MP3 Converter

2009-08-04 12:58:23

Hi Folks!

My name is Carmen and I am not a computer-wizz AT ALL!
So here is the thing:
I decided to convert my CD collection into MP3 files...cause I got a new player...
So I don't have a program to convert the songs.
Which should I download?
Is there anything else I need to know about converting?

Thanks for any advice!

MP3 Converter

Reply #1 – 2009-08-04 13:14:27

If you're more concerned about ease of use than quality, download CDex, install, run, insert CD, then click on the convert to MP3 button. Otherwise, follow this guide.

MP3 Converter

Reply #2 – 2009-08-04 13:20:15

A few points:

• If you are deciding to rip all your CDs to your PC I would suggest that you consider ripping to a lossless format, and then converting to MP3.  This should help you to never have to rip your CDs a second time.
• You may want to consider performing an ABX test, to determine at what quality you require your MP3s.  I use LAME VBR -V5; many here use the higher bitrate setting -V2.
• With regards to rippers: the general recommendations are EAC, dbPowerAmp, and also foobar.  EAC is free but (possibly) less easy to set-up.  dbPowerAmp is not free, but (possibly) more noob-friendly.  foobar is free, and relatively user-friendly. There are many guides in our wiki regarding EAC: both setting it up in general, and specifically to rip to certain formats (including LAME MP3s and various lossless formats). I personally use EAC (I rip to Wavpack lossless format and convert to MP3)

MP3 Converter

Reply #3 – 2009-08-04 22:31:35

Carmen,

There are really 3 steps in the process.  A ripping program (such as EAC) can do all three, but you should understand that there are 3 separate steps, and it can get a bit more complicated than you might think.

1.  Ripping. (Getting the audio data from the CD to a file on your hard drive).

2.  Encoding.  You can set-up the LAME MP3 encoder to work automatically with EAC, but for legal reasons you have to download it separately. 

3. Tagging.  Embedding the title, artist, etc. information into the file so that it can be read by the player software.  EAC can automatically download the information from CDDB and automatically tag the files.  But, sometimes you'll need to edit or "clean-up" the tags, or perhaps you want to embed album artwork.  You can use your player software or you can use special-purpose tag editing software.  (I use Winamp as a software player, and I use its built-in tag editor.)



Encoding is probably the trickiest part, because you have to make choices that affect audio quality...  As you may know, MP3 is lossy compression (as are most compressed audio & video formats).  Data is thrown-away during compression, and there is a trade-off between quality and file size.  So, there's lots of discussion here about bitrate (which is related to file size*), audio quality, and ABX testing (listening tests).

If your player has plenty of memory (or if it has a hard drive) you can just choose a high bitrate (high quality) and don't worry about it.   

You get the best results (best quality for a given file size) with variable bitrate.  With variable bitrate, you choose the "quality" level, and the encoder analyzes the program material and adjusts the bitrate moment-by-moment...  So you don't know the exact-average bitrate (or file size) in advance.





*  If you know the bitrate and the playing time, you can estimate file size:
File Size in MB = (Bitrate in kbps x Playing Time in minutes) / 140

MP3 Converter

Reply #4 – 2009-08-06 14:32:08

I support what SyntheticSoul's said.  If lossless will work, that would be the smarter move, preventing a loss in quality, and you wouldn't have to re-rip cds in the future.  If you need to use mp3s, you'll need to find out the size/quality ratio that works for you.  8gb players you could encode to -V2 or -V3 and that would be good enough for anyone under the circumstances without worrying about filesizes.  Choosing a program will be one of your challenges since some need a bit more setup than others.  I've not used EAC since foobar2000 got a ripper because its easy to use and has never given me a problem.

You have some choices to make.  Good luck.

MP3 Converter

Reply #5 – 2009-08-22 00:38:49

depends what its on, if its off the cds then you could just straight rip them to mp3 with wmp or anything else i guess. i never notics a difference in sound quality no matter what the bit rate is, unless it sounds all scratchy then you gotta change it to something else.
if it is already on your computer, i use itunes, it can do most formats of music. just add it to your library and right click and go convert to mp3 if that is what you set the default to,  you do that through prefrences.