Audio CD to MP3 question?

[mikewg]

Thanks guys for helping me, I know you guys will have the best answer for this. Currently I convert my audio CD to WAV then to MP3, but I'm sure there has to be a way to convert CD directly to MP3 (128k quality). Can someone recommend to me the fastest way to convert them?

[Feslmogh]

This article does not answers your question but the links will give you a lot more info. The article is about which is better: VBR or CBR. As for my opinion, I would use either Musicmatch (link included in article) or Real Jukebox Plus. You may need to cut and paste the link into the address bar due to the nature of tyhe address.


http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,2440593,00.html



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Feslmogh on 2001-10-16 10:52:27 ]</font>

[monsoon01]

go to mpegx.com and download AudioCatalyst 2.1, it is the best and the trial doesn't run out.

[mikewg]

Both of those programs cost money... not to sound cheap, but I just need to do this for a few CDs. Is there a free program that'll do this?

[thxkid]

Use Winamp it is Freeware and it will enocode to MP3 then encode MP3 to WAV also.

[Jeomite]

Download Exact Audio Copy (www.exactaudiocopy.de) and LAME 3.89.

Exact Audio Copy has 'smart copying' technology, so you'll get 1:1 copies of the original. That takes a while to rip the tracks, or you just do the traditional buffered burst rip.

LAME 3.89 is the best MP3 Codec to encode with - best quality and fastest. Forgot the URL, search for it. =|

Don't use that Audiocatalyst crap, it uses XingMP3 Encoder or some crappy encoder. If you want the best, highest quality get EAC and LAME. BTW, both are free too!

[jtor]

I don't know if this is a faster way. I noticed this but I haven't tried using it.

I'm assuming you have Nero. If you pick AudioCD, then do a Save Track, from CD Recorder (in the Main Menu), you'll be given the option of the format you want to save to, including MP3.

hope this helps.

[tigerwolf]

easy cd creator and nero will rip to mp3, but the program
I really like is: dbpoweramp. Get some of the free codecs, like the mp3 blade codec. Avoid anything with the cli on the codec because it will require the dbpowerpack which is a shareware add-on.

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

have a good one.
tw

[mh2360]

Go to http://www.cdex.n3.net and download CDEX, it will rip your CD to WAV or MP3. You can select which codec you want to use and if you are on-line it will use CDDB to name your tracks for you.

[Hateslife]

Exactaudiocopy is the -best-, hands down. Free too. Use the LAME DLL to encode straight to MP3.

LAME isn't the fastest mp3 encoder (takes about 1/3 realtime) but it's likely the best quality mp3 encoder around.

Total, it takes ten to fifteen minutes to rip/encode a cd without any error checking

[mikewg]

Wow, thanks for all these choices, I'll play around with them and figure out what's best for me tonight. Thanks!

[David4Real]

if your only looking to encode @128 kbps then you can download the low end free version of MusicMatch. It's an all in one that can do more than just rip..it can also convert & burn (but I believe for burning you need the full version...I usually use MusicMatch for capturing line-in audio for like bootleg tapes..or converting vinyl to wav files..but you could encode straight to mp3 also from a line-in source.

David

[TIbrO]

You might want to try mp3pro instead, because you can store twice as many mp3s that way, and since you haven't encoded them yet, you can start your collection from the beginning with mp3rpo.

[TIbrO]

http://www.mp3prozone.com/

[BlackWinterDay]

I've encoded and archived hundreds of my CD's to mp3 with Audio Catalyst and never had a problem. That program kicks ass Not sure why some people have such an intense dislike for it, as it's been great to me.

[mikewg]

I already have 2000 MP3 files, so I'd rather not deal with MP3Pro, plus I have a MP3 player that I don't know will play MP3Pro or not, so I'll stick with what I know. I know if I encode to WMA using Media Player (or whatever format it is), it'll actually encode from CD to WMA and retain the song title and author into the file name. Do any of these MP3 encoding programs do the same, automatically name the files they create for you?

[TIbrO]

CDex and Audio Catalyst 2.1 are the only two encoders that have lasted on my machine. If Audio CAtalyst had worked in XP, then I would still use it, but now I use a freeware app called CDex from http://www.cdex.n3.net

It's way better than Audio Catalyst, since you can configure your bitrate and every aspect of encoding much like TMPGEnc does for video. Excellent quality, and it uses the LAME encoder to work. But yeah, Audio CAtalyst and CDex can go online and look up your CD in the CDDB and name all of your tracks for you, as well as rip them with the correct ID3 tags and custom filenaming, such as Artist - Track Number - Song Title.mp3, which is what I use.

[tinycorkscrew]

Just to throw my two cents in, Exact Audio Copy to rip and Lame to encode is definitely the way to go.

For instructions, see:

http://www.ping.be/satcp/tutorials.htm

[dredlox]

i`d go for mp3 pro its better

[DiViNeLeFT]

EAC and lame!! i agree.. fast, easy, good quality... and it even has an awesome error correction feature that will let you encode an mp3 cd of a really beat up cd that skips when you play it... takes longer, but revives dead cds!

[TIbrO]

Oooh, that sounds good, DiViNeLeFT. My brother has "...And Justice For All" by Metallica that is from the release date or something, so yeah, the eighties, and it is scratched to hell and skips like little red riding hood when you try and listen to it. Are you saying that the error correction can correct that on the mp3s, or is the error correction not that sick, so as to rip a playable mp3 from a CD that skips every 3 seconds throughout the whole CD?

[DiViNeLeFT]

the only time i used that feature was to rip a cd that had one fairly deep scratch that only disturbed one song on the cd... that song took a long ass time to rip... but when it was done the mp3 didnt skip at all... probably if you let it rip all day you could salvage it... but im sure it only works within reason also.