sorry to say but all the replies are wrong...

there is a FREE, and excellent way to back up your music in mp3 format

use the EAC/LAME combination

EAC (exactaudiocopy) is a program that can rip your cd's into waves securely...its the best ripping program for free, hands down, no argument

LAME is the best free mp3 encoder around...fairly fast, and because its open source and optimized and tested by audiophiles, its good

i'm not sure if it's okay to post links...so here it is

www.exactaudiocopy.de

for a FREE copy of EAC

for the LAME codec, you can find it here:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?showtopic=478&

the rest of hydrogenaudio has a grip of mp3 related stuff...so if you need more help, i can write a quick tutorial here for you...but hands down this is the best FREE combination out there...and i personally use it to rip music i own =)

later

I'm gonna have to agree with [PCO]sigmanova here. EAC is known to have the best ripping algorithms and LAME is the standard open source codec. Personally I actually use CDex instead of EAC to rip my stuff as I find it does a nice job (still using the LAME codec though).

Of course then there is the whole issue as to the quality setting. With the price of storage these days I would either encode at high quality VBR (alt stadard extreme) or else CBR at 256 or 320.

There is a lot to be said about ripping to OGG instead of MP3 but I guess that is a different discussion.

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Definitely EAC remains the best audio ripping program for the windowed world. *nix users may take a look at cdparanoia.

Slightly OT: do you really depend on MP3? Not only Vorbis is a good alternative to it, but for really high-quality recordings i recommend the less-known, but among audio-enthusiasts highly recommended Musepack-format (MPC).

See hydrogenaudio.org for more details. MPC is unsurpassed at bitrates >= 192 kbit/s

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GTA #151

quote:

I rip my cds to WMA files. WMA files are better than MP3s. there half the size as mp3s.

.. That was a joke, right?


Yes, anything with LAMEenc is gonna be the best option although I'd have to agree with the 3 posts above me. I just started using it and it seems really good!

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quote:

Originally posted by keithos27 I'm also looking for a program that will allow you to rip an entire CD as one track... I.E. Magik 1 will show up as one 80 minute MP3.

This is exactly what EAC can do, too :-D

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GTA #151

quote:

Originally posted by keithos27 Okay before all you people flip out at the word mp3, just relax. I want to rip my CD collection to MP3 (again!). My 250GB HDD flopped on me and I had to format...sigh. So what is the best program/way to rip mp3s? Which technology is the best? Fraunhofer? Lame? 192 kbit? Any suggestions are appreciated. I'm also looking for a program that will allow you to rip an entire CD as one track... I.E. Magik 1 will show up as one 80 minute MP3. -Keith

WRONG FORUM

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/....php?forumid=61

does your topic really discuss music in any shape or form?! come on man, it doesn't take a degree to figure out what belongs where.

quote:

Originally posted by Gunyouken Musicmatch jukebox rips mp3 from cd's with high quality and extremely quickly, no having to rip first and then convert to mp3, it does everything automatically, you have to pay to use that function though. It costs $20. www.musicmatch.com

music match uses some kind of encoding that isn't very good at all, i have noticed in the past some lack of quality in mp3s, even in the higher bitrates

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quote:

Originally posted by [PCO]sigmanova sorry to say but all the replies are wrong...

quote:

Originally posted by Keown ........ If you want to be really precise EAC is worth a look at but its slightly harder to get onto and can be buggy. Oh and at least 192 MP3!

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Winamp worked for me.

quote:

Originally posted by T-1000 Winamp 5.x's built in ripper. Great quality. Plenty of options.

do you have to pay for that version or is it free?

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quote:

Originally posted by DJ Rat 187 do you have to pay for that version or is it free?

Pay I believe.

-Keith

quote:

Originally posted by keithos27 Pay I believe. -Keith

Apart from the fact that WinAMP's ripping module is only of moderate quality, already the 'free' version allows for ripping at 5x speed, AFAIK.

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GTA #151