How can I record an album and make one MP3 file? I have several programs, and have tried several shareware programs. They all make an MP3 for each song. Am I missing a setting or can it only be done with certain programs?
Try Exact Audio Copy. It’s a little complicated but you should be using it anyway; other programs can introduce errors into your music. When you’ve got it working, select Action / Copy Image & Create Cue Sheet.
Go here and get MP3muxer. It allows you to join MP3’s together into one big mp3. It’s free.
It doesn’t look like that program achieves what is the primary benefit of ripping an album into one big mp3 file: gapless playback. On live or mix albums, using that program, you will still have gaps between tracks. Use EAC, it’s your best bet, and it’s also free.
Exact Audio Copy works OK, although it’s slow. It takes about 20-30 minutes to do one album (it coverts the album to one big WAV file and then uses a separate DOS program to convert the WAV file to an MP3). I have programs that will make MP3’s from an album in about 5 minutes. There must be something out there that will convert at that speed, just ignoring the ‘spaces’. Can anyone else help?