i want to start archiving my music using dvd+r. besides using flac which takes up a lot of space i dont whether i should use mp3 vbr or mp3 cbr and also at what bitrate is the best for each one. please tell me about the pros & cons of each.

I archive my music at 320 bitrate in mp3 format. It requires more space but is compatible with most DVD players I've run across.
If you intend to just archive them, this is what I suggest. I have used DVD+R and DVD-R discs with no discernible playback differences.
You get more "bang for the buck" in archiving on DVD+R DL as you have 8.5 GB available for archiving. As for the "vbr" vs "cbr" I have no idea what that is.
TDK has the DVD+R DL at 8X speed and has worked well for me in EMC 10 and EMC 2009.
Hope this helps.

Xmen2020,

If you are archiving your music collection I would guess that it's because you won't be able to source this music at its present quality [or better] later on, and you want to preserve it at the best possible quality while you have it.

If that's not the case and you don't mind losing quality, just use whichever type of MP3 lossy compression is convenient. The more you squash it, the more you can fit on a disc. MP3 compression discards a lot of information, and the resulting music is never the same quality as the original.

If you do want to preserve it at the best possible quality, then you should use a lossless compression system such as FLAC if you can, even though it takes more space than flattened MP3 files.

It's a personal decision for you to make - your choice.

thank you. flac is definitely the best option for archiving. i think im going to do both flac for the obvious reason of getting the bestpossible quality and mp3 for the compability with my portable players. with technology the way it is today i think two choices of archiving are better than one. thank you again.