How To Rip A Binaural Beats CD

I often run into the question ‘how do I rip my binaural beats CD’? This information applies to all of the binaural beat CDs like Hemi-Sync, Holosync and just about anything else out there. These tips are general an apply to most MP3 ripping applications. If you have iTunes, just read How to Rip Binaural Beats in iTunes and follow the directions.

DATA COMPRESSION IS DESTRUCTIVE TO BINAURAL BEATS

Data compression is a lossy process and can affect binaural beats. If you use too much compression or if you do not encode the channels independently, it will affect the binaural beats in the audio.

Please note that the information provided here and suggested settings are slanted towards music CDs that contain binaural beats. Settings can be reduced for “pure” binaural beats because the frequency range to be compressed is quite narrow. Anyway…

USE THE HIGHEST BITRATE POSSIBLE WHEN RIPPING BINAURAL BEATS CDS

A bit rate is the amount of information (or bits) that is transferred per second (bit per second or bps). MP3s are measured in thousands of bits per second (kbps) and the higher the kbps, the higher the sound quality. 128 kbps is the standard MP3 bit rate, which is too low and will affect the quality of the audio. I use 256 kbps, which I think strikes the right balance between audio quality, data integrity for the binaural beats and file size. For the most part, MP3 compression works by removing high-frequency components from the sound. The carrier frequencies used on binaural beats are low – usually no higher than 1000 Hz, at higher bit rates, frequencies in this range should be safe from harm.

CHOOSE A COMMON FORMAT

MP3s are nearly universal. MP3s are more compatible with more devices, for one thing, and at higher bit rates there is no distinct advantage to newer formats like AAC, which only beats the quality of MP3s at 128 kbps, which just isn’t good enough for the binaural beat carrier frequencies anyway.

Objectively, lossless formats like FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or Apple Lossless are the best at preserving the quality of the audio while reducing the bandwidth and storage requirements. Having said that, I don’t use these formats because both formats are bigger than they need to be, FLAC doesn’t work on my iPhone or iPod and the Apple Lossless format isn’t universal.

ARCHIVE YOUR BINAURAL BEATS CDS

Keeping the original CD is the safest way to archive binaural beat music. A safe alternative is to create an archive version of the audio in a lossless format like FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or Apple Lossless, which are the best at preserving the quality of the audio while reducing bandwidth and storage requirements. Once archived, you can then create a smaller version (192 kbps for AAC or 256 kbps for MP3) for your phone or portable player. If anything happens to your smaller version or if a new technology emerges — and it will — then you have a high resolution version available to fall back on.

VBR vs. CBR

I suggest using Constant Bit Rate (CBR) rather than Variable Bit Rate (VBR) solely on the fact that CBR is more compatible with more devices than VBR files. There are still some MP3 players that don’t handle VBR files well. If you know your player’s capabilities, VBR is fine.

INDEPENDENT STEREO ENCODING IS CRITICAL FOR BINAURAL BEATS

Binaural beats are the byproduct of how your brain perceives the nuances of stereo phasing: slightly different tones are played into each ear and your brain perceives the difference of the tones as a beat frequency. The stereo directionality of the binaural beat carrier frequencies is important. When ripping a Hemi-Sync or other binaural beat CDs, you want to make sure that the compression is applied to both left and right channels independently.

Joint-Stereo looks for redundancies between the left and right audio channels, increasing the audio quality at low bit rates. This might seriously alter binaural beats. The difference between the carrier frequencies between channels can be so minimal that the encoder may interpret the carrier frequencies as being the same and just like that, the difference between the left and right beat frequency is completely gone, eliminating the binaural beats. For information on how to do this in iTunes, please read How to Rip Binaural Beats in iTunes