TuneTracker radio automation software User's Guide

BASIC AND ADVANCED SETUP OPTIONS

Advanced "Encoding Stage" Setup

After ripping, normalizing, and trimming your CD tracks, TunePrepper will next save the track to your hard drive in your choice of file formats. The question is, which format is best for your situation? To help you decide, here is a quick look at some of the formats you can use with TunePrepper™. All of the file formats below can be safely used when broadcasting with the TuneTracker System™.

Available File Formats

File Format Benefits and Disadvantages

MP3 MP3 is the world's most popular compressed audio format. It exceeds broadcast quality if you use higher bitrates (192 kbps and above), and saves a lot of space; on average, MP3s are about 1/10th the size of an uncompressed WAV or AIFF file.

The two MP3 encoders available for BeOS, both of which work great, are described below.

"gogo" MP3 Encoder The "gogo" encoder is the faster of the two options. Some purists believe the lame encoder creates a cleaner, higher quality file. Our experience suggests you may not be able to really distinguish the difference.

"lame" MP3 Encoder The "lame" encoder is considered by some to be slightly better in sound quality than gogo. It takes about 30% longer to process files with lame.

Ogg Vorbis This is a high-quality compressed format. It's our opinion Ogg Vorbis is of somewhat better quality than MP3 at any given bitrate. It compresses files approximately the same amount as MP3. It is not as universally-used as MP3, though most audio players, including TuneTracker's handle them just fine. They cannot contain ID3 tags, which is not a concern as long as the files' attributes have been set using TunePrepper™.

ADPCM This Microsoft codec is a good-sounding compression algorythm that reduces files to 1/4th of their uncompressed size. It's a bit faster since there's less compressing to do, so it can be useful as an alternative to MP3 when ripping syndicated shows off CD that are routinely deleted from your hard drive after use.

Uncompressed Formats WAV and AIFF are also a good choice sometimes. If there are items you must routinely grab off syndicated program CDs, and they normally just replace the previous file you had on your hard drive, you can't beat the speed of uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF. You can also do that sort of ripping under BeOS without TunePrepper™, but we advise you to stick with TunePrepper™ for those too, since it will assure the files are properly normalized and silence-trimmed.

The formats described above, and others, can be selected from the drop-down button in the "Encoding Stage" section of TunePrepper™. You can use the "factory" settings shown in the program, or to roll-your-own. The encoder settings within TunePrepper™ are highly customizable, to meet the expectations of even the most saavy, discerning user.

Table of Contents

Available File Formats
File Format	Benefits and Disadvantages
MP3	MP3 is the world's most popular compressed audio format. It exceeds broadcast quality if you use higher bitrates (192 kbps and above), and saves a lot of space; on average, MP3s are about 1/10th the size of an uncompressed WAV or AIFF file. The two MP3 encoders available for BeOS, both of which work great, are described below.
"gogo" MP3 Encoder	The "gogo" encoder is the faster of the two options. Some purists believe the lame encoder creates a cleaner, higher quality file. Our experience suggests you may not be able to really distinguish the difference.
"lame" MP3 Encoder	The "lame" encoder is considered by some to be slightly better in sound quality than gogo. It takes about 30% longer to process files with lame.
Ogg Vorbis	This is a high-quality compressed format. It's our opinion Ogg Vorbis is of somewhat better quality than MP3 at any given bitrate. It compresses files approximately the same amount as MP3. It is not as universally-used as MP3, though most audio players, including TuneTracker's handle them just fine. They cannot contain ID3 tags, which is not a concern as long as the files' attributes have been set using TunePrepper™.
ADPCM	This Microsoft codec is a good-sounding compression algorythm that reduces files to 1/4th of their uncompressed size. It's a bit faster since there's less compressing to do, so it can be useful as an alternative to MP3 when ripping syndicated shows off CD that are routinely deleted from your hard drive after use.
Uncompressed Formats	WAV and AIFF are also a good choice sometimes. If there are items you must routinely grab off syndicated program CDs, and they normally just replace the previous file you had on your hard drive, you can't beat the speed of uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF. You can also do that sort of ripping under BeOS without TunePrepper™, but we advise you to stick with TunePrepper™ for those too, since it will assure the files are properly normalized and silence-trimmed.