[SwedeSound]

Is there a way to determine what bit-rate or native resolution a file was ripped at on a CD-R? I have a few CD-R's I grabbed at a yard sale, and I'm curious to know if they were ripped as lossless or as compressed MP3s. Any way to dig into their DNA?

-Jason

PS -- I wanted to post this under General Audio, but seems that's no longer an option. What gives?

[ltr317]

Any copy with less than 1 to 1 copying is going to sound worse.  Just play the cdr's and if they are mp3 or another compressed format, you will hear a flat sound with no tonal colors. 

[AVnerdguy]

Put it in the computer HD. Highlight a selection and select properties. That will tell you the file type. Then select DETAILS and it will tell you the bit rate.

[SwedeSound]

I have a Mac, but I think this is the equivalent way of looking up that information. And it appears they're AIFF files -- in which case, we're in business. I have a dozen of them from the same source -- and they all sound great.

Thanks!

Jason

[ted_b]

Not that simple.  Anyone can convert poor quality mp3's to wav and they will show up as 16/44 with redbook-like bit rates (in details, etc).  I just took a downloaded MP3 (Trent Reznor, soundtrack to Social Network) and had DBPoweramp convert it to wav (no upsampling,etc).  MP3's show up in wav as looking like redbook.  (Edit: same is true for AIFF as it is for WAV.  It simply means they are lossless NOW, but doesn't say anything about their pedigree).

[SwedeSound]

Gotcha. That makes sense now that I think more about it. So it seems we can't decipher the bit-rate and resolution on a CD-R unless the person who burned it told us (*and we trusted them) or we did it ourselves. Having said that, are there assumptions we can make when it turns up as an AIFF file?

This is a series of about 10 thoughtfully produced personal "mixed" CD-Rs featuring myriad artists from Brazil. My hunch is the creator used iTunes (or something like it) to put together playlists for CD and then burned a series of CD-R copies.

For them to have started as MP3s and then become AIFFs in somebody's library would seem a bit of a stretch, no? Again, not looking for a definitive answer. Just spitballing for a strong likelihood here.

-Jason

[ted_b]

Agree that going from MP3 to AIFF would seem a bit of a stretch.  The proof now is somewhat in the sound; most of us would have a tough time telling 320k Mp3's unless a/b'd side by side (and even then, it's not night and day....anything less is though).  if they sound good, that's all that really matters.  The real debate is when hirez companies want to charge $40 for some "faux" 24 bit hirez recordings, and we later find out they were upsampled from redbook...then, although sounding great to the unaware, you feel robbed.

[SwedeSound]

Riiiiight. And had I paid $40, I think I would want some better proof, as it were. I think I paid about $5 for all 12 discs, so I really can't complain. I guess the main reason I was asking is that I was finally getting around to ripping them into iTunes and wondered whether I should bother with the lossless format given I couldn't be certain whether they were lossless in the first place.

I went ahead and ripped them in Apple Lossless. So far, so good. Thanks for the advice. Good to know.

Jason

[ted_b]

One fairly easy way to quickly check a recordings source resolution is to take freeware like Audacity and use the analyze function to produce a spectrum plot.  MP3's or anything less than redbook source will show no energy above about 10k; redbook above about 22k and hirez up to 35k or above (rough generalizations).