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I decided I should finally legitimize my music collection, and have bought a whole bunch of CDs towards that purpose. Now I want to be able to turn them into MP3s because of the convenience of not having to lug around CDs and the ability to play them on an MP3 player. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way of doing this? I don't need a free method (although listing a good free method might be good for anyone else who wants to know), I just want one that will rip the music and turn it into good quality MP3s, as well as being able to add in all those labels MP3s have (artist, album, etc).

Anything will rip Mp3's these days. iTunes seems to do OK, heck, even Winamp does it alright.

Certainly don't have to pay for anything special - just go try any of the 100 free ones out there and see what you like best.

iTunes is probably the easiest (and free) way to do it. Just set the MP3 encoding you want in your preferences (256k is probably the best balance between space and quality), and rip away. Everything will be organized and updated through CDDB accordingly (and placed in your My Music folder).

If you want to organize and add more tags, Windows makes it easy by just letting you update info by right clicking music files (you can organize multiple files this way too).

Is this on a PC? If so Exact Audio Copy + LAME is what I would recommend if you don't mind a little bit of configuration work.

Even WMP rips.

WMP just encodes WMA.

I bought a Cyberlink encoder for $10 for it though. Works just as good, but it's CDDB scheme can be a mess sometimes. For some reason it'll often predict the completely wrong albums, or strange configurations of said album (like a weird Euro edition, with differently ordered tracks and whatnot). You also want to make sure to turn off auto updating of music tags -- since it'll rewrite your tags and organize your files into these fucked up schemes -- even if you don't have the actual WMP app on. No matter how much you manually go back and edit them.

I like LAME (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAME). A lot. I use VBR to cut down on the size and still keep the very high quality. CDex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDex) is the windows front end for it.

No...WMP will rip into MP3 format.

(http://users.rowan.edu/~astill71/WMPmp3.JPG)

Am I missing something here? I don't normally rip with WMP, but it's good when I'm feeling lazy/don't have the right tools installed.

I think that codec is coming from some other encoding program you have installed. An MP3 encoder has to be licensed from Fraunhofer unless you happen to be operating outside their reach (like the LAME guys are) and that costs money which means it would cost MS and they sure as hell ain't going to be paying somebody for a competing format.

I went with EAC+LAME. I was going to try itunes as well but funnily enough the DL didn't work and now all it will do is thank me for downloading itunes whenever I try downloading it. EAC+LAME has great audio quality anyway so I don't think I'll bother with itunes if its going to make things difficult.

I did have a problem with the first CD I tried though. It was "Chances" by "Sylver", and it has 10 music tracks and 2 videos on the CD. The problem is that the first 9 tracks were fine, but the 10th track appears to be the song and the first video when I go to rip the CD because it's something rediculous like 22MB after compression and is 10 minutes long. The 2nd video turns up as track 11 and has a different icon in the track selection. I didn't rip the 10th track so I'm not sure what would have happened if I did, and I haven't yet tried any other CDs to see if they have the same problem. Any ideas on what I could do to get the 10th track?

You'd probably have to do some manual work on it I imagine, if they're being recognized as the same track/file.

If you browse the CD itself, is the final song/first video the same file?

Browsing the CD (just R-clicking and selecting "Explore") doesn't give me any songs at all, just the videos and the flash they have to play them on autorun.

In EAC under File -> Drive Options -> Gap Detection change it to Detection Method C and "Accurate" or "Secure" and see if it can split the audio and video tracks apart.

Some CDs (I think some of the Sony ones) have some nasty DRM on them that cause my iTunes to crash when trying to import -- not very many CDs, but Ozomatli, Street Signs was one that caused iTunes to spin in place.... ...I think this was related to Sony rootkit DRM fiasco a while back, but I don't follow this stuff too closely anymore and it might just be a bad disk I got... ...but I think I recall Googling the matter and discovering that this CD was part of those Sony DRM deals where Win users had to visit a web site to get some software to play the CDs on their computer...

I use LAME. Within iTunes. Its a far better encoder than the built in iTunes stuff.

http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/

Nope, that didn't work. For clarification, I closed the program after the changes and openned it again and I also tried popping the CD out and back in. So if I needed to refresh the program I didn't.

I also tried the CD in a stereo system and that picked up the 10th track fine.

Is AutoPlay enabled by default? You can try holding down the shift key when inserting the disc to disable it or right click on the drive icon and select Properties to disable Autoplay for various actons. The hybrid nature of the disc is probably confusing EAC and I don't have one handy to test it on my computer.

Yeah AutoPlay I disabled ages ago through gpedit.

Hmm...try another ripper then like Audio Grabber (http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/). If you have a burning program like Nero you could also try making a copy of just the audio session (assuming it's a multi-session hybrid CD) and then ripping that with EAC.

This is what I use as well.

I don't make mp3s much, mostly 192kb vbr aac. But I just use itunes on the mac. Easy-cheesy, good enough for gubmint work. Only other program I've used is MacFLAC for some stuff I've bought online. I convert that to AIFF to burn and then to AAC for itunes/ipod. iTunes is also good for adding album art/info, as well, and now supports gapless (FINALLY).

A recommendation, not necessarily the most apt solution for the problem at hand, but nevertheless, a F/OSS audio editing solution: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Not as full featured as big commercial equivalents but powerful enough... ...I produce a radio show with it.

I use LAME library which is a separate download, because of the ridiculous state of software patents…

Also, another nifty program (not F/OSS, but affordable) is Audio Hijack Pro (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/), but it may be OS X only…

Don't forget MP3Gain (http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/) once you've got them ripped.  Does a nice job (I actually use iTunes, but I hate their volume equalizer) of adjusting the gain levels on all your songs so you don't have to always be reaching for the volume controls since all your songs play at the same levels.

EAC can normalize as well though it's not as fancy as MP3Gain (e.g. it can't do album normalization).

Nice.  I will have to give this a try later.

I love you, I had totally forgot what that was called and couldn't find it last time I was looking (my google-fu, it is weak!).

I now have another question that is close enough to the topic of this thread that I'd feel guilty starting a new one... how do you guys physically store your CDs? I am, to put it succinctly, a bit of a slob, so right now my CDs are in little stacks of eachother on a shelf, and I just know that at one point they will be moved to some place random or tipped over onto the floor, so I'm looking for a good way to keep them safe. For specifications I will very rarely be using the actual CDs, so the storage system doesn't have to give me quick and easy access to the CDs. Mostly I just want them to be safe from the Destroyer of Things that is my room.

I have an entertainment center with a side door/shelf that holds all my CD's and DVD's (not very organized though...they're all just stacked and shoved in there). I have couple of pull out shelves for old vinyl and tapes as well.

CDs get ripped first via FreeRip (http://www.mgshareware.com/frmmain.shtml) and then go on the desk next to the monitor until I get too many.  Then I move them into a giant plastic storage container that I have in the other room.  The kind you can buy at Target or some other retailer.  Each box holds upwards of 700 CDs and I'm starting my second one so far.  I only listen to music via MP3 these days due to convenience (share it on a network drive and everywhere in the house there can be music!).  I'm too lazy to actually buy music online, so I just buy the CD at a store and rip the whole thing at home my way.  I also like having the actual CD as well, something about having a giant collection of music physically in my presence that appealed to the packrat in me.

In DVD format (double backed up) and stashed in a folder.  All my CD's got ripped to MP3 and sold off to a used music store a looong time ago.

Wy bother to buy them in the first place then? As soon as you resell them your mp3s are illegal anyway. Or is the law diffrent in the US?

Because some of us are older than 15 and bought our music collection before MP3 was a gleam in some enterprising, audiophile geek's eye.  As for the legality of selling 'em and keeping the MP3's?  Yeah, I'm an outlaw and I'll never be any good.

Also, FYI, for you iTunes users out there...  You're being ripped off.  You can beat their prices through Amazon marketplace, and get the physical media to boot.

CDs are also a mite higher quality than mp3, eh? I did buy a nice FLAC disc online a couple weeks ago (Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes live acoustic @ Red Rocks, great cd). But buying mp3 tracks is not something I'm interested in. I like buying albums, I like having the 'backup' copy.

My CDs are stacked on the floor mostly, with some I listen to alot stacked on a speaker cabinet. I have been looking for decent CD storage for years, apparently it's hard to find shelves/bookcases built out of actual wood.

I use iTunes but rarely use iTunes store, only once in awhile to purchase something just to listen. I don't like its DRM model either although it's less restrictive than others... ...if they lowered the price a bit (and I would eagerly pay $1 a song for un-DRM-ed MP3), I would buy more but price is too high. Though I mostly use iTunes just to stream throughout the house and as a audio/video podcast client... ...oh, and when I first got new video iPod, bought a TV season too, just to do it. Probably won't do it again unless it's something I really want or after I pull the plug on the satellite connection...

Once in a while, I use a program like Audio Hijack Pro to capture radio streams (though at 128K, not exactly high quality) to mp3...

I do rip everything from CDs and  but I haven't bought many CDs in a while since I lived in Seattle a few years back and there seemed to be an abundance of CD shops selling 2nd hand and/or discounted CDs downtown where I was staying... ...CDs then go into a closet, as Sky mentioned, it seems that buying actual wood cases to store them is not a viable option any longer (unless one has access to a woodworking shop).. ...some of the musicians I've worked with give me CDs from time to time of their (or friends) stuff...

The few songs I've banged together in rough form I've been distrubuting via USB drive to friend's computers directly. But when I get some 'finished' tunes, I'll burn a cd. It's just handy, and not a lot of my friends are tech-savvy at all (as in, no computer, no interest).

I used the itunes music store once to grab an episode of the Office we missed.

I bought an obscure version of "Summertime" and a Bob Seger song once. 99.9% of my library on the iPod is not from the store.

Honestly I can't hear the difference.  My MP3's are ripped at 192Kbps, and if you played a CD side by side with it I doubt if I could tell one from the other.

Chalk it up to a combination of hearing loss and general tone deafness, but it just doesn't matter to me.

I used to never have a problem with any kind of differences, but just the other day I was driving the other half's new car with a high end stereo in it and I could have sworn I heard some cut-offs in the very high tones of the songs that started to irk the hell out of me once I heard them.  I rip all of my music to 128Kbps (legacy thing from 1997) but I also have complete junk for "quality" sound systems - all of my computer speakers are over 10 years old and the sound cards aren't much better and my cars are all 30 years old and don't have high quality aftermarket speakers or decks in them anyway.  So I wonder if my inability to hear differences is because of the quality of the projection equipment or if it was just a bad CD rip that I never noticed in the 4 years since I did it.

But in any event, I haven't heard any differences since on my usual equipment, so I'm not inclined to find out anything further.

It's likely to be your equipment. On my gaming headset and my mp3 player's earplugs it doesn't make any difference at all, but the difference is very noticeable on my new headphones I only use for music.