mcfro.blogspot.com: Max: A Pristine Audio Encoder for Mac

In the past, I have written a few entries (here, here and here) about my audiophile tendencies. In summary, after investing a sum of money into high-quality studio monitor speakers, I began to hear the limitations of certain audio formats, namely MP3 and Apple's AAC (which is based on the MP4 format).

It is a slow and ongoing process, where I have managed to re-encode approximately 10% of my audio collection (which is, incidentally, greater than 600 compact discs). In this journey, I have even uncovered more limitations -- not in the audio itself, but in the encoding technologies themselves.

For most consumers, the encoders included in Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player should suffice. Both applications allow the user to choose a variety of file formats and bitrates, which should produce an encoded audio file which best suits the listener.

But not me.

Enter Max. Max is a high-quality audio ripper / encoder for OSX, which sports a number of advancements in audio encoding technology. Even though it is a standalone application, it integrates well with iTunes, will import artwork from a variety of websites, and will query the Musicbrainz database to ensure proper ID3 file tagging. Best of all, Max is freeware.

The interface is simple and clean. Everything you need to see in the main panel is there. If you need to make individual edits to individual tracks, all that is needed is to hit the 'Tracks" button on the toolbar, and a panel opens for you to make the desired changes. The same thing goes with artwork.

Tabbing from one song to the next works as expected, preventing the user from grabbing the mouse and double-clicking every individual track. I may even say, that this is a better interface for inserting tags than iTunes. However, a user should not need to individually enter these tags, if he is querying the Musicbrainz database.

Max has the ability to encode in nearly any audio format you desire. It can encode to AIFF, MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, MP4, Apple Lossless, and many others. Within each file type there are many options available to tweak the encoding settings. I chose AAC, as it is the file type that most of my audio is encoded at. Not only can you choose the bitrate best suited to your needs, but you can choose the quality of the encoding -- good, better, maximum, for example -- and the user can employ variable-bitrate encoding to ensure maximum fidelity.

Of keen interest, is that it appears that you can choose multiple output formats, and change your settings accordingly. This could be useful for individuals who desire to have a high-quality encoding on their desktop computer, and one that might be optimized for web consumption.

Of most importance to me, is the error-correction settings. I am unsure of the technologies included in Windows Media Player, but I do know that iTunes has a preference where you can use error-correction when ripping your compact disc. This is desirable for those who have a few scratched cd's laying around.

Now, my experience with iTunes error-correcting technologies has been mediocre at best. I had a number of encodings that produced clicks, pops, and other undesirable noise on a few CD's I own. Compounding the problem is that a lot of the music I have is out of print, from independent artists, or generally hard to find. In these cases, repurchasing said compact disc is not an option.

As an experiment, I used Max to re-enode a few of my CD's that didn't encode well in iTunes. I chose AAC as my codec, used 192 kbps as my bitrate, and enabled variable bitrate encoding. I employed error-correction using cdparanoia as the error-correction type, and only allowed skipping after 40 retries (I would have considered using never allow skipping as an option, though I thought this might ensure a troublesome audio file never encodes).

So, how did it work out? Well, Max does produce pristine encodings. The audio quality surpasses that of iTunes' encoding capabilities. It does take longer, however, to encode a CD -- largely due to error-correction. The audio tracks that encoded poorly with iTunes (with audible clicks and pops) sounded much better than the original, with many of the pops much more subdued, or non-existent. Thus, I felt Max did exactly what it promised to do. Given the fact that these audio files are of very high quality, they are a little larger in size than the iTunes counterparts, but not much larger to become a storage problem.

What Max Does:

Pristine audio encoding in a number of file formats
ID3 tagging using the Musicbrainz database
Import cover art from webistes such as Amazon.com
iTunes integration

What Max Cannot Do:

Max is not an audio player.
Max cannot save heavily-damaged CD's.

Max appears to be still early in its development, and it is still a little buggy at times. It doesn't always import tags from Musicbrainz, but I feel this is largely due to the fact that I have tried using the program with rare CD's at this time.

There are a number of scripts included in the distribution, though they returned errors when I tried using them. I wonder if this is due to the fact that I have all my audio stored on an external drive.

Overall. my biggest beef with the program was the lack of supporting documentation regarding the program's settings. The help section in the menu only had little to say about the error-correction settings, and what was required to query the Musicbrainz database. I hope better documentation will be more in-depth in future distributions.

That being said, I am quite impressed with the developer's efforts. The program is not for everyone, as iTunes will produce an encoding acceptable to most listeners. I, however will continue using Max as my default audio encoder for the foreseeable future. As I have said once before, and I'll have to say it again: it looks like I'm going to have to re-encode my audio collection yet again.

This is never going to end.