably don't have to go to 192.

[comrade]

Is there a VBR setting for AAC? Or is it not supported..or even necessary?

Also, I never liked Apple's default setting of 164 kbs for mp3's (I always used 192, best quality/file size ratio I thought), so do you think I will find 128 kbs AAC not enough? I would try it out for myself but I am away form my Mac for the week.

[Xcyridus]

Originally posted by peterjhill
I have reripped about 268 Songs out of 4500 that I have on my Powerbook. I like how if you try to rerip something it gives you an option to replace the existing files. What I wish they did is to maintain the playcount history. I liked that feature :(

Yes I liked it to, but I guess it's good to reset everything from time to time.

[Xcyridus]

Originally posted by comrade
Is there a VBR setting for AAC? Or is it not supported..or even necessary?

Also, I never liked Apple's default setting of 164 kbs for mp3's (I always used 192, best quality/file size ratio I thought), so do you think I will find 128 kbs AAC not enough? I would try it out for myself but I am away form my Mac for the week.

There is no VBR for AAC. Just use 128kbps AAC and it'll sound great and be a small file.

[herr_neumann]

Yeah, If AAC helps the iPod battery life like some say, then I am hoping it will do the same for my iBook 700. Even 1 or 2% is cool.

[Switcher2001]

Originally posted by Macrumors
Vote: Poll: Are you going to re-rip your CD's into AAC? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=174&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

No. I went to vote at the poll, and the only "no" answers were:

No, I'll keep my current ripped MP3s and rip AAC in the future

No, and am going to continue encoding in MP3

My answer is:

No. I am not going to spend the next two days playing disc jockey in front of my computer, the way I did when I originally ripped all my CDs into MP3s.

Instead, I used the "Convert to AAC" feature in iTunes 4 to convert my entire 5 GB collection of 160 kbps MP3s to 128 kbps AAC's. I didn't notice any significant loss of quality, and my computer did all the work for me while I went on with my day.

Converting to AAC recovered 1.3 GB of space. Now my entire collection consists of 128 kbps AAC's, including the CDs I ripped yesterday and the songs I downloaded from the Apple Music Store.

I look forward to ripping more of my CDs into AAC's now and having hundreds more songs on my original 5 GB iPod.

Love it!

[Sol]

I am glad that AAC is supported by iTunes and iPods but I will continue to rip to MP3s. I have a portable MP3 player and unless the firmware for that is updated for AAC playback there is no point in me changing formats.

My MP3s are 160 kbs and I have never said to myself "That does not sound as good as a CD!". I think it is kind of anal to obsess over sound quality when your whole music collection can be accessed with just a few clicks; compare that with fumbling through CD cases and the loss in sound quality becomes negligible.

Anyway, the smallest capacity 3.5" hard drives you can buy today will fit most people's music collections so the advantages of AAC are more relevant to devices like the iPod, not the home computers that host them.

[mc68k]

i'm in the process of re-ripping...why would you want to continue using a 10+ year-old format??? AAC is the future ppl

the best part is less processor usage for decoding == more battery life on iPod :)

[iElvis]

I had to vote "NO, i'm gonna continue using mp3" because thats all i can do on a PC. Once iTunes comes to PC, or i get a Mac, which ever happens first, then i'm gonna use AAC.

[Snowy_River]

I've been waiting for AAC. I had a computer crash (well, sort of) back in February that cost me most of my MP3 collection. I decided that I wasn't going to re-rip my collection yet because I knew that AAC was coming. So, I ripped just enough to keep me satisfied, then I waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . .

Now, finally, AAC is here and I can rip my collection again!! So, I'm now in the process of ripping everything (except what I already ripped to MP3 - I figure that's, at best, low on my list of priorities).

PS: BTW, has anyone else noticed that ripping to AAC is slower than ripping to MP3? I used to get 4x speeds when ripping to MP3, but I'm only getting about 2x speeds when ripping to AAC. Just an observation...

[smegdude]

i was quite annoyed when i woke up after leaving itunes on overnight converting all my mp3's to aac, as it converts them but then does not delete the original mp3. When i woke itunes had an error message saying that i had run out of hard disk space. So i've decided to just import new cds as aac and leave my current mp3s as they are.

[puriuchi]

I've been eagerly awaiting the new iPod, recently finished ripping all my cds (350+) into iTunes to see which size iPod I would need/want, then it comes out... AAC in iTunes and iPod, huge file size savings....

The process of ripping 350+ cd's into iTunes was very long, but the convenience of having all my songs in iTunes was well worth it.

My questions are:

(1) do you lose sound quality by converting existing MP3's into AAC? And, if so, is it worth sacrificing sound quality for a substantial savings in disc space?

or

(2) do you all think the enhanced sound quality + decreased file size is worth going through the process of re-ripping 350+ cds into iTunes.

I have about 32G of songs in iTunes right now, AAC would substantially reduce that, maybe by as much as 20%, thus more room for my entire collection on my soon to arrive 30G iPod.


p.s. I also agree that it sucks that iTunes4 cannot rip and replace (i.e. rip a new AAC file and delete the old mp3 file). Too much to ask, I know, but that's really going to be a pain to re-rip and then go through and delete all the old mp3 files.

[thrice]

Originally posted by puriuchi
I've been eagerly awaiting the new iPod, recently finished ripping all my cds (350+) into iTunes to see which size iPod I would need/want, then it comes out... AAC in iTunes and iPod, huge file size savings....

The process of ripping 350+ cd's into iTunes was very long, but the convenience of having all my songs in iTunes was well worth it.

My questions are:

(1) do you lose sound quality by converting existing MP3's into AAC? And, if so, is it worth sacrificing sound quality for a substantial savings in disc space?

or

(2) do you all think the enhanced sound quality + decreased file size is worth going through the process of re-ripping 350+ cds into iTunes.

I have about 32G of songs in iTunes right now, AAC would substantially reduce that, maybe by as much as 20%, thus more room for my entire collection on my soon to arrive 30G iPod.


p.s. I also agree that it sucks that iTunes4 cannot rip and replace (i.e. rip a new AAC file and delete the old mp3 file). Too much to ask, I know, but that's really going to be a pain to re-rip and then go through and delete all the old mp3 files.

32G of songs, that's larger than my hardrive. Alas, I too am currently reripping my cds for AAC format. It sucks, but I'll be able to get more onto my 10G iPod this way, and believe it or not, I did have to pick and choose what went on.

[thrice]

Originally posted by puriuchi
My questions are:

(1) do you lose sound quality by converting existing MP3's into AAC? And, if so, is it worth sacrificing sound quality for a substantial savings in disc space?

or

(2) do you all think the enhanced sound quality + decreased file size is worth going through the process of re-ripping 350+ cds into iTunes.

Oh yeah,

to answer your questions.

1) I think converting your mp3's into AAC's will decrease the quality; essentially you'll encode a new file from something that is already compressed form the original to begin with

2) Well, for me I tend to encode mp3s at a higher bitrate in order to avoid signal distortion, especially in the extreme upper and lower ranges. (especially with hardcore/metal tunes) So I think it's worht it to rerip my collection at 128/160 Mbps AAC files. Plus I'll get better sound quality and smaller file sizes.

[DOUBLEADESIGN]

converting from MP3 to AAC will result in a smaller file that has sorta the same quality as the origional MP3. When at the same file size you could have an even better quality MP3. If you have stuff to do arround the house then it won't be a big dela to re-rip your collection. I'm currently working on my 400+ CD collection. Fun-fun-fun. And more disc space! At 14,000+ MP3's I need it!

[scem0]

I shall re-rip all of them when I get my powermac 970. :)

[hacurio1]

Originally posted by Macrumors
Vote: Poll: Are you going to re-rip your CD's into AAC? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=174&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

NO! I know ACC is better, but it would take me over a year to re-rip all the music I got.
Just imagine how long it would take to re-rip 6500+ songs form hundreds of different CDs

[SilentPanda]

I'm almost done reripping all my CD's but for those of you that are still in the process.... if you open iTunes and open up the preferences click "General". Then there is a combo box to determine what iTunes does on CD insert. Just set it to Import Songs and Eject. That'll save a bit of time...

[springscansing]

[bonehead]

No. I am not going to spend the next two days playing disc jockey in front of my computer, the way I did when I originally ripped all my CDs into MP3s.

Instead, I used the "Convert to AAC" feature in iTunes 4 to convert my entire 5 GB collection of 160 kbps MP3s to 128 kbps AAC's. I didn't notice any significant loss of quality, and my computer did all the work for me while I went on with my day.


From the "you probably know but in case you don't" files:

Converting MP3s to AAC recompresses your files. You may not notice any loss in quality but you aren't improving the quality of your MP3s.

[DOUBLEADESIGN]

Right, AAC will never improve the quality of an MP3 (remember it is already compressed like a JPG). So, if you have a low quality MP3 and convert it to AAC you will then have a low quality AAC that most likely will take up less space but not have the quality of a direct rip of an AAC file from a CD. And it might even be slightly degraded though unaudible (the MP3 to AAC).
So, here is what I'm planning on doing:
re-rip all CDs and any CDs that have gone missing and leaving me only with an MP3 leave as is under 256kb.
Only import as AAC. And I'm considering the MP3 to AAC for rather large MP3 files (like those ambient MP3s that are about an hour long).
have fun with your music! Also I love the ability to add the album art. That is something I may or may not do for all the music. Now that is work!

[Sol]

Originally posted by springscansing
There's no way mp3 to AAC will EVER improve sound quality. It's impossible.

Also, at the same bitrate, the files sizes are THE SAME, but the sound of AAC is supposedly better.

Very true. By re-compressing you would essentially be making a second-generation copy so the best way to go about this is to start fresh with your original CDs. I guess this does not apply to all those people who collected their music through Napster but then nobody told them to steal in the first place.

The kbs settings of MP3s & AACs are not so much an indication of sound quality; they are an indication of file size. Any codec at 160 kbs will result in the exact same size file as any other codec at 160 kbs. In comparison with MP3s, AAC files will sound better at the same kbs.

[springscansing]

Whew. Thankee Sol.

[peterjhill]

Further update on reripping cds... Not only will itunes ask if you want to replace exisiting tracks if you try to reimport something to aac, if you say yes, it will maintain the playcount for your songs. This is awesome... Very smart programming.

Also, the music shop will warn you if you accidentally try to buy the same song twice. I ran into this buying all the songs on an album that wasn't sold as an album.

I bought about $40 of music today and am very happy. An Ice-T and Public Enemy Cd that I never remember to buy, some Tori Amos, and Everything but the Girl.

[Awimoway]

Originally posted by SilentPanda
if you open iTunes and open up the preferences click "General". Then there is a combo box to determine what iTunes does on CD insert. Just set it to Import Songs and Eject. That'll save a bit of time...

Except that I don't want copies of songs I hate. When I first ripped all my CDs, I had to go carefully through each one and decide which songs to rip.

Fortunately, I have already made those decisions, so I will just have to check and see what I ripped from any given album.

Another impediment for me will be that I change tags for songs when the CDDB has typos, errors, or just tags things in a way that I don't like. So I don't know if iTunes will recognize songs I re-rip that will have CDDB tags that differ from what I have in my library. I won't be able to "replace" songs as easily.

[Switcher2001]

Originally posted by puriuchi
I've been eagerly awaiting the new iPod, recently finished ripping all my cds (350+) into iTunes to see which size iPod I would need/want, then it comes out... AAC in iTunes and iPod, huge file size savings....

The process of ripping 350+ cd's into iTunes was very long, but the convenience of having all my songs in iTunes was well worth it.

My questions are:

(1) do you lose sound quality by converting existing MP3's into AAC? And, if so, is it worth sacrificing sound quality for a substantial savings in disc space?

or

(2) do you all think the enhanced sound quality + decreased file size is worth going through the process of re-ripping 350+ cds into iTunes.

I have about 32G of songs in iTunes right now, AAC would substantially reduce that, maybe by as much as 20%, thus more room for my entire collection on my soon to arrive 30G iPod.


p.s. I also agree that it sucks that iTunes4 cannot rip and replace (i.e. rip a new AAC file and delete the old mp3 file). Too much to ask, I know, but that's really going to be a pain to re-rip and then go through and delete all the old mp3 files.

My MP3's were 160 kbps, and I did not hear a significant difference between those and the 128 kpbs AAC's I converted all of them to.

P.S. Hit Command+J to see the view options for iTunes, and select "Kind." This might help you when it's time to delete the old MP3's after ripping the new AAC's

[peterjhill]

See my other posts... iTunes does exactly what you said above. Stick in a CD that you have previously ripped to mp3, tell itunes to import it, and it will ask if you want to replace the existing files. It then moves the old ones to the trash can. It works perfectly. It also maintains your play count. Don't re rip any other way!!!


http://homepage.mac.com/peterjhill/itunes.png

[Classic]

Originally posted by Xcyridus
There is no VBR for AAC. Just use 128kbps AAC and it'll sound great and be a small file.

I think you are wrong on this one... I was testing out some different settings by importing a song that I already had as an MP3 and comparing it to the AAC rips that I did through iTunes.

My first file was an MP3 encoding at 160kbps with VBR using Medium High Quality. The result was a 180kbps VBR encoding. The song was a 4:18 long song and the file size was 5.5 MB.

I reimported it three different times with AAC at 128kbps, 160kbps, and 192kbps. The results were files that were 3.9, 4.9, and 5.9 MB.

Then I opened them all in quicktime and played them. 180kbps VBR MP3 is a pretty decent quality. After scrutinizing the three AAC files and the one MP3 file, I couldn't justify importing AAC files in at more than 128kbps. They sound great to me, and take up much less space.

Back to the question of VBR AAC files. Open up the file in quicktime, and then go to Movie->Get Movie Properties. Select the Sound Track, and the Format. You will see that the compression is MPEG-4 Audio Variable Bitrate.

I think that VBR is part of the AAC format, and there is no way around it. So, your 128kbps imports aren't necessarily only at 128kbps. Since they are compressed in VBR, where needed, your bitrate will increase to higher than 128kbps. It just means that there will never be less than 128kbps on your file.

[peterjhill]

Classic! If this were /. your post would most definitely have been modded "informative" Excellent post, I have been waiting for some qualitative analysis along the lines that you discussed. Thanks for the post.

[Classic]

Originally posted by peterjhill
Classic! If this were /. your post would most definitely have been modded "informative" Excellent post, I have been waiting for some qualitative analysis along the lines that you discussed. Thanks for the post.

No problem at all. Thanks for the compliment.

Here's one thing I haven't tested, and would like input from others that have tested it...

I don't have an ipod. In my car, I have a CD player that also plays CDs with mp3 songs on it. Naturally, it won't play m4a files ripped from my CDs or m4p files downloaded from Apple. And, carrying around a whole bunch of discs is kind of a pain in the arse.

So, has anybody tried burning an MP3 CD from AAC files? I'm wondering if the sound quality stinks or not, and what happens to the file size...

I think I'll probably end up burning a bunch of MP3 CDs from iTunes with my current MP3 library so that I can have them in my car, and then I'll end up reimporting my entire library in AAC format. Ideally, I'd buy an iPod, but can't afford it just yet.

[peterjhill]

I am currently using Extrememac.com's tape adapter/case/lighter adapter combo in my car. It works very well. I clip the remote to the wire coming out of the tape adapter to keep it handy, and have the mounting clip (very small thing, look at their web site) on the right side of the center console in the foot whell of the passenger. It keeps it out of the way. It is alot of white wires though. It might be nice to have somekind of cable management system for it all.

If I were to replace my car stereo, I would put in a receiver with a line input on the front, that would solve everything. As it is, I have a factory installed receiver with a built in tape deck and a separate cd unit, all factory. It would not be worth it to replace it all. It works fine, my wife would never understand the expense, and I have too many other things to spend money on. (not that anyone really cared ;-) )