Mp3 encoding?

[tec0]

I was told that LAME MP3 is the best encoder and is able to increase your quality of mp3 dramatically. Now I gave up trying to use this program because it simply doesn’t work! What free mp3 tools can I get to allow me to get more out of my MP3s

Windows Media player ripping program is basically the only program I have been using up to this point but I can as well just do a microphone recording because I simply do not get the proper sound quality that I want from my original CDs to mp3.

[twinscythe12332]

winamp has some good ripping options. I'm not sure how many kbit/s it can rip though.

[tec0]

I stopped using WinAmp because there software are limited and it wants to update and authenticate all your mp3’s now the authentication I don’t really mind what I do mind is that it will just constantly check for updates if you leave it playing while on the net. << really slow your internet down)

This one time it was updating and it just stopped working. All my mp3’s had a %~.mp3 on it and basically just corrupted my playlist. I was told this was because of none supported plug-in and it was not there software. Well I didn’t use any plug-ins and just allow it to update on its own.

The only media player running now on my system is “media player classic” it is not brilliant but it is independent and right now that is what I am using.

Ripping my original CD’s is becoming more of a problem because they are really proper CD’s that was done by “Nuclear Blast” these are R500 per 1 disks and putting them into a car “while I am driving” is just not going to happen. Because as we all know your car’s CD player and potholes are not good friends.

So I am looking to capture that brilliant “Nuclear Blast” crystal clear brilliance and load it onto a memory card. << My Sony can play these cards and it pumps” but in the end when I am parked and play the original CD and compare it to the mp3... the mp3 just sounds like crap!!!

[AndyD]

The best option for ripping your CD's to MP3's is the LAME codec. Lame is only a codec though, you really need a frontend to run it. EAC (Exact Audio Copy)would be the weapon of choice, it's free.

The way it works is you install EAC and the LAME codec. EAC will extract your CD to wav files then encode it using the LAME codec to MP3. It does this in one seemless operation. EAC can also rip lossless with the FLAC codec (which I think the latest version comes bundled with) if you really want quality. If you want lossy mp3's then you will have a choice of quality by selecting the appropriate bitrate in EAC before you start. You can also specify the naming convention you want for your files.

Eac will also run in conjunction with freedb. Freebd will run around the internet databases and grab all the info (metadata) about your CD automatically and name the album, artists and tracks for you.

EAC is available here
LAME codec is here Note if you just get the dll then right click on it and select 'install' from the menu options.

Here's a users guide for EAC.

The results will be worth your time to read the guide and set up EAC to your preferences. It's a well written piece of software and once you've used it you won't look back:-)