HOW-TO: Enable MP3 ripping in Sound Juicer 2.22.0

As with most tasks in Linux involving proprietary or non-free multimedia formats, ripping to MP3 with Sound Juicer is not obvious to setup. So, here’s a quick recap of the steps I took to get things working as I wanted. YMMV.

First things first: I am running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on my PC, having done nothing in addition to a fresh installation and performing a system update immediately afterward. (But if you’re leary at all of your repository configuration, check that the main, universe, restricted, and multiverse sources are enabled by going to System > Administration > Software Sources.)

Then, install the gstreamer0.10-lame package from a terminal:

ricky@zetterberg:~$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-lame

This will ultimately give you the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse and liblame0 packages: exactly what you want.

Now, start Sound Juicer (Applications > Sound & Video > Audio CD Extractor) and select Edit > Preferences. A new output format profile should have been added: CD Quality, MP3 (MP3 audio). Select this profile and Bob’s your uncle. But wait, there’s more …

Tweaking the default settings

Here’s where the completely complicated and obfuscated part comes in. At this point, you’re able to rip MP3s with no problems at all, but at the default settings–which gives a 128Kbps bitrate among other things. This is simply too low-fidelity for most folks, and especially audiophiles like myself. So, here’s an easy way to increase the audio quality of the MP3 output files to the max.

The Lame encoder provides some handy “presets” that you can specify in the GStreamer pipeline. While still on the preferences tab, select Edit Profiles… > CD Quality, MP3 > Edit. In the GStreamer pipeline field, enter the following line:

audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2 ! lame preset=insane ! id3v2mux

The meat and potatoes of this line is preset=insane, which tells Lame to use the Insane quality preset, and will give you a fixed-bitrate MP3 file at CBR 320Kbps. This preset will usually be overkill for most people and most situations, but if you must have the absolute highest quality with no regard to filesize (as do I), this is the way to go. This is the highest preset quality available. Of course, there are other presets available–all of them variable bitrate (VBR):

preset=medium

This preset should provide near transparency to most people on most music. The resulting bitrate should be in the 150-180kbps range, according to music complexity.

preset=standard

This preset should generally be transparent to most people on most music and is already quite high in quality. The resulting bitrate should be in the 170-210kbps range, according to music complexity.

preset=extreme

If you have extremely good hearing and similar equipment, this preset will provide slightly higher quality than the “standard” mode. The resulting bitrate should be in the 200-240kbps range, according to music complexity.

To use any of these, just change the value assigned to preset in the GStreamer pipeline field. When you’re done, be sure to restart Sound Juicer so the new settings take effect.

“I need even more control.”

If you need even more control over the quality of the MP3 files you rip, you should first look into medication(s) for your condition, and then try this from your terminal:

ricky@zetterberg:~$ gst-inspect-0.10 lame

This will show all of the options–and believe me when I say that there are a lot–available to you in the GStreamer pipeline string. For example, if you want to tweak the default settings of the Standard preset, you might enter this:

audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2 ! lame name=enc mode=1 vbr=4 quality=1
     preset=1001 vbr-max-bitrate=320 ! xingmux ! id3v2mux

Hope this helps!