[dkeller_NC]

I'm sure this topic has been discussed, but I couldn't find it with the search routine, so I'll ask it again & hope I don't get flamed:


What, in your opinion, is the best software out there for ripping *.cda files from CDs, encoding them into MP3 (NOT though the sound card!), and playing them back? I have MusicMatch installed on my PC, but I've been told that Music Match wimped out to the recording industry and configured their encoder to grab the waveform output from the sound card in a system - i.e., after it's been converted to analog. I'd much rather rip the CD, encode in the digital domain, and copy the MP3 files to a CD. Any thoughts?

 

[dschmelzer]

Hopefully you got this question answered through other means? There have been a rash of rippers/encoders released in the last couple of months for doing what you want to do, but I think most of them are pay versions.


If you have a linux box and you don't mind compiling four programs, a good free combo is mp3c and the encoder package at the mp3c download page . It has CDDB support to make uniform cataloging easier for you. Once installed, the program is very hassle-free and fast.


If you haven't figured out already, not all CD-ROM players do what you want to do. You will just have to try it out on your setup.


Good luck.


Dan


[This message has been edited by dschmelzer (edited May 20, 2000).]

 

[rv]

I believe Sonic Foundry has a program that will do what you want (it's expensive though)...and Adaptec EZ-CD Creator may help at a lower price.


RV

 

[Brian Pickering]

In my experience none of the 'popular' music management systems sound any good at all. I still stick to the old standby separate ripper, encoder, and player. Namely, Exact Audio Copy( www.exactaudiocopy.de ) to rip, LAME( www.sulaco.org/mp3 ) to encode, and Winamp( www.winamp.com ) to play. Tho I do use a older mp3 playback plugin for winamp that uses the original Fraunhofer decoding engine from v2.22. Its very tricky to setup sometimes, but EAC does configure and run LAME for you automatically. The output from all this work does sound considerably better than most off the shelf mp3 packages, but its still MP3. My usual encoding is done at high quality VBR, with a range of 112kbps to 320kbps, usually ending up with a 180-200kbps average on most music. Its good enough so that you'd have to put on headphones or listen intently for the encoding artifacts. A good resource on setting up lame and EAC is www.r3mix.net , tho his 'opinion' on certain things can get a tad, well... overbearing.