What do you use to convert CD's to MP3's??

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blairellis

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
398
I need a program that will rip cd's to mp3's so I can throw some cds on my phone (mp3 player built in) and also a program that converts wav files to mp3s for my voice recorder for the same purpose of throwing it on my phone. Preferably freeware.

Thanks!
 
I use WMP, but with my new Vista machine I'm just as interested as thread starter in if there are any really better alternatives.
 
HopePoisoned said:
I use WMP, but with my new Vista machine I'm just as interested as thread starter in if there are any really better alternatives.
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like the above poster said, EAC with LAME. by far the best quality you can get. EAC will also rip in a secure mode that guarantees 100% pop/skip free rip. LAME in VBR mode gives the closest to CD quality encoding at an average of 128kbps(keeping size down, yet quality up). if you want quality rips of your cds, there is no comparison to this combo.

if you just want something quick and easy, and quality isnt a big factor id stick with WMP.
 
CompuDrew said:
I use EAC with LAME. Good stuff.
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I second that. In Windows EAC is all I use to rip. I rip the WAV form of the CD audio, then I pass the WAV through a script I made that will encode to FLAC (-8 compression), MP3 with LAME --alt-preset extreme, and if I care, Ogg Vorbis as well.
 
iTunes is my ripper of choice, just make sure to change it to mp3 and whatever bit rate you want ( I use 192)
 
dBpowerAMP .... best solution ever. Simple and very fast, CDDB renaming automatically and instantly. kthx.
 
I use CDex. I like it for a number of reasons, but the main reasons are it's free, there is no installer, and it supports Monkey's Audio Codec (*.ape format).

I rip all of my CD's to *.ape format, that way I never need to pull out the discs again. Then I convert the *.ape format to whatever I want, usually mp3 with min bitrate of 192 kbps and max bitrate of 224 kbps.

The reason I rip everything to *.ape is that it is lossless compression and in the past when I've upgraded my music player the storage has been larger and I was able to use less compression for better sound.

If you have ever had to re-rip your entire collection by popping CD's in and out for a day, you'll never want to do that again! This way I can just point CDex to my *.ape files, and tell it to convert them all to whatever format/bitrate/codec I want.
 
CDEx +1

I've also used EAC, and I would choose one or both based upon what your requirements are. I've had CDEx rip some CD's and have skips, but that was probably from a copy protection scheme used on the CD. EAC didn't have that problem and that was on one CD, which I can't even remember the name of now. I liked how CDEx was easier to setup and use. EAC always felt kind of clunky for me because of the numerous options. I wish there was a preset for "indistinguishable from original" and maybe for the user a method to just tweak the min bit rate up just a notch as an insurance policy. This may be more of a fault of the LAME codec in that it allows so much flexibility....
 
I use WMP and rip to WMA Lossless for master storage.. From there I can convert as needed just like it was coming from the original CD.

I think WMA's lookup features for the disc/tracks is more accurate than others I've used.

It even found the entry for this obscure CD I have that came with the game "7th Guest". It came with an awesome soundtrack CD that's perfect for Halloween :)
 
CDex.

Someday when I have tons of hard drive space, I'll use FLAC, but for now mp3s are the most practical.
 
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