Subject: Re: MP3 rippng too slow
From: Christopher Murtagh (christopher.murtagh@mcgill.ca)
Date: Mon Mar 11 2002 - 22:10:48 MST
On Mon, 11 Mar 2002, Steven Frankini wrote:
>What? Your soundcard shouldn't be a factor in ripping cds at all.
>Programs like iTunes (mac), EAC(Win), and cdparanoia(linux) directly
>extract audio from the disk. No sound card even needs to be in the
>system to rip. There is still room for error in the process, but your
>soundcard isn't to blame for poor quality.
>
>Any difference in quality directly relates to the codec used and it
>settings. (bitrate, vbr, highpass/lowpass, etc.)
>
>The soundcard only becomes a factor in playback.
Actually, this isn't 100% true. While most software uses the native CPU
to encode the mp3, some software (like Creative's software) use a DSP chip
on the Soundblaster Live card. What this allows is to throw the load onto
the DSP chip rather than your CPU, leaving your precious CPU cycles for
doing other things. This is not a new concept either, both the NeXT
machines (with the built-in Motorola 56k DSP chip) and most ProTools rigs
do pretty much the same thing.
The time when a Soundblaster or similar card starts to sound nasty is
when you use the analog inputs and/or outputs (like playback, or recording
via line-in). The problem there is often due to RF from inside the CPU
case that induces a whole bunch of nasties onto the analog circuitry.
Soundblaster type cards aren't alone in this, Digidesign's AudioMedia II
and III cards (which are a lot more expensive) suffer from the same
problem.
Cheers,
Chris
--Christopher Murtagh Webmaster / Sysadmin Web Communications Group McGill University Montreal, Quebec Canada
Tel.: (514) 398-3122 Fax: (514) 398-2017
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