Conversion from 256k to 128k for loading

[IPOD1STTIMER]

Just purchased 30G iPod. Converting ALL my music to MP3 (CD's, vinyl, etc). Using 256k to protect quality and have workable version for conversion to future formats (AAC, etc) without having to rip everything from scratch again. Can anyone tell me how to batch convert from one bitrate to another before I get too far into this project (roughly 2,500 albums)?

[IPOD1STTIMER]

So, 54 people look at the post, but no-one can help? With many hours spent in front of MMJB (the only app that seems to allow me to dictate 128k as the transfer rate when the original file is @ 256k), I'm really keen to find a way of adjusting the bitrate in ephpod, but no joy. C'mon guys; I'm @ 1,500 albums and fading fast! Help!

[ech3]

If you want to do batch conversions, I use Razorlame which is a front end to the Lame encoder. I think it will allow what you want to do.

However, you should never convert from one mp3 bit rate directly to another. The quality suffers too much. If you need the same song at a different bit rate, you should go back to the original .wav file.

[IPOD1STTIMER]

Thanks. I was told that ripping to 256 would give me an excellent base to convert from. Wanted to give myself a chance to get all music onto hard drive (without huge .wav files) and then convert to AAC, smaller mp3, whatever as the formats changed. Seems to do OK (but v slowly!) on MMJB, but I'll do some more research. Cheers.

[richard]

Converting to 128 from 256 will result in lower audio quality than going to 128 directly.

You might try one of the lossless compression formats, such as FLAC or Ape. www.hydrogenaudio.org is a great source for info on this general topic.

[stasyna]

224-320 is a great base to converting/transcoding from. Though transcoding from anything other than .wav or other lossless formats isnt recommended.