Recording with Audacity

[dkelly701]

When ripping the soundtrack from a DVD to record to a CD, what produces better quality, using TMPGEnc xpress with AC-3 plugin to create a WMV file and then use Audacity to do any editing and then burn with appropiate software or simply playing the DVD and record it using Audacity thorugh the soundcard, edit with Audacity and then burn? Or am I missing the boat entirely and should be doing it an entirely different way?

Thanks in advance.

[FulciLives]

RIP the DVD with DVD Decrypter in IFO MODE which will allow you to RIP just the audio track that you want.

You can then use one of many tools (such as BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI) to convert the audio to 48k 16-bit Stereo PCM WAV audio.

You then edit that with a program like GOLDWAVE and then you end up with a standard 48k 16-bit Stereo PCM WAV audio file (which is the format a standard music CD uses).

This can then be burned to a CD-R with something like NERO Burning Rom etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dkelly701]

Thanks for the quick reply. When I use TMPGEnc, I get the same specs. that you list (48000 Hz, 16 bit 2 channel stereo). Since I already have these programs, I would prefer to use them if the final output is the same. Would your method produce better results than the software that I am using? By the way, the TMPGEnc will also allow 48000 Hz, 32 bit 5.1 surrond if available on the DVD. If I created a CD from this to play in a 2 channel car stereo, what would the results be?

Again, thanks for your time.

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the quick reply. When I use TMPGEnc, I get the same specs. that you list (48000 Hz, 16 bit 2 channel stereo). Since I already have these programs, I would prefer to use them if the final output is the same. Would your method produce better results than the software that I am using? By the way, the TMPGEnc will also allow 48000 Hz, 32 bit 5.1 surrond if available on the DVD. If I created a CD from this to play in a 2 channel car stereo, what would the results be?

Again, thanks for your time.

I don't understand why you are using TMPGEnc to create a standard music CD ... it makes no sense?!?!?

DVD Decrypter is freeware. You RIP the audio. This gives you a perfect copy of the original audio as it is on the DVD.

BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI are both freeware. They convert the audio (most likely AC-3) to a standard 2 channel Stereo 48k 16-bit PCM WAV audio file.

At that point you can use any audio editing program you have (such as Audacity ... again freeware) to do your editing.

In the end you have a standard audio file for creating a music CD-R disc. If you don't want to burn it with NERO Burning Rom (not freeware) then I am sure there is a freeware solution (maybe even Audacity can do this but I never used it myself).

TMPGEnc is for video and does not do 5.1 AC-3 to 2.0 PCM WAV audio conversion ... at least not well. Why use it?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dkelly701]

When you say that TMPGEnc does not do audio well, I guess that was my question. I think we are on the same page for the rest of the process.

I was using the "Source Wizard" from TMPGnc 3.0 express with AC-3 plugin to get the video and audio. Once I had it I just set the output to WAV and it would disregard the video and output the audio as a 48khz, 16 bit file. I didn't realize that TMPGnc produced inferior results to BeSweet. Looks like I need to learn another software.

Thanks again for taking the time for a beginner.

[NamPla]

Just demux the audio off the disk with DVD2AVI (decode to wav) and then import into Audacity. You can demux with DVDDecrypter too.

(Audacity doesn't burn CDs, BTW)

[dkelly701]

I'm using Sonic software for burning.

Thanks