[CLUE-Tech] better ogg sound quality

[Timothy C. Klein]

* Sean LeBlanc (seanleblanc at americanisp.net) wrote:
> On 05-28 21:06, Jeffery Cann wrote:
> > Warning:  newbie @ linux sound
> > 
> > I have been using grip to rip CDs into ogg vorbis format.  For certain types 
> > of music, the reproduction has a lot of distortion.  I am using grip 
> > (cdparanoia) to rip the CD and oggenc to encode the rip'd wav files.  I also 
> > tried cdda2wav and the results were similar.
> > 
> > Here's the oggenc command line specified in grip:
> > 
> > -o %m -a "%a" -l "%d" -c "genre=%G" -b "%b" -d "%y" -N "%t" -t "%n" %w
> > 
> > Most of these values have to do with track, title, etc. and the values of "%x" 
> > are specified by dialog boxes in the grip gui.  
> > 
> > The -b specifies the bit rate.  I am under the misconception that a higher bit 
> > rate = better sound reproduction.  I have tried encoding the same song at 4 
> > different bit rates, from 128 to 387 kbps - all sound similar and have the 
> > same distortions.
> > 
> > BTW - I can play the CD through the same speakers as the ogg file is played 
> > and there is no distortion, so I can rule out speakers / sound card as the 
> > source
> > 
> > So, how can I get better quality?  Is my rip from the CD the problem?  It 
> > seems likely since the different encoding bit rate didn't seem to affect 
> > things too much (the higher rates do sound better, but the distortion is 
> > always there).
> > 
> > Maybe I should dispense with Grip and do it on the command line?
> > 
> > I'm open to suggestions.
> 
> Jeff,
> 
> Are you sure that digital audio extraction on your drive is supported? I
> know some rippers will resort to analog if the drive does not support it. In
> my experience, analog rips sound like crap. I'm not sure what cdda2wav does
> in this case. Can you resort to the command line, just rip a track, and play
> the resulting wav? If that's crappy, it's not encoding that is your problem. 
> 
> Zonker might be on to something with the copy-protection scheme. Do you have
> a green marker? ;)
> 

This kind of confuses me. The cdparanoia FAQ specifically states that it
NEVER uses analog, "The data never comes anywhere near the soundcard,
and does not pass through any conversion to analog first." It doesn't
mention any caveats. A little web search brought up some info about DAE,
which apparently not all drives support, but cdparanoia (and I think
cdda2wav) seems to only need a CDDA capable drive. Aren't all CD audio
drives CDDA? Am I really confused?

Tim

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