I have been using Easy CD creator to rip MP3's and experienced some problems. I found this forum and have seen everyone here giving praises to EAC so I downloaded it and just started using it. From what I've read, using VBR is better than using a constant bit rate. I use LAME to encode to MP3. However when i turn on the switch "--alt -preset standard" the resulting MP3 has a bit rate much higher than what i want. I want it to be around 192kbs. Also the track duration it displays is incorrect when using the VBR method. Example: song is 4:35 and after a rip it shows a duration of 2:02. The whole song is there but the duration is incorrect. Any ideas?

This has nothing to do with the ripping, but with players. If you use (the latest?) Winamp, the duration will be shown correctly

Well I have the latest versions of winamp, windows media player and am running XP. when I place the cursor over the MP3 file XP automatically displays info about the file including the duration which is incorrect. The duration is also displayed incorrectly in winamp and windows media player. Im new to EAC so im probably just doing something wrong but I have know idea what.

I take that back. The duration is displayed correctly in winamp but not windows media player or XP. Go figure. But it is better to use a Variable bit rate vs a Constant bit rate, right?

But I've heard people running into trouble when they try and burn a MP3 encoded with VBR. Any truth to that?

Well, I haven't encountered any problems, but they say that Nero has some issues with some files. But Feurio works flawlessly, so it's Nero's fault. You can always decode your MP3s with Winamp and then burn them

As for incorrect playing times, it's also M$'s fault. They just can't do it right, that's all.

As for encoding... You know, if you don't want bitrates --alt-preset standard gives you, you can forget about high quality. Every other setting will sooner or later sound crappy on some music. --a-p s has been tweaked on the code level and contains so much improvements you can't enable using "normal" commands, that by using something else, you greatly sacrifice quality.

Sorry, but that's how MP3 format works. High quality demands high bitrates.

If you want higher quality and lesser bitrate, use Musepack. Visit Musepack.org and Hydrogen Audio and you'll learn A LOT about it It gives higher quality than ANY other format. You name it and Musepack will beat it. Maybe you should give it a try ? It really works.

Yay! Even I vote for Musepack. Go get it xadamz23

Yes. Very much. Unless your portable player hates it. But of course if you want to go for an overkill, you can use alt-preset-insane with 320kbps (and thats CBR!)