I’ve had a laptop, with CD-RW drive, for some months now and I’m still exploring what I can do with it. One aspect I haven’t touched on yet is recording audio tracks from my CD collection. I know (I think) that music files are usually recorded in MP3 format, but I don’t know how to go about recording them on to my laptop. What software do I need? I want to transfer tracks from my CDs to a personal music player so I can play music on the move.
basically there is no requirement that you need to store music on your computer in mp3 format - it just make more sense that you do - since mp3s take up a lot less space and can be used on portable mp3 players, downloaded/uploaded etc.
basically all you need to convert a cd track to an mp3 is a program that “rips” mp3s (i.e. takes the music file from the cd and saves it as an mp3 on your computer)
There are a lot available for free on the web - but some produce mp3s of dubious quality - i can’t think of a decent free one off the top of my head, but i’m sure someone out there will know of one.
Of course if you do buy an mp3 player of some kind, then the good news is that it will probably come with a nice and easy to use mp3 ripper anyway. 
Try Musicmatch Jukebox. You can download a free version here.
As garius said, there are various mp3 creation products around, but Musicmatch works fine for me (and it’s free).
If you decide you need more features, you can buy a full commercial version for less than £20.
Try www.musicmatch.com. I have an older version which does the trick.
I like FreeRip. It is Free too.
go to: http://www.freerip.com/
Don’t bother with MusicMatch. It’s fine, but it’s a resource hog and I think the encoder sucks. Try using Exact Audio Copy for ripping your CDs and LAME to encode them. Both apps are free.
You’ll find that MP3s encoded at the same bitrate with sound substantially better with LAME than with MusicMatch, and you can even use lower bitrates to save space if you use a better encoder like LAME.
Having said that, we all hear things differently so YMMV.
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cheers for that Rex, i’ve been looking for a decent encoder for bloody ages!
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Here’s my favorite: CDex. It uses the LAME encoder as well.
My favorite is DbPowerAmp, which uses the LAME encoder or the BLADE encoder. I’ve only used LAME.
Hey Sparrow,
You’re in for a lot of fun! This is a short course on music management.
An Audio CD contains ‘raw’ (uncompressed) digitaly encoded sound data, usually two 16-bit tracks at 44.25kHz. Older software allowed you to copy the sound data from the CD into .wav or .aiff files. Those files were pretty big, on the order of 35 megs per song.
Then you could mix your own audio CD’s by burning the sound files onto a CD-W.
Mp3 files are kind of a misnomer as they are truely .wav and .aiff files with the sound data compressed using the mp3 compression method. It doesn’t really matter, but I’d thought I throw in a bit of straightness.
As mentioned above, you can compress the sound files from the CD to your hard drive as the computer is reading the sound file off the CD (ripping). CD’s are not the only source for song files. Any device that plays media, a record player, tape player, eight track, whatever, that has an output can also be ripped. You can connect the output of the player into the speaker jack of your computer and at worst, save a .wav file that you later encode, or at best encode as you record.* Another option to get mp3 files is to use Peer2Peer network software that allows you to tap into other people’s mp3 libraries. Some would argue that it is illegal to download music if you do not own the CD. Some others argue that you are stealing from the artist. You have to decide what you want to do.
Anyway, now you have a bunch of mp3s on your hard drive, you have two options. Data CD’s and Audio CD’s.
You can make an Audio CD that can be played in any CD player. The musicmatch software mentioned above will de-compress the mp3 into the 16-bit 44.25kHz sound data as the track is burned (burnt?) onto the CD. You can burn around 70 - 80 minutes worth of music, usually 18 - 20** songs.
You can also make a Data CD that has compressed mp3 files instead of the uncompressed sound data. Some new DVD players and CD players recognize a Data CD and can decode the mp3 format. The Rio Volt CD player has this capability. Depending on the compression of the mp3s, you can get from 100-200 mp3’s on one CD-W.
Depending on the compression of the mp3s? What? Well here is where it gets a little confusing. The mp3 compression allows for different compression rates or bit rates. Mp3 compression is a ‘lossy’ compression as you can’t get back to the original sound data from the compressed file. However, this doesn’t matter as the ear has limitations, and usually won’t notice the difference. However, this is another area where you have to decide for yourself what works best for you. I will focus on three compression rates, 196, 128, and 98. 196 is the best for listening (CD Quality), but the worst for file size. I use 128 as it is pretty good listening (Near CD Quality), and an okay file size. I was using 98 as it had really small files, but after a while I realized the high sounds, like drum cymbols(sp?) were kind of washy. I suggest playing around with different compression rates before burning your entire CD collection, or like me, you’ll have to go back and do it again!
There is another mp3 compression scheme that allows the encoder to use a variable bit rate, smaller rates when the sound is simple and larger rates when the sound is complicated. I don’t like it, but it may work for you.
Audio CDs, mp3s, Data CDs, ripping, storing, moral dilema, bit rates, compression, I think that just about covers it!
Happy Ripping,
-Sandwriter
*Some say that this is illegal cause you are only licensed to listen to the sounds played off the original media.
**Based on an average song length of 3.5 - 4 minutes. I know there are longer songs and shorter songs, you could have as many tracks as you want.
Oops, Actually it’s 44.100kHz, not 44.250kHz.
Thanks Sandwriter, you’ve given me a lot of the information I need here. Thanks a lot!
I’ll second CDex for ripping, Musicmatch works but is buggy and slow unless you pay a fee or crack it.
p.s. cracking is illegal, don’t do it, I didn’t mean to post that, please don’t ban me. :eek:
Cd n go from downloads.cnet is a good one.