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January 17, 2008 - 8:32am
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Ripping to iTunes, bitrate advice
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If you have the bitrate set to variable, then yes. You set VBR for the maximum rate allowed, but the encoding is dialed back for quiet portions, and the final bitrate is a kind of average. If your encoder is not set to VBR, this shouldn't be happening.
I was using AAC set to 256; I had assumed that AAC uses a fixed bit rate but evidently not.
When I import using AIFF at full resolution, naturally that's a fixed bitrate - guess I was wrongly expecting the same principle.
That's interesting; I used AAC for a while and never experienced that.
Why do you use a lossy format when hard drive space is so cheap?
Why not use ALAC which will Give bit identical copies?
If you have or will have a music server in your future you will have to re rip to get CD quality.
A 500 gig external drive can be purchased for 100.00.
You can convert ALAC to a lossy format in another folder for Ipod devices.
Because I use iTunes for our family iPods (3), which includes ones with limited capacity, and for relatively casual listening while at the computer. I play cd's/lp's etc on 2 separate stereos in the house. No present plans, or desire, to do a music server system.
My current (enjoyable) audio task is archiving my favorite LP's to CD-R's. That, of course, is done at full resolution.