How does one rip an MP3 (convert a song on a CD into an MP3 file)?
How does one modify an MP3 file? I have a couple of MP3’s that I downl- er, got legally, that have silence at the beginning or end. Is there a way to cut them down?
TIA
I’ve got a program that converts CDs into MP3s. I imagine they’re fairly common, although I’ve only used the one on my Xing player. I think you might be able to do it on Winamp. I’ll let someone else take over from here.
>> How does one rip an MP3 (convert a song on a CD into an MP3 file)?
Two ways: if your CD unit has digital capability then you can save direct to a file. If it does not, then you just play the sond and record it at the same time. In other words, you are just recording the analog sound like it came from any source.
To edit, manipulate, etc audio files you can use any of the many audio programs. I use Cool Edit and it does more than I need.
If your CD has digital audio extraction this does not mean it will rip tracks into MP3s. It just means it will copy them digitally, directly into wavs.
MP3 is not really an editable format. You must convert it to a wav, edit it, then encode it back to MP3. Also remember that MP3 is a ‘lossy’ format. Sound quality degrades each time you re-encode it.
Most shareware or freeware sound editing programs will stop short of encoding wavs into MP3s. This is mostly due to the fact that the MP3 encoding algorithms are copyrighted. However there are some that will.
The easiest thing to do is to buy software that does everything. The registered version of CoolEdit will.
I have explained this many times in the past so I won’t go into it in great detail. You can search the archives.
MP3 as a file format and MP3 compression are two related but very different things.
WAV type files can also be compressed using MP3 and, in fact will be a bit smaller. The difference between using MP3 to encode an .MP3 file and using MP3 to encode to a WAV file is this: The WAV file carries all the file info once in the header while the MP3 file is recorded as a streaming format which repeats the same info periodically in the stream. The bytes corresponding to the audio are exactly the same so the WAV file is always a bit smaller.
So, yes, first step is to get it to a (uncompressed, raw PCM) WAV file and then compress it using MP3 or any other compression algorithm. Lately I use DivX preferably over MP3 as it gives better quality for the same bitrate.
I use MusicMatch Jukebox for ripping. It’s a nice little program. The freeware version doesn’t expire, but it limits the bitrate (i.e. sound quality) of your MP3s.
[url=“http://www.softuarium.com/yamp.htm”]YAMP This is good, and it’s free.
Sorry ignore that, It only converts into wav’s
And then to convert them to mp3’s use this
On the Macintosh platform, we tend to convert CD tracks to AIFF and then use a decent audio editor to make our edits (I still use SoundEdit 16, which will do both the CD track to AIFF conversion and the editing, but it’s a bit long in the tooth; Toast will do the CD track to AIFF conversion but not the editing). Or, if you’re starting off with non-digital sound such as a cassette tape or vinyl albums, you record using the same audio editing software and do your edits and then save as AIFF.
From AIFF to MP3, you generally use dedicated “ripping” software such as Proteron’s N2MP3 (that’s what I use; some newer audio editing s/w may also allow for “save as MP3”, thus allowing you to do everything from within a single software package).
On a PC, the brand name software may be different but the general process should be the same.
You can truncate the end of an MP3 but not the beginning. You can actually cut the end of the file using a text editor, if you have one that can open huge files. But there is no real way to tell what you’ve cut, so it is mostly trial and error. Make a backup, cut a little bit, see if it’s cut enough, back up again, cut a little more, etc.
There aren’t any sound programs I know of that can edit and save compressed files. You’d have to uncompress them (turn them into AIFF/WAV files) then edit, then recompress. This is a bad idea. Have you seen jpg files that were opened, edited, and recompressed? They get all sorts of jaggies and artifacts, and the quality goes all to hell. Recompressing MP3s does the same thing, except with audio. This is the problem with lossy compression schemes.
Chas.E, I decompress, edit and recompress both audio and image files all the time. Unless you started out with very poor quality (high compression) you are not going to notice it. I do it all the time.
Something tells me you’ve already figured out the first part - namely, how to turn a CD file into an MP3. The best software for this is MusicMatch Jukebox, the basic version
of which is free. (It’s only $20 to go to the deluxe - as a satisfied customer, it’s $20 well spent.) Using the controls on the panel, you select which file format you’d like to
“rip” a song into, from .WAV (regular sound files your computer can recognize, though ghastly in size) to .MP3. Keep in mind, you want to be careful that kBs (kilobyte per
second) ratio you use. MP3, in general, compresses on a 12:1 ratio without losing noticeable audio quality. (There is minimal loss, usually in the “dog hearing” range - and
my mutt has never complained that my rip of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” sucks.) So, I’d recommend using a 128 kBs setting. Any lower, and you’ll notice a serious audio
quality decline. Uaing a “higher” setting - i.e., 160 or 192 kBs - only means you’re not compressing the file as much, so less audio “dropout” will occur.
As for editing a file - you sneak, you’ve been pilfering from my share list on Napster, eh? 
It’s a three-step process which will require a second program:
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Using MusicMatch Jukebox, convert the file from MP3 to .WAV. Make sure you’ve got the space on your hard drive.
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Use an audio-editing program to snip out the silence. The best one I’ve found so far is Acoustica (www.aconas.de), which costs only $10 if you like it. Again, another ten
bucks well-spent, since the program isn’t tough to learn at all. -
Using MusicMatch Jukebox again, re-convert the file from .WAV to MP3. Keep in mind, though, if you downloaded an MP3 that was lower than 128 kBs, you will not be able to re-claim a better sound by re-ripping it at a higher rate. Once it’s converted to MP3 the first time, that audio quality is gone, and no amount of wishing or cursing will
make it come back. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Great answer, you may think, I’ve got to spend 30 bucks to mess with something I downloaded for free… but, hey, that’s progress. Hope this helps you.
Best Regards,
Christopher Thelen
“The Daily Vault” Album Reviews: http://www.dailyvault.com