CD's to MP3's

[Haggis2001]

Can some one reccomend a prog to convert music on a cd to an MP3 also if possible I would like it to work the in reverse this is MP3 to normal music.

Haggis http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[fshanda]

MusicMatch Jukebox.
Can download it for free v6.1 basic.
It will do anything you need and you can use it to burn CDs. I use Nero to burn mine but you can use MusicMatch.

http://www.musicmatch.com/home/

Fshanda http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by fshanda (edited 06-25-2001).]

[neodave]

Sorry, I don't have any personal experience converting wav to mp3. I would however recommend that you check out CNET or ZDNet, both have a good selection. Anywhere from free to shareware to a small fee. They even offer user reviews for the converters.
Good Luck



[This message has been edited by neodave (edited 06-25-2001).]

[Haggis2001]

Thx NEO I did look there.
I just wanted to know what other people use and recommend it's also good to know that you can get help on the BB's from people that use these progs.

Haggis

[fshanda]

Heres another one for you. I dont currently use it, but have heard people speak well of this prog.

http://www.winamp.com/

Fshanda http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by fshanda (edited 06-25-2001).]

[Bsdboy]

I use Siren (http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/NewShowProduct.asp?PID=187) it has the best sound quality of any player/encoder I have tried,you can get a demo at the link I supplied.

Bsdboy

[Haggis2001]

Thx FSHANDA
I had heard of Musicmatch before and have just downloaded it as for Winamp I will try it latter and see how it compares to MM.

[Haggis2001]

Thx BSDBOY
I'll give it a go as well it's good to have a choice.

Haggis

[Marc04]

I agree with Musicmatch. I've used it both for ripping cd's to mp3 format and it's what I use for burning music cd's from mp3's. It's easy and fast. You can use it for free or pay to unlock the rest of the features. I paid to be able to burn faster. The unregistered version limits the speed.

Marc

[crazyray]

The free version of Musicmatch limits you to lower bitrate (lower sound quality) MP3's. That may not matter to you.

I still prefer Audiograbber for ripping CD tracks to wav files, and the free LAME encoder for converting to MP3. Sound quality is better, and Audiograbber offers the ability to "normalize" files from different sources, thus keeping you from grabbing the volume control after every track. A trial version, as well as the free LAME encoder are available at www.audiograbber.com-us.net (http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net)

There is also a complete walk-through on the site.

[OuTpaTienT]

If you're mainly concerned with ease of use, and you are going to be making low quality MP3s (128kbps or less) then sure, MusicMatch is probably good enough for you.

However, if you actually want your MP3s to sound good and have them sound (virtually) identical to the original CD, then don't settle for MM. If you want to do it right then you can learn most of everything you need to know about "ripping" & "encoding" here: www.r3mix.net/ (http://www.r3mix.net/)

Basically, for ripping from CD to WAV or directly to MP3 you can, and should, use EAC - Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) .

For the actual encoding you want to use L.A.M.E. which you can find the most recent binaries at this site. (http://www.hot.ee/smpman/mp3/) You can then just tell EAC to use LAME for the audio compression to MP3, and you'll have much better sounding MP3s than all these people using MusicMatch.

---

Also, a final note about MM. Don't miss this comment made by the author of the r3mix.net site, (and I completely agree with his thoughts here): I've seen MM version 4, 5 and now 6 and numerous little upgrades. After a massive number of updates they still haven't managed to bring out a stable and good product. The program is even more huge than it already was ( 9.3 meg! ), and imo MM only seems interested in finding new ways of filling your registry with junk, applying new skins and adding more useless half-functioning features. It takes your windows PC hostage because if you even dare to install a third-party-player (winamp, for example) and use it as default MM will keep on nagging until you make their player default again. Besides that, I seriously distrust any program that keeps asking me for personal details and feels the need to send this over the net to some private corporation wich will decide what kind of music I like and what kind of advertising would be most appropriate for me. There is a term for this kind of program: "bloatware".

[invictus1997]

i found a free mp3, oggvorbis encoder and its aptly called freerip. its pretty fast and the quality is good and the bitrates you can vary. i dont have the links but im sure youll find it

[Bsdboy]

Siren also supports Ogg Vorbis.

Bsdboy

[gyoung]

WinAmp is a great player and I use it to convert MP3's to WAV (to be put on CDs).

However it won't convert CD's to MP3. You'll have to use another program for that. I'm still trying to decide which one is best to use, so I really don't have a recommendation for that.

[NDC]

I use AudioGrabber V.1.70 with L.A.M.E. internal encoder and it works great ripping MP3's from music CD's.

[invictus1997]

is siren free? freerip is ABSOLUTELY FREE

[OuTpaTienT]

All the good stuff is free (ironicly it's the lessor quality applications that want you to pay for them).

<u>mp3 encoder:</u>
L.A.M.E. - <FONT COLOR="green">free</FONT c>

<u>audio ripper:</u>
Exact Audio Copy - <FONT COLOR="green">free</FONT c>

<u>decoder/player:</u>
Winamp - <FONT COLOR="green">free</FONT c>

[OuTpaTienT]

Check out this mp3 decoder test (http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~djmrob/mp3decoders/index.html) .

You will plainly see that the top two performers are Siren & Winamp. So you go right ahead and keep "paying for the best" and I'll just continue to use the best for free.

[Bsdboy]

I don't mind paying for the full version of Siren because I think it sounds better and I prefer an integrated solution for all my needs.To each his own.By the way I have seen that review before,that review is of an old version of Siren not the current version.

Bsdboy

[OuTpaTienT]

...because I think it sounds better...
Interesting.

...I prefer an integrated solution for all my needs.
That's legitimate.

By the way I have seen that review before, that review is of an old version of Siren not the current version.
So you're saying that review, the one that puts Siren and Winamp (and a couple others) on top of the heap as the best decoders...you're saying that it's outdated and invalid. Ok fine.

In an attempt to be fair I downloaded Siren (all 15.7MB of it!!!) but didn't get very far. The second time it asked for my email during the install, and required that I fill in the field to continue, that's when I decided this is not the type of software for me. Then when shutting down Siren I was pleasantly greeted with a nag screen telling me I need to buy their software. Uh,...no, I need to uninstall and delete their software...that's what I need to do.

Hey, if you like, more power to ya, but it's certainly not my cup of tea.

[fshanda]

I didn't realize this was to be a debate over which MP3 Ripping program or Jukebox was the best. Haggis2001 asked a simple question so I gave him a simple answer. As for the best audio listening quality. I insert my CDs into my stereo and crank it up. Use the jukebox for entertainment while im at the computer. All the programs mentioned above will do exactly what Haggis requires.

MM 6.1 will rip at 160kbps, just to let you know.

Have fun Haggis

Fshanda http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Bsdboy]

OuT: Winamp,You're joking right? Winamp is ok but far from the best.The reason I suggested Siren is that it encodes,rips,decodes,plays and burns as well or better than the applications you listed.

invictus: there is a free version of Siren but if music is important to you you must pay if you want the best.

Bsdboy

[Haggis2001]

DING DING DING
Ok guys let me check your gloves,i want a clean fight no blows below the belt.

But seriuosly thx for all the suggestions I have downloaded a few progs now these include Siren,Winamp,Musicmatch,Audiograbber,and Exact Audio Copier.
I have kept EAC and Siren(paid for the full version) it is worth the small outlay the format is easy to use and the speed and quality of the ripping is great.
The only reason I wanted to know was to make copies of CD's that I have in both of my cars as the CD players take their toll on the originals after awile so now I will keep the origials at home and the copies in the car.
Sound quality is important to me as both of my car sytems cost just under $3000.00 each I did not want to have CD copies that sounded like ****.
I think that I have found with your guys help the best way to achieve this,so thank you to everyone that made suggestions I hope that in the future all the topics that I post will be answered with such enthusiasm.

Haggis http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Haggis2001]

Oh yeah
I'm now going to look at Ogg Vorbis as well.
I'll post and let you guys now what I think not that ii will mean to much coming from some one that up untill a day ago didn't even know that Micro sound recorder existed thx MUNO.

Haggis

[AuraEdge]

simple.audiogalaxy.com (http://simple.audiogalaxy.com) is the one I use
I used to use CDex 1.30 Beta 8 that I got at download.com, but that didn't work in Win2K. Simple does. And it does everything that CDex does.

I highly recommend Simple. It does everything you need it to do as far as converting music goes, any which way. It can also do WMA, Vorbis, ACC and WAV in addition to MP3. Even has the all important full CDDB support (in Win2k as well).

You can also pick from Gogo, Lame or Blade DLL's to Encode, all which are included, with Gogo being the fastest.
Its also completely freeware - No brag screens, no limits, no bull.
Lame has the reputation for being one of the best codecs, and Gogo I never heard of, but just try it out with that codec, and youll see what I mean by Fast.

11 Seconds for a 2:06 Track off a CD from CD to MP3. 40x CD drive, 1Ghz Duron Processor.

I dont hear any difference between Lame and Gogo on my speakers, but maybe some 'experts' can. And you way to stick to lame, you can just change it to that.

I think you should give this a shot.

[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 06-27-2001).]

[Haggis2001]

Thx AuraEdge

I'll have a look at it as well.

Haggis http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif