Good CD to MP3 ripping software?

I

Ingonuts13

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Can anyone recommend me some good software I can use to rip our entire CD collection to MP3 format specifically to use with Vista Home Premium media capabilites?

I need something that will actually rip the song info etc in some kind of format that makes sense.

Also, I am looking for something that will let me edit MP3s tags and information easily.
 
Winamp has mp3 ripping capabilities... the only problem is that this is a pro function and you have to pay for it... A great free alternative is Audiograbber it is 100% free. It also has all the features that you are looking for :D
 
dBPoweramp is a nice CD to mp3 ripping program. It isn't free anymore, but the 10th one is, and I use it. Just a little hard to find but it's out there. I can't verify if it works on Vista, but on XP it's champ for me. Does all the tagging and what not.
 
dBpowerAMP ftw!!! Works awesome for me under Vista and XP.
 
All great options. No sarcasm intended in the following question.

Why not use Windows Media Player?

WMP10 rips to mp3's and does an OK job with tags. Is this not true with WMP11 and Vista?
 
upriverpaddler said:
All great options. No sarcasm intended in the following question.

Why not use Windows Media Player?

WMP10 rips to mp3's and does an OK job with tags. Is this not true with WMP11 and Vista?
Click to expand...

I was going to ask the same thing myself. Why not just use WMP11 that comes with Vista. That is what I currently use and it seems to do a good job for me as far as tagging and getting the track name along with what album they came from. It even tagged the MP3's that I brought over from XP that had no tags previously as well.
 
Izzeren said:
I was going to ask the same thing myself. Why not just use WMP11 that comes with Vista. That is what I currently use and it seems to do a good job for me as far as tagging and getting the track name along with what album they came from. It even tagged the MP3's that I brought over from XP that had no tags previously as well.
Click to expand...

WMP uses nowhere near as high a quality encoder as LAME. Additionally, you can perform either of these tasks in three clicks or less with EAC:

  • rip an audio CD of tracks into indivdual MP3 files
  • rip an audio CD of tracks into one conjoined and continuous file
  • rip an audio CD consisting of one continuous DJ set into an MP3 file

Again, there is no MP3 encoder that compresses a WAV file (or audio CD) into MP3 format than LAME VBR. And yes, VBR is much higher quality than either of 128, 192, or 256kbps bitrates.
 
I agree. I use WMP 11 as well. I've used all the rest too.

IMHO, WMP 11 has the best, and most accurate, CD Lookup Info. I've found far fewer errors with WMP 11 than anything else.

It also recognizes some really esoteric discs too. For example, I have the Soundtrack CD that came with that old wonderful game "The 7th Guest" and WMP 11 actually found the data for it.

For conversion, dbPowerAmp is worth the $29. But their extra charge for internet lookups is ridiculous.



upriverpaddler said:
All great options. No sarcasm intended in the following question.

Why not use Windows Media Player?

WMP10 rips to mp3's and does an OK job with tags. Is this not true with WMP11 and Vista?
Click to expand...
 
It depends on your methods....

I use a combination of WMP 11 and dbPowerAmp, and here's how:

1. I rip all of my CD's to Windows Media Lossless and use that as a master set.
2. I then use dbPowerAmp to rip from that lossless set of WM files to create whatever I need for whatever device.

It allows me to keep a pristine, lossless copy of my CD's on my server (you get about 40% reduction with WMP Lossless) and I never have to touch the original CD's again.

I just fire up dbPowerAmp, poinit it to my CD Master folder, and start the conversion to whatever I want, then go to bed. It's ready in the morning.

The only format that I think really needs work under dbPowerAmp is AAC. The sound quality of the conversion is fine, but it makes a bloody mess out of AAC tags.



DigitalMP said:
WMP uses nowhere near as high a quality encoder as LAME. Additionally, you can perform either of these tasks in three clicks or less with EAC:

  • rip an audio CD of tracks into indivdual MP3 files
  • rip an audio CD of tracks into one conjoined and continuous file
  • rip an audio CD consisting of one continuous DJ set into an MP3 file

Again, there is no MP3 encoder that compresses a WAV file (or audio CD) into MP3 format than LAME VBR. And yes, VBR is much higher quality than either of 128, 192, or 256kbps bitrates.
Click to expand...
 
I like EAC the best. I don't like how WMP won't do VBR and it also won't allow me to use a <space> in between the track number, artist name, title, etc. WMP does seem to be faster, but I'd rather wait an extra couple seconds for (IMO) better quality.
 
I've been using CDex for years now. It's simple, lightweight, and provides a ton of custom options for the included LAME encoder, which seems to be the best around. Can't beat free, either.
 
I've got an older version of Easy CD-DA Extractor that still works perfectly. It's lightweight and it's encoding is fabulous (as well as allows for interaction with external encoders). It'll encode to virtually every format known to man (including OGG) and also has some pretty nice ID3 tag/filename editing capabilities.
 
Great input so far folks. I have decided to give WMP11 a shot when I upgrade to Home Premium this week. If that does not do the trick for me then one of the pay to play softwares will most likely get my money.
 
Try my suggestions above:

1. Rip into Windows Media Lossless and put your CD's away forever.
2. Use dbPowerAmp to then convert to whatever you need.

Don't forget, in WMP11, to set it to wmp lossless and also, under the devices tab, turn on digital error correction for ripping. It will slow down the ripping, but a) you only have to do it once and b) it will result in error-free rips.
 
TechLarry said:
Try my suggestions above:

1. Rip into Windows Media Lossless and put your CD's away forever.
2. Use dbPowerAmp to then convert to whatever you need.

Don't forget, in WMP11, to set it to wmp lossless and also, under the devices tab, turn on digital error correction for ripping. It will slow down the ripping, but a) you only have to do it once and b) it will result in error-free rips.
Click to expand...

Awesome, I will be starting to rip our collection next weekend and post back the results.
 
Oh, one other thing. Before ripping, set up the folder structure options as well.

I keep mine pretty basic:

Artist Name

----------Album Name

--------------------Song (with track number i.e. 1-Shine On You Crazy Diamond)

Never, EVER use "Album Artist" in your structure. It will make a bloody mess out of your Compilation Albums. This is particularly important with dbPowerAmp when you use it to rip your needed formats from the WMP Lossless files.

Here is my standard dbPowerAmp conversion window settings. Note the folder programming code 2/3 of the way down.

Other
 
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