Need help ripping cd to mp3 with iTunes

, ,
1

Hello,

I plan to rip some of my CDs to MP3.

I have decided to rip at a bit rate of 320kbps however I am not sure what to set the sample rate to.

Should my sample rate be set to 44.100KHz or should I set it to 48.000

Thanks for your help

2

CDs have a sample rate of 44.1 KHz, so it’s no use to change it while ripping.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the super quick reply @mfmeulenbelt.

Just another quick question,

I now have an option to choose ‘Stereo mode’, should I select ‘Normal’ or ‘Joint stereo’?

What is the difference?

4

Well, I’m no expert, but joint stereo seems to be a way to squeeze some extra performance out of encoding. That looks more useful if you need something with a very low bit rate while keeping the quality acceptable. But you are planning to rip to 320 kbps anyway so I would just use the normal mode.

5

Thanks @mfmeulenbelt you seem very knowledgable.

Is there perhaps a better app that I might use on Mac to rip my CDs?

Thanks again for all your help :slight_smile:

6

Oh, I’m far from an expert. :slight_smile:

I don’t use a Mac so I can’t help you there. What is wrong with iTunes’ encoding? I am a bit surprised that they give so many options though. Apple usually seems to think that users are idiots who need to be kept away from such complications. :wink:

7

Nothing wrong with iTunes, just so many options that for a mac user like me I’m a bit over whelmed :wink:

8

This article refers to XLD which is also what I see/hear in other places as the recommendation for the best rips on Mac OS X. Of course, if you’re not ripping to lossless anyway, this may be of little consequence and iTunes might be Good Enough™.

9

There are a plethora of options, all of them pretty good. Most of them just use CoreAudio anyways. For CDs, I just use iTunes. For converting other files, I generally use Max. It handles anything you throw at it (except the highest bitrate FLAC), but the only thing I have against the app is that it hasn’t been updated since 2009.