Configuring Your Encoding Settings

If you have more than one CD-ROM drive, select the active CD-ROM drive from the list. Your CD-ROM title is listed by the same name as shown on your desktop.

While AudioCatalyst supports multiple CD-ROM drives, you can only rip and encode from one drive at a time. Do not add files to the Encoding Queue from multiple CD-ROM drives. If you need to switch CD-ROM drives, complete encoding the jobs in the Encoding Queue, change the active CD-ROM drive in the Encoder Preferences dialog, and then add the files from the active drive to the Encoding Queue.

Select CBR options when you need to limit the size of the MP3 file or produce consistent and predictable file sizes.

Bitrate allows you to select a bitrate from the drop-down list. Your MP3 file is encoded as a fixed rate.

Variable allows you to select from a scale (Low to High) where Low represents about 96kbits/s, Normal represents about 128kbits/s, and High represents about 192kbits/s. Your MP3 file is encoded with variable bitrates throughout the file based on your selection from the scale. Select Variable when consistent audio quality is the top priority and constant or predictable encoded MP3 file size is not critical. See the following table for VBR setting information.

VBR	CBR Bitrate +- 10%	Supported Channels	Recommended Use
Low	*96kbits/s	Mono Joint Stereo Stereo	Near CD-Quality Good choice for portable MP3 players (smallest file size). Use when storage space is a consideration; when playback is performed with low-end sound equipment and listening environment such as portable players or car players.
Normal/Low	112kbits/s	Mono Joint Stereo Stereo	CD-Quality Best choice for portable MP3 Players where file size is limited.
Normal	128kbits/s	Mono Joint Stereo Stereo	CD-Quality Best choice for most users. Normal use; similar to encoding moderately difficult to difficult content with a CBR of 128kbits/s.
Normal/High	160kbits/s	Mono Joint Stereo Stereo	Archival Quality For high-end stereos (larger file size). Compromise between Normal and High settings.
High	192kbits/s	Mono Joint Stereo Stereo	Archival Quality For highest-end stereos (unlimited file size). Use when storage space is not a consideration; when playback is performed with high-end sound equipment and listening environment; and when heavy equalization adjustments might be used on playback.

ID3 tags add additional information to your MP3 files such as the song name, track name, artist, album name, and custom comments. The ID3 tag information is encoded into the file header and generally appears in the MP3 player's information dialog. Currently, there are four versions of ID3 tags. Every ID3 tag version may not be supported by your favorite MP3 player. Before changing the ID3 Tag option in the Encoder Preferences dialog, you should find out which version you will need.

The XingMP3 Player for Macintosh supports all the ID3 tag versions available in AudioCatalyst.

No ID3 tag should be selected if you do not want to use the ID3 tag feature.

ID3v1 should be used when you are creating files that will be played back on PCs.

ID3v1.1 includes the same information as ID3v1, but adds the track number information to the ID3 tag.

ID3v2 should be used when you are creating files that will be played back on Macintosh computers.

ID3v2.3 should be used only when you are certain your favorite MP3 player supports it. This specification is the most recent and therefore most current MP3 players may not yet support it.

You can view or change the ID3 information in the CDDB/ID3 Preferences dialog. From the AudioCatalyst menu bar, select Edit and then CDDB/ID3 Preferences.

Joint Stereo (mode 1) - To create the highest quality MP3 files, Xing recommends always choosing Joint Stereo (mode 1) over Stereo. Don't confuse Joint Stereo (mode 1) with the Joint Stereo coding used for MPEG layer 2 encoding - it is not the same.

Joint Stereo(mode 1) encoding for MPEG layer 3 allows the XingMP3 Encoder to use additional methods of encoding, specifically - MS Stereo (Middle/Side Stereo), and for lower bitrates only, Intensity Stereo, in addition to the Independent Channel coding used for Stereo. MS Stereo uses one channel to encode information that is identical on the left and right channels and the other channel to encode the differences between the two channels. Intensity Stereo encodes only bits that are perceived to be important to the stereophonic image. The XingMP3 Encoder uses Intensity Stereo only in low bitrate files (96kbps or less), where file size is critical to the user.

In Joint Stereo (mode 1), the encoder dynamically (frame by frame) chooses the method of encoding that produces the best quality for each individual frame. Dynamic encoding improves compression efficiency which results in a higher quality file using less bits.

Stereo (mode 0) encodes the left and right channels independently. The total bitrate remains constant, but the split between the channels can vary. The XingMP3 Encoder uses this flexibility to improve quality by allocating more bits to the channel with the more dynamic signal. For MPEG layer 3 encoding, Stereo (mode 0) limits the Encoder to only one method of encoding - Independent Channels. Because Stereo (mode 0) is limited to one method of encoding, Joint Stereo (mode 1) in most cases produces higher quality. In the exceptions, the Stereo (mode 0) quality will be essentially equivalent to Joint Stereo (mode 1).

Dual Stereo includes two completely independent encoded channels (left/right), each with half the total bitrate. In effect, it is two Mono files packed into a single file. Dual Stereo is generally only used for multi-lingual audio programs.

Use temporary buffer (better quality) creates a temporary file while you are creating the MP3 file. A Temporary Buffer is actually a temporary file (sometimes known as a swap file), that is written to your hard disk during the ripping and encoding process. When you finish encoding the file, the Temporary Buffer file is erased.

Generally, Temporary Buffer files are recommended if your processor cannot process information as quickly as your CD-ROM drive can read it. Because VBR encoding varies the load on your processor from frame to frame, Xing recommends always using a Temporary Buffer file whenever encoding files using the VBR option.

The purpose of a Temporary Buffer is to store temporary information in a location where the encoder looks to find it, and requests it as needed. This location on your hard disk is called the Scratch Disk. The Temporary Buffer file requires a substantial amount of disk space on your Scratch Disk - about 10MB per minute of CD-audio.

more compatible rips at 1x speed regardless of the actual speed of your CD-ROM drive.

Scratch Disk sets the drive to store the temporary file when "Use temporary buffer" is selected.

Defaults button sets the options in the Preferences dialog to their original default settings. The defaults are:

Advanced opens a dialog to set Advanced encoding options, such as Copyright Bit, Original Bit, High Frequency Mode, MPEG Algorithm, and your MPEG file defaults.

Cancel button closes the Encoder Preferences dialog without saving any changes you made.