I'm a new Mac convert with some frustrations about what do use for audio extraction and encoding. In the PC world I used EAC with LAME as the external encoder. Can Anyone recommend something that will get me the same or better results?

Thanks!

iTunes

So far I am NOT an iTunes fan. I had it add stuff to my library and it reorganized all my folders so now my folder structure that I just downloaded from my Empeg is NOT the same any more. Now I'll have to manually fix my folders.

I'm also not happy with iTunes because apparently it cannot properly identify the bit rate or time of the songs though just about every other mp3 player out there does correctly.

I don't really like iTunes either. What I generally do when forced to use my Mac to rip is to use iTunes to extract to WAV, then use a command line lame to encode it. You might be able to find an easier to use ripper over at VersionTracker, though. I haven't looked that hard for one.

What player do you use for OS X then? I don't always have the luxury of the Empeg sitting next to me or I'd stream off the web server from it.

I honestly haven't found a good one.

> it reorganized all my folders

That's an option in the preferences - 'keep music folder organised' or somesuch. IIRC, it's not on by default.

I'm not much of an iTunes fan either, but it's probably the best media player for OS X at the moment. It could be worse - Apple could have signed up Real to supply the media player. *shudder*

OK, I found two promising programs that I need to mess with then compare to my PC EAC/Lame combination.

They are called AudioCDRescue (does multiple passes like EAC)
and then using iTunes-Lame MP3 encoder.

Gonna try them tonight I hope.

You might also want to check out Audion from www.panic.com. It is commercial (although relatively cheap), but is supposed to be able to use lame for encoding. I haven't used it in a while myself though as I am generally happy enough with iTunes.

-Mike

That's odd that iTunes can't get the bit rate or times correctly.
SoundJam MP has no problems and is the predessor to iTunes.

I still use SoundJam. You just drag you files to it and it uses them where they are, no Library.
BTW SoundJam is No Longer Available, as they sold it to Apple as the basis for iTunes and Apple killed it.

I'm now looking for Python which is a cross-platform *nix variant that if it works is suppose to be a front end to LAME. All of the other front ends I've tried are either too cumbersome or simply do not support Dabrom's presets. Barring a miracle that I actually find something I'll be on a search for Virtual PC 6.0 though the idea of shelling out a couple hundred bites particuarly when most of the money you pay goes towards the OS as well as the program and I already own a legit copy of Win XP Pro.

You can get Virtual PC w/ DOS, which effectively is Virtual PC with no OS. It's about $90-$120 cheaper.

Buuhhhhhh

I'm attempting to find people who have used EAC and LAME in Windows via Virtual PC for MAC to find out if it was too CPU costly and affected the MAC too greatly or not.

If it taxes the CPU too much, my final option is to get a barebones PC, install the few things I need on it, then connect to it via Remote Desktop for Mac (Microsoft makes a Mac OS X version) and run it that way. I know it would be faster than Virtual PC but the hardware overhead is greater and the cost is more.

EAC won't work in Virtual PC. VPC doesn't emulate the CDROM well enough to pass the low level information properly.

Thank you for saving me the bother of buying the software then. I'll have to go with a bare bones PC running Windows and Remote Desktop for Mac (I'll initially go with Ethernet until the Mac Kernel for TCP/IP Over Firewire is finished (right now it's in developmental mode).

Any suggestions for a barebones setup will be most appreciated. Plan on having it run either Win 2K or XP Pro as I have both.

did you tried LameBrain?

I'm also not happy with iTunes because apparently it cannot properly identify the bit rate or time of the songs

Do you mean while you're streaming? I had this problem, too, with iTunes 2.x but they seem to have fixed that problem in iTunes 3. When I stream from iTunes at home is seems to behave exactly the same way that WinAmp 3 does for me at work.

- trs

You could try using LameBrain. I've done thousands of songs with it and it is more flexible in terms of filenaming and location etc than iTunes, although maybe not as 'accurate' as EAC (just a guess).

As for the genreal comments about iTunes, I can't see how anyone cannot agree it's the best music organiser available. I've tried all sorts on my Mac, WinXP and Linux machines and quite frankly they ALL SUCK. iTunes is way better, hands down.

It cannot (by default) do Lame encoding, but there's ways around that and it's organisational abilities are unsurpassed. Not perfect by any means, but nothing else comes close.

Forget (J)emp(plode/tool). In my experience they all have MAJOR problems that iTunes simply doesn't have. What we now need is the iTunes to empeg plugin so iTunes is the front end for the empeg, as for an iPod. That would be GREAT.

I can't see how anyone cannot agree it's the best music organiser available.

Lack of hierarchical or deep playlists.

What we now need is the iTunes to empeg plugin so iTunes is the front end for the empeg, as for an iPod. That would be GREAT.

If I could keep my existing slaved over structure of the empeg on my computer, I might actually listen to music more often off a computer, and have a desire for such a syncing program. But again, with the lack of hierarchical playlists is what keeps me ripping music on the computer, sending it to the empeg, then archiving it to CD or DVD media.